For 13 years, Ruweida Obo Mohammed was the line captain at Mombasa Air Safari, flying a Russian-made LET 410, a twin-engine short-range transport aircraft.
The 44-year-old captain had never imagined she would ever leave her aviation career to enter murky political waters, especially in a region where women’s leadership is doubted and often outright opposed.
Lamu is a conservative region that is predominantly Muslim.
Captain Obo is the first woman to be elected MP for Lamu East that borders war-torn Somalia.
Lamu East has three wards, Kiunga, Basuba and Faza.
Kiunga is just a walking distance from Kenya to Somalia, which makes it a very insecure region. Al Shabaab militants often sneak into Kenya to attack, then disappear back into the forest.
Underdevelopment, poor education, lack of health services, and lack of basic government services such as water and power, jolted Obo to get into politics, she said.
She first ran unsuccessfully for Lamu county woman representative on The National Alliance (TNA) party of President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013.
“It had never crossed my mind that I should join politics. I was involved so much in community services in Lamu East.
"The elders pushed me to run for the woman representative seat in 2013, but unfortunately, I lost,” she told the Star in a phone interview.
In 2017, Obo was elected Lamu woman representative on the Jubilee ticket.
My experience in South Sudan, where we were transporting relief food, taught me to be resilient. Noise from political competitors did not bother me as I had developed a thick skin
“While serving as woman representative, I felt I could do more for my people. This pushed me to seek the MP seat," she said.
She ran on the Jubilee ticket on August 9. She was declared Lamu East MP-elect after defeating incumbent Athman Shariff of UDA.
She made history to be elected the first woman MP in the region.
Obo garnered 5,498 votes in the hotly contested race, defeating Shariff, Shekue Kahale of Kanu and Wiper's Mohamed Madhbuti.
Shariff was first elected in 2013 as Lamu East MP on the UDF party ticket. He was reelected in 2017 on the Jubilee. He ditched Jubilee for UDA.
In this year’s election, Shariff lost to Obo after getting 4,633 votes. Kahale got 3,180 votes while Madhubuti managed 1,632 votes.
“It was not easy at all. I faced a lot of difficulties, especially propaganda and insults from my male counterparts, but I triumphed,” Obo said.
Shuttling between Kiunga, Faza, Pate, Basuba and Mokowe is very expensive because the regions can only be accessed through water transport or air.
“To hire a boat from Mokowe to Kiunga is Sh35,000, which made the campaigns very expensive. Residents, who use scheduled boats pay between Sh2,000 and Sh3,000,” she said.
Born in 1978 in Pate, Obo attended Ndau Primary school, then transferred to Ngomeni Primary in Kilifi county and later did her O-levels at Coast Girls’ High School n Mombasa.
She got her private pilot's licence from the Kenya School of Flying in October 2002. In 2005, she got her commercial pilot's licence for flying PA-28 (Cherokee) 5Y-BAZ.
She was first employed at Kijipwa Aviation between 2002 and 2005.
In 2006, she got her commercial pilot's licence at the Kenya School of Flying for multi-rating, flying PA-34 (Seneca) and 5Y- JMK).
She was then employed as First Officer at Mombasa Air Safari.
In 2008, she was promoted to Captain, commanding the LET 410.
By the time she left flying for politics in 2013, Obo had 7,800 hours of flying, shuttling between Mombasa and Nairobi, Maasai Mara, the Comoros, Zanzibar and South Sudan.
“My experience in South Sudan, where we were transporting relief food, taught me to be resilient. When I was joining politics, the noise from competitors did not bother me at all, because I had already developed a thick skin,” she said.
Obo said she is ready to use her expertise to transform Lamu East.
She has been serving as the vice chairperson of the Committee on Regional Integration at the National Assembly following her election in 2017 as Lamu county woman representative.
“First of all, I want to ensure government services are brought closer to the people. I want to build a Huduma Centre, where all government services will be available to the people,” she said.
“Lamu East residents have to pay at least Sh3,000 to come and get ID cards, Certificate of Good Conduct, or any other service in Mokowe.”
She plans to improve education in Lamu East. In the last Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), only one student managed to get a C (plain).
“I want to ensure we have modern school buildings and motivated teachers so that we improve our education standards,” Obo said.
Last Wednesday, when she was handed her certificate, Obo said she will repay the confidence of the people of Lamu East by delivering development and improving livelihoods.
“Leadership is not pegged on gender. The people have spoken and have chosen me because they desire change,” she said.
“I will definitely bring change in the security, health, education and fishing sectors. I am that change. It's time to get down to work.”
(Edited by V. Graham)
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