While calling for higher appreciation for women during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) event in New York on Wednesday, Mrs Gachagua claimed that she has defied all odds coming from a humble background to one of the senior positions in government.
It is from her story’s example, she added, should women from humble backgrounds be empowered to scale to greater heights and transform their lives.
“I am a woman in government right now, I come from a ghetto. I am raised in a ghetto in Kenya and that has not stopped me from rising to being the Second Lady in the republic,” she said.
“That is why I think we need to start seeing women in a higher capacity and intellectually that they are able to do many things.”
Adding:
“Even those who have not gone to school, it does not mean that they are not educated. Informal learning is another way of getting an education”
“This thing of telling someone that you need a degree, a master’s yet this woman has been working on the farm she knows how to grow her crops. What she needs is access to credit and direct market and that will change her life.”
“Coming from the ghetto has not stopped me from rising to be the Second Lady of the Republic,” Pastor Dorcas Gachagua pic.twitter.com/hSiOHFqfmE
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) March 15, 2023
This however did not sit well with Kenyans online who felt Dorca’s assertion was incorrect.
Here are some of the reactions:
@MakauWaMuli: Interesting! being a first or second lady is not an achieved status rather an ascribed status ; it is obtained involuntarily and/or accidentally by just being a spouse to president or Deputy President.
@JoylineChebet1: Being the second lady is not one’s achievement , it’s thanks to your husbands ambition.. or how did you rise ? From third lady ?
@Its_Abdul_Wahab: How exactly does one rise to Second Lady of a republic? Is there a curriculum, training, certification, thesis/dissertation etc
@Aligheri__Dante: An interesting anecdote of how women possess their husbands’ success. The take-away for men here should be the importance of finding a woman who can adapt to your successes (and failures). The second lady is very comfortable in her new status & is using her influence quite well.
@Councillor Njohi: She is there just because she married the DO. It could have been any other woman.
@ChiefJarateng: It’s funny that every person who climbs to high offices (even through corruption) claim to come from poor families
@Yvonne Wambui Njengah: A true example of ” marriage is an achievement” marriage gave you that title not hard work.
