Ex-Liberian president honours Waiguru for leadership style

Former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has honoured Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru for her transformative style of leadership and selected her to join her Amujae Programme meant to empower women to seek leadership positions internationally.

The Kirinyaga governor will be representing Kenya in the programme.

This programme seeks to prepare women to take up roles and excel in public leadership.

Amujae in Liberian language means "We are going up".

It is a flagship programme for the Sirleaf Presidential Centre for Women and Leadership.

Ms Waiguru said she was extremely excited to receive the news of her selection as an Amujae leader.

"To have been selected from a long list of accomplished women leaders from across the continent and become the first to represent Kenya is both a great encouragement to me and a fomenting of hope in my quest for gender equality," she said.

Help female African leaders

She noted that the programme seeks to catapult female African leaders to greater heights by fanning their ambitions and equipping them with the necessary tools and support to advance to the highest levels of public leadership.

"Today’s announcement coincides with the fifteenth-year mark since H.E Ellen Johnson took oath of office as the first elected female president in Africa. The paltry number of women leaders to hold similar offices, and the fact that none has been popularly elected into office since, is a significant pointer that begs for deep reflection and shift in paradigms," Ms Waiguru said.

She continued, "While some progress has been made in moving the gender parity needle, the truth is much more needs to be done as far as election of women into political office in concerned, generally across Africa and more specifically in Kenya. This is my attraction to the Amujae programme — women pulling women upwards with the hope that this status quo will be changed."

Ms Waiguru said she looks forward to drawing from the programme’s network comprising former heads of state, accomplished public servants, inaugural Amujae leaders as well as her fellow cohort members from across the continent.

"I also reiterate my commitment to passing on the knowledge and skills I will acquire to other women so we can together secure more equal female representation at critical decision tables, thereby influencing the trajectory of the African continent towards our shared ultimate destiny," she said.