First Lady Rachel Ruto has invited men in Siaya County to join women’s economic empowerment groups, but with one condition: they can participate, contribute and support the groups, but cannot take leadership positions.
Speaking during a women’s empowerment programme in Siaya on Tuesday, Rachel said men can make up to 30 percent of membership in Joyful Women Organisation (JOYWO) groups, arguing that their involvement can strengthen the groups without taking away the programme’s focus on women’s economic empowerment.
“One thing that the CEO of Joyful Women did not say. In Joyful Women, it is not just about women. Men are also invited. In every group, you can have 30% of men. For example, if you attend in a group, three of those can be men,” she said.
Rachel said the restriction on male leadership was deliberate, as the programme was created to ensure women take a leading role in decisions affecting their economic lives.
“But there is a disclaimer: they cannot hold any leadership position. Not because we don't want them to do that, but because it is an issue of women's economic empowerment. We want women to lead and men to be there to make sure that the leadership is going on well,” she said.
She encouraged men in Siaya to join the groups and play a supportive role in strengthening their activities, while women remain responsible for leadership and decision-making.
“So men, you're welcome to join the groups. I'm sure it is all groups. It's not only Joyful Women that has that role,” she stressed.
JOYWO was founded by Rachel in 2009 and has built its work around table banking, where members pool their savings and lend money to one another to support businesses and other investments.
The organisation says it currently operates in 44 counties and has more than 250,000 members, with about Sh3.9 billion in revolving funds.
The initiative began with about 60 women before growing into a nationwide women’s economic empowerment movement. Its programmes include financial literacy, savings and lending, agribusiness support, market linkages and leadership training.
Rachel also turned her attention to Siaya’s past performance in the programme, saying the county had previously been among the leading counties and should regain its position.
She recalled visiting Siaya in 2014 to work with local women and said the county had at one point recorded about 1,000 Joyful Women groups.
“I remember coming to Siaya County in 2014 under the leadership of your women representatives, when we did a lot of work with women. Today, I want to assure the women and men of Siaya that we will work together to restore the county to the top five because Siaya was once among the leading counties. At one point, the county had about 1,000 Joyful Women groups.”
The First Lady said the programme’s success should not only be judged by the number of active groups, but also by whether women had gained skills they could continue using independently.
“Through Joyful Women, women have learned table banking, and some of them have continued to do table banking on their own. That is what we wanted. That is what we needed, just to empower women economically and to teach them issues of financial inclusion to say that women can no longer remain in the sidelines of economic decisions, but we need to be right there on the table.”
JOYWO describes table banking as a system that allows members to save, borrow, invest and repay loans using money pooled within their groups. The groups bring women together to build savings, access loans and invest in income-generating activities.
Rachel’s wider women’s empowerment work has been linked to JOYWO and MaMa Doing Good, the organisation she founded to promote socio-economic transformation and community welfare. Her official profile lists financial inclusion and women’s empowerment among her key areas of focus.
She said she would return to Siaya to support efforts to revive the groups, increase participation and create more opportunities for women to save, access affordable finance and build independent sources of income.
Her message was clear: men can join and support the groups, but women must remain at the centre of their leadership and decisions.