This Thursday, March 8
th marks the annual commemoration of International Women's Day. This year's hashtag is #PressforProgress - which symbolizes a strong call-to-action in pressing forward and progressing gender parity with an underlying intention to motivate and unite friends, colleagues and the entire community to think, act and be gender inclusive.
The political scene in Kenya has made a notable improvement in gender parity since devolution, with at least 23 women being elected to the National Assembly in the recent 2017 elections, with three taking up gubernatorial roles; Ann Waiguru, Joyce Laboso and Charity Ngilu. In as much as this still falls short of the constitutional two-thirds gender requirement, it shows commendable improvement
Globally, there is the #TimesUp movement which spun out of the Weinstein scandal and its #MeToo aftermath. The movement calls out sexual harassment, assault and inequality in the work place. It has gained significant recognition from the most influential of people, and has seen women speaking out about their own experiences.
Here at KenyaBuzz, we've celebrated our
top 10 women extraordinaire before. The list featured exceptional names like Ory Okolloh, Njoki Ndung'u, Julie Gichuru, Lupita Nyong'o, Tabitha Karanja and the late Professor Wangari Maathai. For the 2018 edition, we would like to add onto the list and appreciate women who have overachieved in the past few years by attaining career prosperity in male dominated worlds, and also those who have fought to give women a voice.
Josephine Ndambuki She is one of the nominees of the upcoming Zuri Gala dinner awards for the Leadership Award category. Josephine is a principle strategy planning analyst at Safaricom. She also serves as the Vice Chair of Safaricom Sacco and the Chairperson of the League of Young Professionals. Josephine's work revolves around impacting technology professionals, youth, women and girls in technology. She takes it upon herself to advocate for gender inclusivity especially in tech careers and service opportunities.
Dr. Chao MbogoShe is the Program Lead and Co-Founder of KamiLimu, a 6-month structured mentorship program for Computer Science University students. KamiLimu aims at immersing students into the local tech industry and also encouraging them to give back to the community through the skills acquired. It has so far achieved a 46% female representation of their mentorship program. KamiLimu is directly impacting its mentees by contributing to their profession and making them globally competitive.
Mitchelle NtalamiShe is the founder of the natural hair care line, Marini Naturals. Her business seems to be soaring to the sky and has gained notable favour amongst the majority of Kenyan women, especially during this time when more and more women are actively embracing their natural hair.
Georgina KirungoShe is the young owner of the luxe human hair brand, Nywele Creative. She stocks a wide variety of human hair; Remy, Indian, Cambodian, Peruvian. All at a pretty penny. Her business grew from humble beginnings where she used to sell from the boot of her car. Now she has stores in major malls like Two Rivers, Garden City and Greenhouse which is truly inspiring for any young, budding entrepreneur. She also has a luxury section in each store dubbed Lash & Brow which focusses on lash extensions and fleeky eyebrows.
Wangari MaathaiGone but never to be forgotten. She founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's right. In 1984, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."
Adelle OnyangoThe Kiss FM radio presenter is truly a force to be reckoned with. Just last year, she was nominated to represent Kenya, where she was hosting the Children's Global Media Summit 2017- where she was able to meet Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
As if that isn't enough, she was listed among BBC's 100 Inspirational and Innovative Women in 2017. This year, she has been nominated to be among the 100 women on OkayAfrica- a top digital destination connecting a global audience to African culture, introducing the second annual OkayAfrica100 Women Campaign to jumpstart Women's History Month.