Part 6: Do you know your woman representative?

Do you know your woman representative?

Two weeks ago, Eve Woman interviewed the first batch of 26 representatives on how they have been keeping busy. This week we speak to more women leaders about the strides they

1. COUNTY: BARINGO

Name: Grace Jemutai Kiptui

INTERVIEW: Sylvia Wakhisi

Grace Jemutai Kiptui served as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya for about 24 years. She had a legal awareness programme that used to run on a local radio station, basically highlighting legal issues.

When she ventured into politics, she says she had one mission-to influence her community to know that their destiny lies in their hands hence, the need to plan their lifestyle so as to live a financially free life.

"A financially free life is possible for everybody but it only comes to those who know the culture of money-you work, earn, save, invest and thereafter you enjoy the fruits of your investment," says Kiptui.

Baringo is prone to drought with a poverty index of 58 per cent and having been successful, Kiptui says she really wanted to bridge the gap by ensuring that people of Baringo became economically empowered.

"When people are poor, they hardly access health services. In 2013, I organised for a free eye clinic in Eldama Ravine and 500 people were screened for various eye conditions. In partnership with Ahadi Kenya, we also held a jigger eradication campaign in Kituro health centre, Baringo Central and in Ossen and Kaptere health centres, Baringo North. We did cleaning for the people affected by jiggers, gave them medication and shoes," she says.

Baringo being an area with many snakes, Kiptui says it proved to be dangerous as some people lost their lives due to snake bites, others became mad, while others had to be amputated following the snake bite.

She offers: "I requested for fridges and vaccine for the venom. I managed to deliver two in May, one in Loboi health centre and the other in Sandei. I also partnered with 'Help a Child Face Tomorrow', an NGO to see to it that 35 surgeries for cleft lip and cleft palate were conducted at Kabarnet district hospital last year."

Kiptui says she has also been at the forefront in spearheading education projects in her county, including taking part in harambees for the construction of classrooms, laboratories, distributing books and holding mentorship programmes in schools. She has also given scholarships to a number of students.

As the patron of Joyful Women Organisation (Joywo) she has assisted women from her county raise money for table banking amounting to Sh1.5 million. She also hopes to develop cottage industries and support women in the honey-making business.

"I also believe people should be able to feed themselves other than rely on relief food hence, with the help of friends, I was able to distribute 2,170 mango seedlings to farmers in Kerio Valley. It is a project I intend to carry on and distribute even macadamia and avocado seedlings," she says.

Despite her achievements, Kiptui says lack of funding is her biggest challenge.

"As women reps, we are forced to use our salaries and get support from friends to get things done. Other than that, our county is facing serious security problems. We have held prayers, supported the internally displaced persons and gone as far as counselling the aggressors because we want peace restored," she says.

She is married with three daughters.

2. COUNTY: GARISSA

NAME: Shukran Hussein Gure

INTERVIEW: Sylvia Wakhisi

Shukran Hussein Gure says the greatest obstacle she has faced so far in offering services to the people of Garissa especially women, youth and people with disability is terrorism.

"The recent terrorist attack on Garisssa University College has affected various sectors in the county and some projects have stalled," says Gure.

Despite that, she says she has recorded a number of achievements one of them being enhancement of education performance especially in girl-child education through distribution of revision materials.

In addition to that, she has spearheaded the fight against gender-based violence in the county, provided sanitary towels to girls in secondary schools in remote areas of Garissa through Hon Shukran Foundation and introduced awareness programmes to curb maternal mortality, which she says is high in the county by educating women on the importance of delivering in hospitals and supported women and youth groups to start and establish small businesses through Uwezo fund and fund-raisers.

"As county MPs and the representative of the minority, we have been faced by lack of development funds. I have been trying to offer services to my people using my allowances and sometimes salary, to make sure my people feel they are represented," she says.

She offers: "There is an overall high level of illiteracy in the larger north eastern part of Kenya. About 70 per cent of women in Garissa are nomadic pastoralists and illiterate. I have created an awareness programme through my foundation to educate women on the importance of educating their girls. As a county, we have been faced by high rates of maternal mortality. My office in collaboration with the office of the governor came up with a roadmap on how to curb maternal mortality. We built fully equipped clinics in every ward, employed nurses and took ambulances to nearly every ward."

Through the affirmative action social development fund, Gure hopes to ensure every girl in Garissa County in her puberty stage has free access to sanitary towels. She also hopes to build market stalls for women with small scale businesses and support them and the youths to be economically dependent.

3. COUNTY: KERICHO

NAME: Hellen Chepkwony

INTERVIEW: Nikko Tanui

Despite limited resources bestowed on women representatives, Helen Chepkwony from Kericho County has managed to a couple of feats.

In partnership with the local county government, she has been behind the annual free goitre, clef, fistula and other constructive surgeries, which is in its second year.

"The programme, which began in October, last year, has seen more than 150 patients successfully operated on," she says.

Chepkwony says her office has managed to supply greenhouses to a couple of women and youth groups across the county, spending Sh6 million of her own resources to fund the projects.

The women representative adds that there are 25 orphans in various secondary schools whose education she funds.

Finances and the large area of jurisdiction is one of the major problems for women representatives and Chepkwony is no exception.

"As women representatives, we don't have a kitty to support projects in the counties, that is why it forces one to make sacrifices and I have to dig into my purse. The county is so large and to hire the personnel to assist in running it or even managing it is also a problem," she says.

She adds that though she expects Sh42 from when the treasury releases the funds Women Representative kitty, the money is "too little" for a county like Kericho.

"When you consider that each of the Members of Parliament receives around Sh100 million through the Constituency Development Fund, the 42 million for six constituencies in the country translates to around Sh7 million, which is hardly enough to fund major projects," says Chepkwony.

Chepkwony says single motherhood is one of the major challenges in the county.

"The county is grappling with a considerable number of single mothers who found themselves in the situation after their partners failed to offer marriage proposal, got divorced or are widowed. This is the group that really needs assistance since some of them cannot even afford to buy food or take their children to school," she says.

Chepkwony says the focus for the remaining part of her term is to ensure more area women join table banking groups as a means of raising money for small and medium scale enterprises.

She adds that a poultry keeping project is on the pipeline where women and youth groups would be supplied with incubators.

"OnceT reasury releases the funds for the Women Representatives kitty, we shall supply two incubators each for the 30 wards in the county. There is a huge market for eggs and white meat, and we want women and youths to tap into it," says Chepkwony.

4. COUNTY: KIAMBU

NAME: Ann Nyokabi

INTERVIEW: Lydiah Nyawira

Kiambu County MP Ann Nyokabi says she has given focus on the plight of and treatment of domestic workers in the Middle East, majority of who come from the 12 constituencies in Kiambu.

She has helped rescue and bring back more than 80 young women and assisted 12 families return the bodies of their loved ones to the country.

"Through my intervention, the Government has agreed to finance the construction of Kiambu County Education offices. I have also facilitated education scholarships for 28 children in the county," says Nyokabi.

"I have ensured the establishment of an elderly and orphans Christmas feeding programme to 60 families per constituency in all the 12 constituencies. I also assisted 147 youth access training opportunities for employment and facilitated the formation of Kiambu County Women Sacco that has a membership of 5,000 people with access to affordable credit and markets for their products," she adds.

Working closely with persons with disability, she intervened in a neglect situation of two disabled orphans in Ngewa, Githunguri. The orphans though above 18 years, did not have birth certificates and were immediately enrolled at the Kiambu birth registry and their birth certificates issued.

Nyokabi says lack of information on where they can get assistance or information to solve an issue they face is the biggest challenge women in her county face.

"Kiambu people are business smart, but the low levels of education limits their full potential. The problem of alcohol addiction and substance abuse is a serious destabiliser to families. Many claim they drink because they have nothing better to do; the solution is to keep the youth busy and employed, and provide rehabilitation and counselling services," she says. There is also the lack of access to affordable housing.

In her strategic plan as the County MP, Nyokabi says she will use part of the funds to build a resource centre that will house a library, rooms to provide information services to those requiring legal aid, weekly reproductive and other health information services, referral services where people can get assistance from government offices, auditorium and a childcare centre where parents can place their children while attending information sessions.

She also hopes to develop partnerships to assist the young men and women gain access to Tivet courses especially those who may not have performed exceptionally well after KCPE and KCSE exams.

5. COUNTY: KILIFI

NAME: Aisha Jumwa Katana

INTERVIEW: Sylvia Wakhisi

Aisha Jumwa Katana's leadership skills were honed when she was first elected as a councillor and later became chairperson of Kilifi Town Council.

She would later vie for a Parliamentary position in 2007 for the larger Bahari Constituency but unfortunately, did not make it. This, however, did not dampen her spirits since in 2013, she decided to contest for the Kilifi woman representative seat and won.

She is credited for having started the Guma water project, which would enable the residents of a village, which was marginalised for a long time have access to piped water.

Through her initiative, she also has two water projects running funded by the Coast Water Project, which has seen them acquire two water pans at a cost of Sh5 million each.

In collaboration with Hon Rachel Ruto, she oversaw the launch of table banking under Joywo, and so far, they have managed to register 500 groups. She has started dividing the concept at sub-county level and so far, one has kicked off in Malindi.

She has also initiated several education projects.

"Due to the poor performance, the county has been registering in KCPE, I saw the need to purchase mattresses for primary schools so that Class Eight pupils can become boarders. So far, I have donated to ten primary schools and hope to increase the number," says Katana.

She has also initiated a project of donating chairs and tents to women groups so that they can hire them out during functions and get an income.

She is also encouraging people of Kilifi to practice agriculture as a way of sustaining their livelihood. She has since constructed seven greenhouses worth Sh600,000, which are funded by Ministry of Agriculture.

She cites lack of funds as one of her biggest challenge.

"People have big expectations from us hence, the Government needs to do something to support us," she says.

She hopes to mentor more women from her county to take up leadership positions.

"I will be going for parliamentary position in the next general elections so that another woman can come on board and take the seat, which I currently hold. I don't want women to feel like they are not allowed to lead because they can make very good leaders," she says.

She is a single-mother of three children.

6. COUNTY: KIRINYAGA

NAME: Winnie Karimi Njuguna

INTERVIEW: Sylvia Wakhisi

Winnie Karimi Njuguna was a lecturer at a teacher's training college in Embu before she plunged into politics.

She sits in various committees in Parliament including the Labour and Social Welfare Committee hence, happens to deal with cash transfer for the elderly and the disabled.

She says she strives to ensure the right people are given the money not only from her county, but in the entire country, and has also pushed for the addition of these persons for them to benefit and make ends meet in their lives.

Women empowerment is close to her heart and so far, she has managed to fundraise for 300 women groups from her county to start table banking. She is their patron. She is also working hard to ensure more youth; women and persons with disability are able to access Uwezo Fund.

"I am doing the oversight to ensure the groups start income generating activities that will spearhead their growth economically," says Njuguna.

Ensuring that every child from her county is able to access education is something she is keen to follow. She has sponsored about five students who had dropped out of school due to lack of school fees.

"Other than the fees, I buy them books and school uniforms. I am willing to support more children as long as they are ready to learn," she says.

She has also initiated sports tournaments for the youth to nurture their talents and once the Affirmative Action Fund is in place, she hopes to start more rehabilitation programmes for those who engage in alcohol and drug abuse.

She boasts of having started a water project, a secondary school, which currently has 200 children and four primary schools.

Her biggest challenge, she says, is lack of a kitty that has made it difficult for her to reach as many people as possible in Kirinyaga.

She is married with four children.