On November 21, 2018, Echo Network Africa (ENA) unveiled a book that brings together the work of women whose efforts range from rescuing abused girls to environmental campaigning, politics, farming and sport.
The publication, Women Changing the Way the World Works, was launched alongside the Democracy Trust Fund (DTF). ENA is led by Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) co-founder and former university lecturer Jeniffer Riria.
Among the women profiled is Jean Kagia, a Nairobi-based gynaecologist and chairperson of Protecting Life Movement. Through a programme called Rescue Kiota, she and her team shelter girls facing crisis pregnancies, including victims of rape, defilement and incest. Some of the girls are as young as 11. The programme keeps them until delivery, after which some are reunited with their families while others have their babies placed for adoption.
The book also features Editar Ochieng, who works in Kibera’s Sarangombe Ward with other women fighting gender and sexual violence against women and children. The article says some of them and their families have themselves been exposed to violence, but they continue with the work.
Another profile is that of Ikal Angelei, the Lodwar-based environmental activist and director of Friends of Lake Turkana. She is credited with starting the campaign against the proposed Gibe 111 dam on the Omo River along the Kenya-Ethiopia border.
Dr Agnes Masika is also included for co-founding, with her husband, a successful food-security programme in Yatta, Machakos County, aimed at reducing dependence on hand-outs in Ukambani, known as mwolyo.
The book further highlights politicians and public figures including Taveta MP Naomi Shaban, Kajiado County Woman Representative Janet Teiyaa, senators Fatuma Dullo and Prof Margaret Kamar, governors Joyce Laboso, Charity Ngilu and Anne Waiguru, as well as retired athletes Ruth Waithera and Catherine Ndereba.
Prof Margaret Kobia, then Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs, said in her foreword that there could be no better way to celebrate such women than by telling their stories. The book presents them as examples of women whose work has changed communities and opened opportunities for girls to see that hard work can be recognised.
Nyakundi Report notes that the volume combines well-known names with less familiar ones, but keeps the focus on women whose influence has been felt in Kenya’s social, political and economic life.
