While in 2017, only 3 women were elected as governors of a city in Kenya, for the August 9 elections, 7 women were elected as governors, 6 of whom are the first women to be elected as governors of their respective cities, after hotly contested electoral battles. The seventh was re-elected to her position, having been elected in 2017.
Below are the 7 female provincial governors of Kenya, according to results released by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission
Susan Kihika elected governor of Nakuru
The Kenyan lawyer has made history by becoming the first elected female governor of Nakuru, the fourth largest city in Kenya. A member of President-elect William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) political party, she unseated the incumbent governor, Lee Kinyanjui of former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party. Susan Kihika received 440,707 votes.
A Kenyan lawyer and politician, Susan Kihik was a senator-elect from Nakuru, elected in 2017. Prior to that, she was the first woman elected Speaker of the Nakuru Assembly. She is also the president of the Office of Women Parliamentarians.
A member of the Texas Bar, Susan Kihika holds a Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of North Texas.
Gladys Wanga, elected Governor of Homa Bay
Gladys Wanga was elected governor of the Homa Bay region of Nyanza province. She enters the history books as the youngest female governor and the first female governor of the Nyanza region. Provisional results announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) show Wanga won the race with 244,559 votes. His closest competitor, former Nairobi governor Dr. Evans Kidero, came second with 154,182 votes, while Mark Raudi of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party came third with 1,244 votes.
A woman of firsts, in 2003 Gladys Wanga was elected the first female general secretary of the Kenyatta University Students’ Union. In 2013, she was elected as the first female representative of Homa Bay County and re-elected in 2017 unopposed. From 2013 to 2017, she served as a commissioner on the Parliamentary Service Commission, making her the first female commissioner from the Nyanza region. In 2015, she was elected Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party chair for Homa Bay County, a fiercely aggressive position for which no woman had ever run. In 2020, she marked another first when she was appointed chairperson of the Finance and National Planning Committee of the National Assembly of Kenya, the first woman to hold that position in Kenya.
Gladys Wanga holds an MSc and BSc in Health Management from Kenyatta University. She worked as a project manager at the Trust for African Rock Art and then at Liverpool VCT Health for a total of 10 years.
After graduating from Kenyatta University, she entered politics by joining the ODM party. In the 2017 elections, she led the Nyanza presidential campaign team for candidate Raila Odinga. In 2018, she was appointed secretary of the ODM central management committee.
Glladys Wanga is among the personalities who led the Embrace Kenya movement to popularize the Building Bridges initiative, which notably led to the handshake between former President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.
Fatuma Achani was elected governor of Kwale County
Fatuma Achani has been elected governor of Kwale County, southwest of Mombasa and 15 km inland. She becomes the first ever woman elected governor of Kwale, Kenya’s coastal region, succeeding her predecessor, Salim Mvurya, who served two terms. She was elected on behalf of President-elect William Ruto’s UDA party with 59,674 votes, beating Hamadi Boga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party who received 53,972 votes.
Prior to her election, Fatuma Achani was Salim Mvurya’s deputy governor for 10 years. Fatuma Achani only joined politics in 2013, when the outgoing governor Salim Mvurya asked her to be his running mate.
Fatuma Achani is a human rights advocate and spends a lot of time and energy supporting girls’ education. She fights against early marriage and gender-based violence and is also a member of various community groups that work to empower women in leadership.
She is a member of the Federation of Women Lawyers of Kenya and a member of the Law Society of Kenya.
Cecily Mbarire elected Governor of Embu
Cecily Mbarire, a member of the UDA political party, was elected governor of Embu, the capital of Kenya’s Eastern Province, 120 kilometers northeast of Nairobi. She becomes the first woman to be elected governor of Embu and the third woman to be declared governor of Mount Kenya province. Cecily Mbarire received 108,610 votes. Her closest rival, Lenny Kivuti, received 105,246 votes.
Cecily Mbarire holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Egerton University and a post-graduate diploma in gender and development studies from the University of Nairobi. she was the member of parliament for Runyenjes constituency in Embu city. She has also served as chairperson of the Kenya Women Parliamentarians Association (KEWOPA) as well as secretary of the Kenya Women Parliamentarians Association.
Kawira Mwangaza, elected governor of Meru City
A former Member of Parliament for the central Kenyan town of Meru, Kawira Mwangaza became the first female governor of Meru and also the first female governor to be elected on an independent ticket, unseating the incumbent governor, Kiraitu Murungi, a veteran politician, who came third.
Kawira Mwangaza defied the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) wave in the Mount Kenya region to win the hotly contested election, beating political heavyweights. Kawira Mwangaza received 209,148 votes and defeated his competitors Mithika Linturi and Kiraitu Murungi. The latter, for the first time in more than 30 years of political career, lost an election.
In 2017, Kavira Mwangaza had won the Meru women’s representative seat, defeating the then incumbent Florence Kajuju, who had the blessing of the Jubilee party and specifically President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto.
Before entering politics, Kavira Mwangaza worked as the managing director of Mwangaza Distributors, a company specializing in energy solutions.
She holds a certificate in human resource management from Makerere University in Uganda.
Wavinya Ndeti, Governor-elect of Machakos
Wavinya Ndeti is the elected governor of Machakos town, located 60 km southeast of Nairobi. She became the first woman governor of the town. She was running for the third time, having lost in 2013 and 2017. She was the first woman to be elected as a member of parliament for Machakos town since Kenya’s independence. She garnered 226,609 votes for the hotly contested seat that pitted five candidates against each other. She won the election by a landslide, with her closest competitor, Nzioka Waita (CCU), receiving 129,181 votes.
A Kenyan businesswoman, Wavinya Ndeti has served as chief administrative secretary in the ministry of transport, infrastructure, housing, urban development and public works and was chairperson of the governance council since February 7, 2019. Prior to that, she also served as minister of aid in the Ministry of Youth and Sports from 2008 to 2013.
Anne Waiguru, re-elected governor of Kirinyaga
In one of the closest battles for the governorship of Kirinyaga, Anne Waiguru survived the threat of losing her seat to MP Wangui Ngirici, who was running as an independent candidate. Anne Waiguru, who was running on the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) ticket, soundly defeated her competitor, Purity Wangui Ngirici, with 113,088 votes to Purity Wangui Ngirici’s 105,677.
Anne Waiguru was first elected governor of Kirinyaga County in 2017, becoming one of only three female governors in Kenya at the time. Four months later, she became Kenya’s first female elected vice chair of the Board of Governors.
Before joining the public sector, Mumbi Waiguru worked in civil society, including at Transparency International – Kenya, where she served as a senior research analyst. She also served as a consultant to the National Council of NGOs and worked for the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). She later worked as an Assistant Vice President for Public Sector at Citi Bank in Kenya.
Anne Mumbi Waiguru was a technical advisor on public sector reforms in the government of President Mwai Kibaki, seconded by the World Bank and later by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She then joined the National Treasury as Head of Governance, before becoming Head of the Economic Recovery Program and Director of the Integrated Financial Management and Information System (IFMIS) between 2007 and 2012.
In 2013, Anne Mumbi Waiguru joined President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government as the first cabinet secretary for devolution, where she won a total of 15 awards, including the 2015 United Nations Public Service Award for her introduction of Huduma Centers, which provide Kenyans with faster access to government services. Under his tenure, public procurement reforms were initiated, including the reservation of 30 percent of all government procurement contracts for groups such as the marginalized, youth, people with disabilities, and women, in order to contribute to the progressive realization of the country’s economic and social rights in accordance with Article 43 of the Constitution.
Anne Mumbi Waiguru Waiguru holds a master’s degree in economic policy from the University of Nairobi.
