The Mizani Africa Performance Index 2025 ranks Dr. Christine Ombaka, Siaya County’s incumbent Women Representative, 4th nationally with a score of 69.1%, placing her among the top ten best-performing Women Representatives in Kenya. This recognition reflects her consistent leadership in championing women and youth empowerment, advocating for persons living with disabilities (PLWD), and supporting vulnerable populations. Central to this achievement is her transparent and impactful use of the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), which has delivered visible results in education bursaries, skills development, health support, and community livelihoods.
Mizani’s evaluation framework emphasizes advocacy strength, rigorous oversight of public funds, effective coordination with national and county institutions, and equitable program delivery that prioritizes measurable grassroots outcomes over political rhetoric. Dr. Ombaka meets and exceeds these criteria through her multi-term leadership under the ODM party since 2013, navigating Siaya County’s persistent challenges of youth unemployment and rural inequality. Her approach has transformed the Women Representative’s office into a coordination hub that deploys NGAAF through public audits, beneficiary verification, and digital tracking systems, ensuring accountability and earning high public approval in local forums.
In the advocacy pillar, Dr. Ombaka stands out for prioritizing girls from fisherfolk and single-parent households through bursaries that cover school fees, learning materials, and university mentorships at institutions such as Maseno University and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology. Targeted interventions, including orphan scholarships in Ugenya and STEM clubs in Alego Usonga, have significantly reduced school dropout rates while addressing cultural barriers to girls’ education—fully aligning with NGAAF’s affirmative action mandate for education equity.
Her performance in skills development, another core Mizani metric, is evident in ward-specific training centers that stimulate self-reliance and local enterprise. These include fish export processing initiatives in Bondo, modern beekeeping in Rarieda, tailoring hubs in Gem producing school uniforms, and climate-resilient rice farming combined with digital tools in Uholo. Supported by sacco seed capital, these initiatives have spawned micro-enterprises and increased household incomes, demonstrating transparent and effective leverage of public funds.
Health support further highlights Dr. Ombaka’s oversight capacity. Through mobile clinics and partnerships, her programs have delivered wheelchairs, hearing aids, and mobility canes to PLWD, alongside free cervical cancer screenings, HPV vaccinations in lake-region communities, and nutritional porridge kits for malnourished children. Collaborations with Siaya Referral Hospital, county health services, and UNICEF have helped reduce preventable mortality, with all interventions subjected to public audits in line with Mizani’s transparency standards.
Coordination—another key Mizani criterion—has been strengthened through deliberate inclusion of PLWD quotas in county projects, such as accessible market ramps from Siaya town to Sanda, provision of braille learning materials in schools, and sign-language training for public staff. These efforts are reinforced by participatory resident forums that shape NGAAF priorities and strategic alliances with Governor James Orengo for matching funds, ODM Members of Parliament in Bondo, Rarieda, and Gem for resource synergy, and development partners such as World Vision. Additional collaborations with saccos for microloans and youth-led drone technology in Uholo rice fields have expanded employment opportunities, improved sanitation, boosted market access, and stimulated local economies.
This people-centered development model—focused on dignity, inclusion, and sustainability rather than short-term handouts—validates Dr. Ombaka’s 69.1% Mizani score as a national blueprint for effective Women Representative leadership. As the 2027 general election approaches, her Mizani-validated performance offers a clear lesson for leaders: prioritizing advocacy, accountability, coordination, and measurable results ensures NGAAF truly uplifts women, youth, PLWD, and families while strengthening public trust and the promise of devolution in Siaya County and beyond.
Leave a Reply