Sistra contributor
Evalyne Njoki Maina
Founder of Halisi Africa Discoveries
Kenya
Evalyne Njoki Maina is building a different model for tourism in Kenya: one that starts with women’s rights, existing knowledge and economic agency, then asks how travel can strengthen all three.
Profile
Her story
Evalyne founded Halisi Africa Discoveries in 2023 around a deceptively simple question: What does it really mean to empower a woman?
Her answer begins before income. Economic opportunity matters, but to Evalyne it becomes meaningful when women also understand their rights, have a voice in decisions that affect them and greater control over the resources around them.
Her work across Kenya has also shown her that women often do not need outsiders to invent opportunities for them. They are already weaving, cooking, farming, guiding, preserving cultural knowledge, running enterprises and contributing to conservation. What may be missing are the systems around those skills: visibility, finance, market access and connections to buyers. Halisi Africa Discoveries grew out of that gap. Evalyne uses tourism as one route between what already exists locally and wider markets, while keeping communities in the role of hosts, enterprise owners and co-creators.
For her, tourism is not the end goal. It is one tool for creating more room for women to earn, decide, lead and shape what development looks like in their own communities.
“Women’s empowerment starts with rights. Before we ask women to participate in tourism or earn an income, we need to create space for them to understand their rights, find their voice, make decisions and have greater control over the resources that shape their lives.”
A closer look
The Skill Was Already There
Evalyne still thinks about a basket maker named Ewaton whom she met in Eliye Springs. Ewaton already had something of value: the skill to weave beautiful baskets. What she did not have was a reliable market.
For Evalyne, the story exposed the distance between having a valuable skill and being able to build a livelihood from it.
“Sometimes the answer is not to teach a woman something new,” she says. “She may already have the skill.”
The question is what exists around that skill, and what is still missing.
Looking ahead
What she’s building toward
Evalyne is building toward a stronger network of women-led community tourism enterprises across Kenya, beginning with communities in Kilifi, Lamu, Laikipia, Kiambu, Samburu and Turkana. The next phase is about making those enterprises easier to find and support: mapping their work and ownership, strengthening their digital visibility and creating better routes to travellers, delegations and tourism partners.
Along Kenya’s coast, she is also developing a model that connects responsible travel with locally led mangrove restoration, with clearer documentation of who is participating, where the work takes place and what visitor contributions support.
The long-term goal is to help more of the value created by tourism reach the communities already creating the experience.
Follow the thread
Meet more of the women behind the work.
