In many Kenyan communities, a man can pay school fees or chair a school committee without anyone questioning his role in a child’s life. But let that same man run a daycare, serve porridge to toddlers or comfort a crying two-year-old, and people begin to ask questions.
This reaction tells us something important: We trust men to provide for children, yet we are less used to seeing them care for children.
Across Kenya, a small but notable group of men is challenging that assumption. At at our daycare centres, we call them Papapreneurs: male childcare entrepreneurs who run early childcare centres in their communities. They are still the exception. Most childcare providers, especially those running small home-based daycares for the youngest and poorest children, are women. But the presence of Papapreneurs forces us to look again at how we understand care work, who is allowed to do it and why we continue to undervalue it.
This matters especially around Father’s Day, when the public conversation often returns to the role of fathers. Many messages rightly honour men who work hard, sacrifice quietly and provide for their families. Provision matters and for many families, it is a daily struggle and an act of love.
But children need more than provision. In the early years, being fed, spoken to, soothed, protected and noticed shapes how children learn, trust and grow.
Childcare is often treated as simple because it is associated with women. Anyone who has worked closely with children knows otherwise. A caregiver must recognize small emotional cues, manage many needs at once, create routine, keep children safe, support play and respond calmly when feelings are big.
This is not babysitting. It is skilled work, and women have carried it for generations with too little recognition. Papapreneurs matter because they make that work visible in a different way. They remind us that caring for young children requires skill, training, patience and judgment – and should be respected whoever performs it.
When Walter Ongere started Okana Zion Learning Centre in Kisumu, many people around him reacted negatively. Some waited to see whether he would manage. Others assumed that if a man was working in childcare, perhaps he had nothing else to do. Their belief, he said, was that childcare belonged to women, not men.
Gilbert Katana, who runs Dera Better Hope Academy in Kilifi, faced a similar attitude. Society expected him to choose a more “manly” business, such as a hardware shop, and leave childcare to women.
These reactions are familiar because they reflect a wider belief. Men are welcomed into children’s lives when money, discipline or authority is involved. They are less expected in the quiet, daily work of care.
Part of this belief may come from something real. Mothers often have an early physical bond with babies through pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. But we should be careful not to turn that truth into a lifetime division of labour. Fathers may not breastfeed, but they can hold, talk, feed, bathe, soothe and play. These repeated acts of care are not secondary to parenting. They are how children learn trust.
The Papapreneurs we have heard from speak about this work with seriousness.
John Angaza, who runs Mother’s Joy in Ruaraka, said working with children changed how he sees them. He listens more carefully when they play and interact because, as he put it, “there is more than what they say.” Then he added, “I lower myself to their level to get to know more from them”.
That is a practical lesson in child development. Young children need adults who come close enough to observe, listen and understand. They do not only need instructions from above. They need connection.
Wilson Mugai, the owner of Goldenlight Daycare Centres, described a similar shift: “The deep patience I practice daily at the daycare has softened my approach with my own children at home,” he said. He also learned that communication is less about speaking and more about active listening.
Perhaps this is what the Papapreneurs reveal most clearly: caregiving does not diminish men. Over time, the daily work of caring for young children can build patience, attentiveness and emotional control – qualities that children need from the adults around them, and qualities many fathers are rarely encouraged to practice.
Still, we should be honest about what Papapreneurs do and do not represent. Many male childcare entrepreneurs operate larger or more formal centers. In some centres owned by men, women still do much of the most intimate daily care: changing, feeding, soothing and holding children throughout the day. The burden of care has not suddenly become equal.
Nor should men entering childcare be romanticised without safeguards. Child protection must come first in every centre. Parents are right to ask who is caring for their children, whether caregivers are trained, how staff are supervised and what systems exist to prevent harm. Strong childcare systems require clear standards, supervision, reporting channels and accountability for every adult who works with children.
Papapreneurs should also never be used to erase the women who built and sustain Kenya’s childcare economy. In many low-income communities, childcare remains one of the few livelihood opportunities available to women.
When men enter this space well – trained, accountable and respectful of the women who have long carried it – they do not take away from the value of women’s work. They help challenge the old assumption that the world of babies and toddlers belongs only to women.
This Father’s Day, Kenya will honour many kinds of fathers: the ones who provide, the ones who protect, the ones who sacrifice without applause. Papapreneurs add another image to that list: men willing to come close enough to care.
Their numbers may still be small. Their example matters.
They remind us that young children need skilled, attentive care now, not only school fees later. They also remind us that when we value care properly, we do not diminish women’s work. We finally begin to recognize its true worth.
