Here is the story of the man and women behind Big Fish, your favorite fish vendors

SCALING THE HEIGHTS OF LEADERSHIP FOR CHANGE

By MUKAMI MUNGAI

Strong willed, focused and a hand on person best describes this woman who has managed to overcome and break both cultural and women stereotypes in her community and scaled to greater heights of power and influence in her native community of Keiyo.Her looks betray her age as she looks much younger than her years.

Meet Hon.Dr.Susan Chebet, the woman member of parliament for Elgeyo Marakwet County. Born 59 years ago in the little known village of Mwen in Keiyo South, she attended Chepketeret primary school and then Kapkenda Girls’ High school for her secondary education and thereafter attended Kipsigis Girls’ High School for her A levels. She then enrolled in the University of Nairobi and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. Her determination to equip herself with more education saw her attend the University of Manchester to pursue Human Resource Development majoring in gender studies and thereafter returned to Kenya for her PhD in Environmental Studies at Moi University.

After her studies she began her work experience as an office administrator in the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) before joining Moi University to be in charge of research and extension and doubled up the role teaching at the school of agriculture.

It is out of her belief that education is the key to changing people’s lives that she has spent most of her years campaigning for girl child education and empowerment.” if you educate a woman ,you improve the family, society and the nation at large,” she says. Famous and popular in her community for going against the grain and waging anti FGM wars and  championing for the rights of women who have been marginalized because of cultural taboos dictated upon them by the community.

Her determination to change the society endeared her to her constituents who elected her as the first woman member of parliament for Elgeyo Marakwet. But this did not come on a silver platter as many would have thought.  Having waded herself in the murky waters of politics for the first time and as a woman, she faced a lot of challenges.”I did not know the techniques of campaign, a lot of resources were needed to transverse the whole county canvassing for votes and the electorate asked for hand outs,” she opines.

However, being the fighter that she is, she applied a positive approach to try and serenade the electorate. One of them was her efforts in setting up her Tumndo Ne Leel organization eleven years ago. The organization champions for the rights of girls and women. Her society thrived on the outdated idea of circumcising young girls to prepare them for marriage. But she felt this idea was hurting many young girls.” Former regimes have not managed to fight the cut. Even the legislations that have been passed outlawing the act has not started to bite as many still continue to perform it hiding in the culture aspect. Tumndo Ne Leel gives the girls an alternative rite of passage,” she says,

“We have a curriculum which contains eight steps. The first four teaches women and girls about their culture, how to take care of their families, respect and generosity. The next four deals with empowerment, disease prevention and relationships between boys and girls in an attempt to avoid teen pregnancies,” she adds.

She also formed a center for social transformation and development under the Tumndo Ne Leel program, to train women and the center is also used as a demo for drought resistant crops and villagers usually borrow ideas on farming from it. Local and international university students also use it for research activities.” we have hosted students from Indiana University in the US through collaboration with Moi University,” she says. This, she says, has gone a long way in fighting poverty and empowering women who were former initiators.

Dr.Chebet sits in the parliamentary committee for education and on further probing she tells me that her campaign agenda revolved around education. She was advocating for a good and solid foundation of the ECDs, which has been losing identity as the government turns a blind eye on them. She also vouched for technical education where those pupils who did not qualify for secondary education, would be absorbed into youth polytechniques to learn practical skills. She takes pride in knowing that the government has set aside money for refurbishment and building of polytechniques.

She also appreciates the introduction of the Uwezo fund to empower the youth and women.While not in parliament; you will find her giving advice to women and the youth in her constituency. She is planning to launch her strategic plan for the office of the woman member of parliament for Elgeyo Marakwet 2013 – 2017.

Hon.Chebet is married to Mr. Daniel Chebet and they have four sons one who is adopted and four grand children.