By Sharon Kiburi
Nairobi, Kenya: Hailing from Maara constituency TharakaNithi County, Anita Mbae the former University Student leader is throwing her heart in the ring and poised to become the youngest Senator Kenya has seen.
Anita Mbae is the last born of three girls and grew up in a family of teachers who were also small scale farmers.
She begins: “Meru is very rich in agriculture and is widespread for families to be involved in agriculture for both domestic consumption and commercial purposes.”
Anita’s mother is a high school teacher specializing in children with special needs while her father is now retired. “My mother inspires me, she is driven and accomplished,” says Anita.
Her parents ensured that her siblings and she had access to quality education and life’s necessities. Anita said that her family’s Christian faith foundation principles have guided her values for serving others.
In lower primary school making friends for Anita required effort, a situation that was made worse by an incident where she trusted a girl she believed was her friend but she ended up framing her for mischief she did not commit but paid for.
Going to a boarding school for her upper primary education was a breath of fresh air that opened her up. “I was still a little timid and reading was my way of escape. I admired news anchors because I thought they were fascinating”, said Anita.
She giggles as she narrates her interest in reading newspapers from an early age. In a household where both parents were teachers, it came as no surprise that newspapers were always available, delivered by a milkman on a daily basis.
She enjoyed reading and analyzing them, especially political stories. In upper primary and high school, she found her strengths were literature, languages, and History and she read widely a lot of biographies and revolutionaries that shaped African politics and history.
Her two elder sisters were into the sciences while Anita excelled in the arts. “I think my big sister is a brilliant one among us. She scored A’s in school and proceeded to study Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Nairobi while my other sister studied the same course at Kenyatta University” she said.
Anita was cut out for the world of the arts and she excelled in Languages, history, and human sciences. She attended Daystar University where she attained a Bachelor’s degree in communication major and minored in International Relations.
At 17 years, Anita was an ambitious teenager and she applied for a job as a sales assistant. She performed well in the interview outperforming experienced professionals.
Surprisingly with only high school education, she was entrusted with huge responsibilities of overseeing sales, creating sales messaging, and marketing. “This sales job helped me learn and understand how the business world works’, said Anita. Unfortunately, she had to stop working to attend full-time classes at Daystar University.
“Initially when I joined Daystar I was inclined to majoring in broadcast journalism since there was a part of me that wanted to be a newscaster like the people I admired growing up but I ended up majoring in communication, public relations, and international relations,” said Anita.
In addition, she said campus exposed her to a broad diversity of cultures, races,s, and countries that shaped how she saw the world.
“From my love of history and news, both local and international, I was conversant with most African countries’ histories, culture, and politics and finding citizens of these countries (South Sudan, South Africa, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Congo) in campus, just to name but a few, was magical,” she said.
Anita also had the privilege of working with Shine FM, the campus radio station, reporting news and hosting programs.
She wanted to affect actual change. To do that she felt she needed to be part of the decision-making at the campus. Hence she quit Shine FM and got involved in campus leadership politics.
She served as secretary-general of DUSA (Daystar University Student Association). The post of Secretary-General was a highly contested position and often male-dominated.
“I love testing the status quo, so I went for it. Interesting enough I had the support of many ladies,” said Anita. However, there were some who thought she should have gone for something easier to win with less competition like social welfare and clubs lead.
She tells of an ordeal where her opponents underestimated her. After a vigorous campaign against the more popular contesters, she won. In her leadership, she ensured fair hearing in the disciplinary committee where students’ interests were prioritized aiding in reducing sexual harassment.
The DUSA service platform gave her a competitive advantage to play in a bigger space. She felt like a university, student leaders were critical in shaping politics, especially the Nairobi County politics.
The position provided an environment for her to meet the political elite which emboldened her desire to one day contest for political office. As part of DUSA, among other African student leaders, she got a chance to go for an exchange program in the United States.
She attended the University of Chapel Hill North Carolina while attending some programs at Duke University. This broadened her perspectives on politics in leadership in Africa.
After learning and analyzing the political status in Africa she wanted to be part of the change-makers in service delivery and a voice of peoples’ needs.
After graduation, she attended a UNDP meeting at Laico Regency. Her curious and inquisitive nature saw her land a volunteer position at the United Nations two weeks after the meeting. At the United Nations, she worked at the UN Women’s communication and Democratic governance units.
“This ingrained in me the importance of implementing Sustainable Development Goal 5 that is very particular on the empowerment of women and gender equality,” she says adding that she participated in a United Nations program that trained and empowered women especially those running for political office to compete on an equal playing ground with their male counterparts.
Having gained experience at the UN and her leadership roles, Anita Mbae believes she has something to offer the political arena of Kenya.
“I intend to run for the position of Woman representative /Senator in Tharaka Nithi County to enable the youth in my county to have skills sets that are relevant, that can compete at a global platform. Empowering the youth to be self-reliant in creating jobs, solving problems, and making wealth,” says Anita.
She wants to see full and equal participation of both men and women in political decision making provides a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of the society and enhances the legitimacy of the political process by making them more democratic and responsive to the concerns and perceptive of all segments of the society.
Other areas she intends to champion are; taking measures to ensure food security, support for mental health patients, and uprooting Gender-based violence (GBV). “It is about time for the youth and women to get fully involved in politics,” said Anita adding that empowering women is equal to empowering society since women are the primary caretakers in society.
