Beatrice Elachi is the speaker of Nairobi County and believe it or not,she has nine children.Here are 10 things you didn’t know about the iron lady:
1. Born in Kakamega in a family of five siblings, she is the third born. She was born in 1973 and sat for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) at the Moi Girls High School, Vokoli in Kakamega County. Her mother is from Central Kenya and at some point in her life, she served as a nun.
2. Beatrice is a graduate of Africa Nazerene University and holds a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Peace and Security studies.
3. In 2005 she joined the Banana Team ahead of the Constitutional referendum and instantly developed interest in politics. She later became the outreach manager for the Kibaki Tena campaigns in 2007
4. Beatrice Elachi is Married and blessed with nine (9) children. Beatrice was brought up in an unstable cross-cultural family when her parents separated, she had to drop out of Nazarene University to handle issues at home
5. The Nairobi Assembly speaker joined politics in 2002 and has risen from humble backgrounds to where she is today. She was inspired to join politics by the late Cabinet Minister John Michuki and former Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga.
6. In 2013, she joined Alliance Party of Kenya (APK) and was nominated to the Senate as she was heads higher than any other member. Elachi is not just political but also philanthropic and presently supports seven children orphaned by ethnic clashes in Tana River. She is a close ally of Deputy President William Ruto.
7. She unsuccessfully contested for the Dagorreti North parliamentary seat in last year’s (2017) general election. Elachi was however elected as Nairobi County Assembly speaker on September 6, 2017, replacing Alex Ole Magelo.
8. Beatrice has worked with the Women Movement from between 2003 to 2010 as a trainer for women parliamentarians under the UN Women. She previously served as a Programs Officer for UN Women under the same organization where she worked in collaboration with the National Council of Women of Kenya and the Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development
9. She goes down in history as the first ever female Speaker to serve in the Nairobi City County Assembly, as well as the first ever female Majority Chief Whip to serve in The Senate of Kenya.
10. A myriad of claims by Nairobi ward reps have led to the downfall of Speaker Beatrice Elachi, who was impeached on Thursday. She is currently fighting her impeachment in the courts. Elachi is accused of contravening the County Assembly Powers and Privileges Act, 2017 when she unilaterally allowed police officers not attached to the Assembly to arrest several staff without consulting the board. She is also being accused of abuse of office, where they allege the speaker inappropriately used public funds on dubious travel to Dallas, Texas, in the US.
