Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO) is a women's NGO that deals with issues to do with women's rights and gender equity in Kenya. [1] It was founded in 1952 by a group of European women and was then under the umbrella of the Department of Community Development and Rehabilitation. [2] It has approximately 600,000 groups contributing to a total membership of about two million women. Phoebe Asiyo served as the first African chairperson of the organization. [3] It is currently chaired by Rahab Mwikali Muiu and has various agendas in its mission statement, including maternal, child health and family planning and training women in leadership and development. [1]
Historically it was promoted by the British during their colonial rule over Kenya and helped provide services only for those against the Mau Mau anti-colonial uprising. [4]
Ruth Habwe served as secretary general of the organization from 1968 until 1971. [5]
A part of Eastern Africa, the territory of what is known as Kenya has seen human habitation since the beginning of the Lower Paleolithic. The Bantu expansion from a West African centre of dispersal reached the area by the 1st millennium AD. With the borders of the modern state at the crossroads of the Bantu, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic ethno-linguistic areas of Africa, Kenya is a multi-ethnic state. The Wanga Kingdom was formally established in the late 17th century. The Kingdom covered from the Jinja in Uganda to Naivasha in the East of Kenya. This is the first time the Wanga people and Luhya tribe were united and led by a centralized leader, a king, known as the Nabongo.
The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt, or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the British authorities. Dominated by Kikuyu, Meru and Embu fighters, the KLFA also comprised units of Kamba and Maasai who fought against the European colonists in Kenya - the British Army, and the local Kenya Regiment.
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa. With a population of more than 47.6 million in the 2019 census, Kenya is the 28th-most-populous country in the world and 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi, while its oldest and second-largest city, is the major port city of Mombasa, situated on Mombasa Island in the Indian Ocean and the surrounding mainland. Mombasa was the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate, which included most of what is now Kenya and southwestern Somalia, from 1889 to 1907. Other important cities include Kisumu and Nakuru. Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast.
Wangarĩ Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are a Nilotic ethnic group native to western Kenya and the Mara Region of northern Tanzania in East Africa. The Luo are the fourth-largest ethnic group (10.65%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (17.13%), the Luhya (14.35%) and the Kalenjin (13.37%). The Tanzanian Luo population was estimated at 1.1 million in 2001 and 3.4 million in 2020. They are part of a larger group of related Luo peoples who inhabit an area ranging from South Sudan, southwestern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, and northern Tanzania, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in East Africa.
Harry Thuku was a Kenyan born in Kiambu, Mitahato village. As a politician, he was one of the pioneers in the development of modern African nationalism in Kenya. He helped found the Young Kikuyu Association and the East African Association before being arrested and exiled from 1922 to 1931. In 1932 he became President of the Kikuyu Central Association, in 1935 founded the Kikuyu Provincial Association, and in 1944 founded the Kenya African Study Union. Opposed to the Mau Mau movement, he later retired to coffee-farming.
Kenya–United States relations are bilateral relations between the Republic of Kenya and the United States. Kenya and the United States have long been close allies and have enjoyed cordial relations since Kenya's independence. Relations became even closer after Kenya's democratic transition of 2002 and subsequent improvements in human rights.
Fahamu is a not-for-profit organization supporting organizations and social movements championing progressive social change and human rights. With branches in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Senegal, and Kenya, Fahamu primarily engages with civil and human rights organizations through Pambazuka News, an online platform focusing on social justice. Additionally, they offer online courses on human rights and social justice and employ new technologies, including SMS, for information dissemination, lobbying, and interactions.
The history of the evolution of the traits of women in Kenya can be divided into Women within Swahili culture, Women in British Kenya, and Kenyan Women post-Independence. The condition and status of the female population in Kenya has faced many changes over the past century.
The culture, evolution, and history of women who were born in, live in, and are from the continent of Africa reflect the evolution and history of the African continent itself.
National Intelligence Service (Kenya) (NIS; Swahili: Huduma ya Ujasusi ya Kitaifa) which was previously known as the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) is both the (national) domestic and foreign intelligence agency of Kenya. It had its origins in "Special Branch" a department of the national police that was created in 1952 under the British administration. Among other things it provided intelligence during the Mau Mau rebellion.
Tanzania Social Support Foundation (TSSF) is a non-governmental organization which is primarily and duly registered under the Non-Governmental Organisations' Act, [Cap.56 R.E 2019] of the Laws of the United Republic of Tanzania. The TSSF is legally a body corporate that is mandated to operate in whole of the part of the United Republic of Tanzania as the National oriented Non-Governmental Organization. Since its permanent incorporation on 7 March 2014, the TSSF has been focusing on promotion of Diplomacy, Economic Development, Education, Environment, Good Governance, Healthcare, Social Support and Tourism.
Rebecca Lolosoli is the founder and matriarch of the Umoja village in the Samburu County of Kenya. The village is a refuge for women fleeing sexual abuse, and men are banned from the village. She plans to run for local office and will be the first Samburu woman ever to do so.
Phoebe Asiyo is a former parliamentarian of Kenya, ambassador to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), mother, and grandmother. She was UNIFEM's ambassador from 1988 to 1992. She was the first woman elevated to the position of Luo elder for her efforts to promote education for girls, women's rights, and gender equality in Kenya. Fondly called Mama Asiyo, she has dedicated her life to improving the political arena in Kenya, the role of women and girls, and those affected by the HIV epidemic. She was the first woman in Kenya with its 42 communities to become elder.
Janet Ong'era is the immediate former Kisii County Woman Member of the National Assembly (2017-2022) in the Republic of Kenya. She is the Chairperson of the Eastern Africa Region at the Pan African Parliament.
Ruth Habwe was a Kenyan activist and politician.
Jael Mbogo is a Kenyan social worker, women rights campaigner and politician. Her parents hail from Ugenya, Sidindi; but she is married in Gem, Siaya. She founded the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy, one of the early political parties in Kenya in East Africa. She was the first female shorthand typist employed to work at the City Council of Nairobi in the capital of Kenya.
The Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) - Swahili: Chama cha Wanahabari Wanawake Tanzania (CHAWAHATA) - is a nonprofit non-governmental organization focused on women's rights and children's rights, based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and they also keep an office in Zanzibar.
Jemimah Gecaga (1920–1979) was the first woman to serve in the legislature of Kenya and the founder of the women's advocacy organization, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake.
Feminism in Kenya concerns the organized efforts to improve the rights of the girls and women of Kenya. The modern feminist movement, which took off in the early 1960s and also in the 1970s, gained impetus through the establishment of various organisations such as Maendeleo Ya Wanawake and Kenya Women’s Political Caucus.