By Fatuma Fugicha

Whilst most widows will get sloppy and mourn their misfortune, Rahma Guracha, who lost her husband in the 2006 Marsabit plain crash has honoured her husband’s memory.

Guracha Galgalo, who was then an Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Health, died alongside four other members of parliament. The troupe was on a peace mission to Marsabit.

Rahma then took up the gauntlet to help not only her family but also her community to lead a dignified life.

For her efforts, the government selected her to represent Kenya at the Vital Voices Global Conference in the United States in April, a meeting that has left a deep and lasting impression on her.

Rahma (circled) in the US during a Vital Voices Global Conference, where global female business leaders share their experiences with those from developing nations. Photos: Saidi Hamisi

"Outshining all other female applicants from Kenya to attend the world’s top women mentoring programme in America was a privilege I never thought would happen to me," says Rahma. Among the organisation that facilitated her trip included the Bill Gates Foundation.

Hailing from a marginalised pastoralist community, Rahma’s triumph was a shocker to other apparently ‘powerful’ candidates. Yet despite her humble background — the little known village of Siricho in Isiolo District, Rahma was not daunted by the prospects of meeting and mingling with powerful and privileged women.

It did not help matters that participants used the introductions session as an opportunity to crow their big positions and achievements away. Literally, she was out of place, yet Rahma chose to ignore it.

Brushing shoulders with the likes of Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Tyra Banks and Oprah Winfrey among others at the conference was an encounter she cherishes to date.

"The experience, the hand shakes, hugs and talk still linger in my mind. In fact, it helped me regain my composure to confidently articulate key challenges that affect women with similar background as mine," she says.

Rahma spoke candidly and authoritatively about practices like female circumcision, early marriages, wife inheritance and high illiteracy level at the conference.

"I had no titles to brag about, but the saddening stories of the pastoralist women shocked participants — some had never heard such anecdotal narratives, " she says.

On her trip, Rahma visited all Vital Voices offices in New York, California, Washington and Seattle. A dinner at the White House capped it all.

The exchange programme also sharpened her business skills. The ideas she received from global successful women were an insight to her developing business career. She learnt to nurture and sense business ventures ahead of their time.

The Vital Voices Program draws women business leaders from around the globe to the GeorgeTown University’s Mortara Centre.

The women discussed current the global meltdown, the role of women in economic and business development, their experiences as entrepreneurs and the implications of emerging neuro-economics research related to gender and risk taking.

The session that was sponsored by Mortara Centre and Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business is part of a larger initiative that provides upcoming international women business leaders the opportunity to horn their leadership, management and business skills.

Vital Voices partners annually with the US State Department and Fortune’s Most Powerful Women’s Summit for this programme, which brings participants together for a month and pairs them with mentors chosen by Fortune magazine’s list of America’s Most Powerful Women. Women participants from Africa are drawn from South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt, Ghana and Swaziland.

Rahma, a real go-getter pursues what she believes in with a vigour that holds people in awe. For example, during her husband’s parliamentary reign, she quit her job at Kenya Commercial Bank to support her husband’s work at the constituency level, and in the process horned her political skills.

Since the death of her husband Rahma has been actively engaged in issues affecting women, particularly those living in the harsh and debilitating northern Kenya districts, making her a shining example among her peers.

Despite gender and religious impediments, Rahma has managed to break from the norm and win the admiration of all, even men, in a highly patriarchal society. Her Move to Empower Pastoralist Women (MEP) organisation has more than a hundred members from different ethnic communities. "We want to empower our women and be given a chance to lead from the front," she says.

In the last general elections, she joined ODM and was a strong campaigner for Raila Odinga who is now the country’s Prime Minister.

Her political interest dates earlier than her late husband’s. Being a daughter to a former Isiolo South MP, Dida Jaldesa, her background aligned her to politics. Marrying a politician crowned it all.

Her father occupied the Isiolo South parliamentary seat for ten years (1983-1992) and her husband from 1997-2006.

Come 2012 general election, Rahma will be in the battlefield, contesting against the current Isiolo South MP, Abdul Bahari.

She admires Water Minister, Charity Ngilu for her passion for issues that affect the pastoralist community.

Apart from her political ambitions, Rahma is also engaged in numerous other activities. A registered contractor with the Ministry of Roads, she has worked on various projects including the construction of a road in Ewaso Nyiro and another 168-kilometre stretch from Isiolo to Modogashe. She has also drilled four boreholes in Garissa under the Ministry of Water and Drought Management Programme.

To keep her husband’s legacy aflame, she opened a Guracha Foundation website. Unfortunately it folded up for what a registration officer termed as a threat to the security of some individuals.

"I vow not to stop until I know the corrupt minds behind the scheme. I will not give up, Even if it means going to court," she retorts.

In five years to come, she hopes to unite all the warring communities. She also wishes to become the top contractor who will tarmac all major roads in Kenya.