On March 8, the World will mark the International Women’s Day celebrations whose theme is “For All Women and Girls: Rights. Equality, empowerment.”

It’s a day for women to join voices with people around the world and shout their message for equal rights – Women’s rights are human rights.

In Kilifi County as part of the global celebrations, Kenya Red Cross Society has identified and documented gender based violence victims and champions who despite all odds have made a remarkable impact in the communities.

Among those in the list is 32-year-old Fundisa Sub Location Assistant Chief Emily Esendi Reuben, who is a ninth born in a polygamous family of 22 children.

She is a member of the minority Watta Community who became a wife and mother in 2013 after dropping out of school due to poverty but today is an administrator who is also set to graduate this September from the University of Embu.

Emily Esendi Reuben’s journey of life portrays the struggle of a woman in a male dominated society and justifies that given a chance, women can do what a man can do.

We found Emily in her tiny office housed in an old building at Kibao Cha Fundisa village along the Malindi Lamu road.

Despite all odds, the Administrator who was employed by the government three years ago displays confidence and opens up to the world on how she evolved from being a housewife to becoming the first female chief in her locality.

Emily reveals that due to poverty, she dropped out of Ngalla Girls High School Watamu in form four as her father could not afford to pay fees.

Due to frustrations she decided to get married to a man from Chonyi in Kilifi South the same year in 2013 and was blessed with two daughters.

However her in-laws did not like her due to the fact that they did not clearly understand the community she was coming from – The Watta.

This forced her to quit the marriage three years later when her second born girl was four months old. Back home, she formed a group of young mothers composed of girls who had given birth at a tender age to sensitize them that they could make it despite all odds.

Her efforts were recognised by Action Aid who offered her a chance to facilitate sensitization campaigns against teenage pregnancies to empower girls and teenage mothers who had lost hope after dropping out of school due to pregnancies.

Three years later while bringing up her two girls alone at her parents home she decided to enrol in Marereni secondary school so as to get the KCSE certificate.

Being a mother, she was the laughing stock of the society and fellow students wondered how a mother could resume studies and join a class of young girls. 

She would be mocked quite often but she soldiered on thanks to the experience she had got from her job as GBV champion who was conducting sensitization campaigns to teenage mothers.

Her hard work enabled her to score a B+ (plus) in KCSE and again she was the talk of her village after she got a call to study education at Embu University.

Emily’s success changed the attitude of the society and other girls who had dropped out of school returned to class while others joined vocational training schools.

The Community did a fundraising and she reported to university not to study education but bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Security Studies which to her would enable her after university to continue doing community work.

Life took a turning point in 2022 while on long holiday when she returned home and heard there was a vacancy of an Assistant Chief in her area as the current one had been promoted to a chief.

She applied and was shortlisted. On the day of the interview, she was among 15 candidates including six girls, most of them with degrees and over 30 years of age while she was 29 years.

Despite the fact she was not yet through with university education, the panellist selected her and was offered a job as Fundisa Assistant Chief in 2022. 

She attributes her success to the touching story she narrated to the Panelists about her life and how she had managed to beat all odds from a minority community in a polygamous family, who was married off and later resumed school to go to the university.

Being the first female administrator has not, however, stopped her from going on with her campaign against GBV and to date she still champions for the rights of girls and women in her society.

This has made some parents bring their girls to stay with her during holidays so as to continue mentoring them. Currently Emily is married to a teacher and has a third child and she has to balance the roles of being a chief, a mother, a wife and a GBV Champion which makes her a busy woman.

She however says it has not been easy working in a male dominated field as some people at first doubted her capabilities though with time due to resilience and focus the society has now accepted that she is capable of the work.

The chief while expectant there were challenges as some people would wonder why she was pregnant being an administrator.

To her, the society needs to recognise that as a chief, she is still young and has a right to get children.

She also urged residents to stop stigmatizing officers when pregnant as they are human beings like any other woman in the society and have a life to live.

At the workplace the chief says there are challenges also as whenever she visits other offices or goes to meetings, men tend to seduce her a lot. 

She says if one is not careful it’s easy to break their marriages as the advances are many and requires one to set boundaries.

The Chief deferred in university but resumed studies and expects to graduate by September this year. Her appeal is for the authorities to implement the two thirds gender rule so that women can get equal opportunities.

She says her success has demystified the notion that women when employed are due to favours and wants everyone to know that women, if given a chance, can work equally as men.

Katana Mwarua an old man from Fundisa admitted that Emily was the first chief but ever since she started work, she has proved to be professional.

Mwarua revealed that he had gone to report a land case to the chief and is confident that it would be resolved amicably.