The Women Rights Advisor to the President Harriet Chiggai has decried low uptake and access to finances by women in the country which partly stands at 2 percent.
Chiggai said the low access has hindered women participation in business enterprises and access to government procurement opportunities with rural women being the most affected.
She said the government will put in place policies that will address gaps and help scale up access to already existing funds such as Women Enterprise Fund and the hustler fund.
Speaking in Naivasha during the closing of Women in Procurement Conference, Chiggai noted that the move to digitize supply chain processes will help ease the workload and boost access to tender and procurement opportunities to women and people living with disabilities.
Chiggai said her office will also champion the review of the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) policy in order to address the gaps that hinder full participation of women led enterprises in government tendering.
“Through collaboration, we are going to ensure the low rate of bankability among women which stands at 2 percent is scaled up going forward,” said Chiggai.
The women advisor at the same time added that the government will formulate friendly policies that will address women issues such as sexual harrassment, menstrual and menopausal policies that hinder their career progression.
Chiggai lauded the strides in championing the rights of women including election of seven women governors and rise in number of women Cabinet and Principal Secretaries adding that the president supports push to actualize two-thirds gender rule.
“Safaricom, ISUZU and the East Africa Brewery Limited has instituted gender friendly policies that have led to increased productivity and profits in their organisation”, said Chiggai.
Chiggai called on the media to scale up positive advocacy and reporting and curb creation of negative messaging involving women warning that the tendency is a recipe for more harm and hate for women.
Through the joint communique presented to Chiggai at the end of the conference, women advocates tasked her office to institute sexual harrassment policies that will safeguard women against such vices when accessing government tenders which will ensure a level playing field.
The over 300 women attendees also called on the CS to ensure that all government entities make annual gender- segregated data on big-ticket tenders to her office to enable the tracking and adherence to the 30 percent policy that seeks to ensure women, youth and People living with disabilities access procurement opportunities.
On his part, John Karani, the board chair of the Kenya Institute of Supplies Management said the body is pushing for more accountability and integrity in the sector to address increased corruption incidences.
Karani said the body has instituted stiffer displinary measures to contain graft in the sector noting that officials personally found culpable are barred from practicing.
According to Nancy Karigithu, a Maritime lawyer and professional, women should embrace mentorship and networking to scale the leadership ladder noting that there’s no shortcut to career progression.
By Erastus Gichohi
