Naisula Josephine Lesuuda (born 30 April 1984), is a Kenyan politician and women's rights activist. She is a Member of the Parliament of Kenya.
Naisula Josephine Lesuuda (born 30 April 1984), is a Kenyan politician and women's rights activist. She is a Member of the Parliament of Kenya.
Lesuuda was born in Samburu on 30 April 1984, [1] the first of three children born to an Anglican bishop and a businesswoman. [2] She graduated from Daystar University with a Degree in Communications and Community Development. [1] [2] [3]
Lesuuda worked as a journalist at the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, including hosting Good Morning Kenya. [4] In 2009, after ten people were killed in cattle rustling in Laikipia, she became a founding member of the Laikipia Peace Caravan. [3] [1] [5] This in turn led to the founding of a number of other local peace organisations, supported by the Kenya government and USAid. [3] In 2010, her work with this organisation led to her becoming the youngest Kenyan woman to win the presidential Order of the Grand Warrior. [3] [6]
In 2013, Lesuuda left her job to found the Naisula Lesuuda Peace Foundation which advocates for the education of girls and for the eradication of female genital mutilation and child marriage. [4] [7] [3]
Lesuuda participated in President Uhuru Kenyatta's campaign in 2013, [8] and was then nominated on his TNA party ticket to represent Samburu County in the Senate in 2013, becoming its youngest female member. [4] [9] She was then elected Vice Chair of the Kenyan Women's Parliamentary Association.
In 2016, she announced that she would leave the Senate to seek election as a member of the National Assembly for Samburu West, [10] then in 2017 switching from the Jubilee to KANU party. [11] [8] She has maintained her support for Kenyatta. [9]
At the 2017 election, Lesuuda was elected with 14,560 votes, defeating incumbent Jonathan Lelelit who received 13,970 votes, [12] becoming the first female member of parliament for the constituency. [13] When parliament sat in August 2017, she announced her intention to apply for the position of Deputy Speaker, but failed to submit her application before the vote. [14] [15]
She was re-elected in Samburu West Constituency at the 2022 general election.
Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was a Kenyan politician who served as the second president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. He is the country's longest-serving president to date. Moi previously served as the third vice president of Kenya from 1967 to 1978 under President Jomo Kenyatta, becoming the president following the latter's death.
The Kenya African National Union (KANU) is a Kenyan political party that ruled for nearly 40 years after Kenya's independence from British colonial rule in 1963 until its electoral loss in 2002. It was known as Kenya African Union (KAU) from 1944 but due to pressure from the colonial government, KAU changed its name to Kenya African Study Union (KASU) mainly because all political parties were banned in 1939 following the start of the Second World War. In 1946 KASU rebranded itself into KAU following the resignation of Harry Thuku as president due to internal differences between the moderates who wanted peaceful negotiations and the militants who wanted to use force, the latter forming the Aanake a forty, which later became the Mau Mau. His post was then occupied by James Gichuru, who stepped down for Jomo Kenyatta in 1947 as president of KAU. The KAU was banned by the colonial government from 1952 to 1960. It was re-established by James Gichuru in 1960 and renamed KANU on 14 May 1960 after a merger with Tom Mboya's Kenya Independence Movement.
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