Women governors making difference in leadership

For the last decade or so, the government has created an enabling environment for more women to participate in elective politics, along with constitutional reforms fostering inclusive representation of the people in national and county governments.

Since Grace Onyango took the lead, as an elected leader in post- colonial Kenya; more women have followed in the consequent enlightenment and have been active in the country’s political conversation of the 90s, through to the ushering of a new constitutional dispensation in 2010. Women in Kenya have distinguished themselves in the nation’s development, with the 2022 General Election registering the highest number of female governors ever in the republic.

Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, in a contest pitting her against seven other candidates, secured a second term on a United Democratic Alliance party ticket. In Meru, Governor Kawira Mwangaza navigated the jeopardy of party politics to win against seasoned politicians on Independent ticket. Governor Susan Kihika also took charge of Nakuru having risen from being the Assembly Speaker to an articulate member of the Senate. The reigns of executive power in Homa Bay rests equally with another former Women Rep, Gladys Wanga of the Orange Party. The story changes not in Kwale with Governor Fatuma Achani on the driver’s seat. Embu follows forthwith with Governor Cecily Mbarire and from Machakos to the world is Governor Wavinya Ndeti.

The question of gender vis-a-vis competence remains contemplative rather than a matter of express veracity. One then moves to interrogate what these celebrated deviants of status quo have proceeded to do at their respective counties? Nothing serves us better than recent surveys conducted by research firms in which I will only mention the rankings of women governors for the convenience of my subject.
In this survey initiated and sponsored by ISS Africa, women governors emerged as best performing, with four out of the seven of them occupying top ten category.

Suffice to note from another study by Timely Kenya, all female governors except Mwangaza had a performance score of over 50 per cent.

A mention of the percentile projections are, however, as good as the pursued development fronts evaluated in order to arrive at them. Beyond the excitement in the numerical performance of the women governors, it is essential that we examine what aspects of transformation they have undertaken in their respective counties.

Waiguru has instituted monumental transformation of the county’s health sector through construction of a modern hospital complex in Kerugoya, face-lifting the facility to a level five hospital, complete with a cancer center. Under her ‘Nyorosha Barabara Mashinani’ project, Waiguru has also adopted a new way of constructing durable roads impacting on the infrastructure, a solid contribution to her quest to make Kerugoya a health and wellness city of repute. The ingenuity of Wanga has seen Hoama Bay transit into a cashless revenue collection system; a county that was infamous for blatant theft of collected revenue is increasingly becoming a beacon of home in the Karivondo belt.

Pending bills have bedeviled Embu for a while now, but just under one year, Mbarire has successfully overseen the audit and verification of about 40 per cent with a clear actionable payment plan. On account of the feminine gender alone, it is conventional that women are more empathetic, more compassionate, in fact, their motherly intuition to make the world a better place makes every Kenyan hold them to a higher pedestal.

To deliver they must, should they fall into the usual schemes of political expediency and aggrandizement, where shall the help come for a nation that yearns for nothing but leaders with conscience?

— The writer is a PhD candidate

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