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Hon. Florence Mutua

ASPIRING: Governor –
Busia County
COUNTY: Busia

Hon. Florence Mutua is the current Woman Representative for Busia County and aspires to be the next Governor for Busia County. She studied at Arya Girls’ Secondary School in Nairobi and later graduated with a Business Administration degree from the Kenya Methodist University. Florence also holds a master’s degree in Project Management and Planning from the University of Nairobi

The promulgation of the Constitution in 2010 prompted her to join politics. The then employee of the World Food Program (WFP) considered this an opportunity to work directly with residents of Busia to improve their lives and stop depending on handouts, having worked in communities for thirteen years while at WFP.

As the Woman Representative, she runs a mentorship program to guide and mold girls on how to become respectable people in society while coordinating the activities of Mama ni Mmoja, a foundation for orphans. As the patron of the Uwezo Fund in Busia County, Florence has ensured that women and the youth are well informed in order to benefit from the fund. To promote sustainability and ownership she encourages members of the community to initiate projects they are passionate about. She has worked with youth groups, women’s groups, physically challenged persons’ groups, and bodaboda (motorbike) operators’ groups to start Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs), and table-banking groups. Hon. Mutua has also informed these groups about Access to Government Procurement Opportunities(AGPO) and facilitated the registration of five companies for youth groups, women’s groups, and people living with disability to help them exploit the opportunities available to them.

She has been a member of the Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Committee, and Regional Integration Committee. She is also the secretary of KEWOPA, the vice-chairperson of the Women Democracy Network (WDN) Kenyan Chapter, a network that prepares women for political leadership through training and awareness creation. She also serves as an ambassador of the Bicameral Parliament for Women in Parliament (WIP), which is an independent international foundation that reaches out to all female parliamentarians to address global challenges.

My political agenda

Health

Poverty has resulted in several girls missing school due to menstruation and the lack of funds to purchase sanitary towels. Hon. Mutua intends to ensure there is health education and distribution of undergarments and sanitary towels to girls, to help them attend school uninterrupted while lobbying for improved health facilities so that more people can access health services without stigma. Persons living with HIV and widows are generally stigmatized. She also intends to continue lobbying for programs that encourage cleanliness in order to eradicate jiggers in the county.

Water and Food Security

Although the county has water sources such as rivers and springs, its residents suffer from a lack of sufficient clean and treated water and thus are prone to water-borne illnesses. Hon. Mutua intends to lobby for improved water harvesting, treatment and piping so that more residents of Busia can enjoy clean and safe water for domestic use.  She intends to lobby for increased access to clean water through piping and digging of boreholes in partnership with the county government while encouraging residents to grow high-quality crops for food security.