Women have been encouraged to actively advocate for girl child rights, fight for what belongs to them and beat the odds by rising to higher positions in society and also do away with the mentality that they are weaker vessels in society.
Speaking during the Usemi wa Kina Mama show on West Fm, Trans-Nzoia County CEC for Agriculture Phanice Khatundi says that women have a greater opportunity to lead because this is the era where men have also realized the worth of a woman and therefore taking part fully in encouraging women to do their best and prove that indeed it’s not what was thought that women are weaker vessels but have turned out to be better people in society.
Ms Khatundi who hails from Trans Nzoia says being a farmer’s daughter, she attended Chesit primary school in Trans-Nzoia, moved to Mumias Complex where her father worked and later joined Booker Academy for her high school.
She later joined Moi University where she pursued a Degree in Education Science and after graduating she didn’t join teaching industry immediately but went for her second Degree hustled out to make her ends meet later she landed a job where she taught for 10 years and went back to Masinde Muliro where she studied Climate Change and Environment before she got employed for a year and resigned.
While growing up she dreamt of serving people in the society and her passion grew day in day out as she wanted to prove that women were not weaker vessels and had a dream of helping them rise and do away with the mentality of a woman’s place being in the kitchen.
Having the passion to serve people, she vied for the Woman Representative seat in Trans-Nzoia County unsuccessful and that did not shut her dream having been smart in her manifesto and agenda drew the attention of Governor George Natembeya whose vision matched hers and from the aggressiveness and ability to lead was given the position in agriculture docket.
She says as a CEC there are pros and cons she experiences, she says the docket has enabled her to understand peoples challenges, look for better means of helping them out and as a woman leader thus enabling her dream of serving people come true.
She also says as a CEC she became just like an open book read by many accompanied with over expectations from the people she serves who sometimes cannot understand the challenges she faces also as a human being and she says her motivation is a attributed to the Trans Nzoia Governor who is hard working and doesn’t encourage laziness amongst his people thus working around the clock to make sure that he accomplishes his set goals.
She says as a CEC, the County government is committed to delivering to the people of Trans-Nzoia and ensuring food security is achieved.
She says they have put in mechanism a wider range of activities including fishing, irrigation livestock farming, growing of food crops amongst others just to ensure there is maximum production and value addition.
As a way of achieving this 102 families were given free fertilizer during planting season, dairy coolers that were not working are now functional, cattle dips have been revived to control livestock pests and improve productivity amongst other things.
She says all this is geared towards self sustainability and women having been attributed to the kitchen she added that she is working out on seeing women own pieces of land that they can operate on without restrictions from their male counterparts.
They have also sensitized women on the importance of agribusiness, planting fruits for sale, chicken rearing just to make sure they are engaged and productive.
She also encourages farmers who are aged to embrace new technologies and stop being rigid.
She says they need to be digital and know what they are doing following the climatic changes where a farmer needs to know the type of soil, the acidity in it and the diseases that attack their animals.
She says seasons have changed therefore a farmer cannot just wake up and use the type of fertilizers they are used to but need to move with how the times change in order to continue achieving food security.
Khatundi advises women to get focused and achieve what they want in life instead of dwelling on things that cannot impact their lives positively.
