SPEECH BY HON. KIRAITU MURUNGI DURING THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE MERU TWAWEZA PROGRAM ON 7^TH JUNE 2018.

Hon. Rahim Dawood, MP North Imenti Constituency,

The Patron of Meru Twaweza Program/ First lady

County Executive Committee Members

Twaweza Program Board Members,

Honourable Members of the County Assembly of Meru,

Trainers and facilitators,

Distinguished Women Leaders,

Officials of the County Government,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is my very humble and pleasant duty as the Governor of Meru to be here today, to officially launch the MERU TWAWEZA PROGRAM. This is an ambitious program for empowering the Women of Meru towards Economic, Social and Political transformation.

For me, this is a complex and sensitive issue. As you all know, I am a man, I cannot adequately speak for women, whose daily experiences are very different from mine. But I would call myself a WOMANIST - because I am committed to the liberation of women in Meru County and generally in Kenya.

I have a dream of Making Meru Great. Women form over 50% of the population of Meru, We cannot make Meru Great, if this half of its population lives in poverty and political invisibility.

Human capital is the most important, most critical and strategic resource for the development of any society. There is enormous waste of this critical resource in this County. The women exist in periphery or margins of our cash economy and politics. We cannot make Meru Great without the support, the ideas, the passion, enthusiasm and creativity of our women.

This program is intended to give a platform and a voice to the women of Meru. It is intended to empower our women socially, economically and politically.

To empower means to strengthen, to share knowledge and information to provide the necessary skills and resources to enable a person to take on new responsibilities.

The program will provide you with opportunities to forge new alliances, connections and to build a solidarity between the women intelligentsia, the business community and grassroots actors, which will transform the women of Meru.

We are creating a network that will create awareness and open new doors for the women of Meru. We hope, this program will enable the women of Meru for venture beyond the traditional woman issues of "my home, my family, my husband, my children and my church," and empower them to venture into politics and big business.

I know women everywhere have been trapped in intricate invisible webs of social and economic oppression. There has been a lot of pain and suffering in the lives of many women, some of whom are here. But we did not call you here to whine and cry about the past.

This is a platform of hope. This is a new beginning for the transformation and prosperity of women of Meru. We have come here to light a fire and to imagine a new future. We brought you here to think and to strategize. Please don’t disappoint us. The women of Meru are waiting for you to help change their lives.

Governor Kiraitu Murungi