As the world prepares to celebrate its women as it marks International Women’s Day on Monday, March 8, a number of Kenyan women will be walking with their heads raised high.
Some of these women have stepped up and challenged traditions occasioned by rather oppressive culture and societal norms.
One cannot count in one hand alone the number of women who have stood out recently; putting their names and that of the womenfolk in the history books.
They have followed in the footprints of the likes of Prof Wangari Maathai, Grace Onyango, Mary Elizabeth Okello, women who inspired a generation to challenge the status quo.
Kenyans.co.ke takes a look at five such promising ladies who have made notable achievements in their industries:
Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange
The two young women are widely known for transforming the face of public libraries in Kenya. Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange founded Book Bunk with an aim of enhancing a reading culture among Kenyans, by revamping public libraries in the country primarily McMillan Memorial Library on Banda Street, Eastlands Library in Makadara and Kaloleni Library.
These achievements led them to receive President Uhuru Kenyatta’s commendation in November 2020. Uhuru lauded both ladies for their restoration model in transforming libraries and also empowering communities.
Wachuka, one of Kenya’s leading publishers of African literature, revealed that they drew inspiration of launching the firm from the deplorable state of the McMillan Library.
“We were looking for a place to host a book launch when we first came across the McMillian Memorial Library. We found it in a wanting state and from there we asked ourselves about public libraries and their maintenance. McMillian Memorial Library inspired us to start Book Bunk Firm,” she stated.
Further, her counterpart Wanjiru, a writer and entrepreneur, added that the firm mainly relied on well wishers and donors in order to kickstart their campaign. She revealed that the duo…