This archive report was first published on 1 August 2019.
On August 1, 2019, Kenya made history with the election of its first female president, Nereah Amondi Oketch, in the Ms President Reality show.
Nereah, a Member of Homa Bay County Assembly, won the title after a voting process where viewers cast their votes through a free SMS code.
The five finalists, including Nereah, Umulkheir Mohammed, Irene Mayaka, Betty Adera, and Waruguru Wa Kiai, were selected from a preliminary pool of over 1000 applicants who had signed up to be Kenya's first female President.
The contestants underwent a rigorous selection process, which included group assignments, individual presentations, and elimination rounds, reducing the number from 71 to 40, then to 16, and finally to the five finalists after 7 months and 26 episodes of the Ms President Reality Show.
As the winner, Nereah dedicated her victory to her son and expressed her gratitude to her husband, who had been her rock throughout the competition.
She said, 'To my family and my husband, I love you. You have gone through everything that a man should not go through and I am going to take the next one week to be there for you.'
The Ms President show aimed to raise awareness on the leadership roles that women can play in peace building and to empower women and girls to become more active in the political and social sphere of the country.
