CS Kobia: Rural women to benefit in Big Four agenda

Cabinet Secretary for Gender Affairs Margaret Kobia

Women living in rural areas will benefit from President Uhuru Kenyatta’s ‘Big Four’ projects, Cabinet Secretary for Gender Affairs Margaret Kobia has said. 

Prof Kobia said food security and nutrition, value addition and manufacturing, universal health coverage and low cost housing focus areas “will have a major impact on women and girls living in rural areas.”

Kobia was addressing the Bureau of the 65th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York.

She is accompanied by governors Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga), Charity Ngilu (Kitui), Joyce Laboso (Bomet) and Prof Paul Chepkwony (Kericho).

President Kenyatta, she said, had placed gender equality and women’s empowerment at the “centre of Kenya’s national development.” 

She said various projects being carried out in the country that demonstrate such commitment include free maternity services.

The Government’s commitment to universal health coverage, she said, had gained momentum and that 56 per cent of Kenyans were now covered by the National Health Insurance Fund. 

Under food security and nutrition, Kobia said, women and girls, who constitute 60 per cent of the rural population that derive their livelihoods from agriculture, would benefit directly.