It was all pomp and circumstance Saturday, as hundreds of Kenyan women from across the United States and Canada descended on Minnesota’s Twin Cities for a gala to conclude a three-day reunion that began Thursday.
The gala was the peak of a convention that began in St. Paul on Thursday to celebrate 10 years since the founding of Kenyan Women in the United States (KWITU), an organization established to empower immigrant women from the East African country as they struggle to settle so far away from home.
Before entering the ballroom at the InterContinental Riverfront Hotel in St. Paul, women dressed elegantly in East African attire lined on a red carpet and took turns as a professional photographer took pictures of them. Others danced to the Swahili music playing in the background. The women then danced and ululated with excitement into the ballroom and settled at banquet tables decorated with bouquets of white roses. After a word of prayer and singing of both the Kenyan and American national anthems, the women were treated to dinner.
“Ten years! Ten years!” KWITU Founder and President Lilly Richards, yelled excitedly as women danced around before the events of the evening commenced. “I know how far we’ve come. We are still standing, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
When Annemarie Machehu first moved to the United States in 2008, there wasn’t an organization that brought Kenyan women together at the scale of KWITU. Machehu learned about the organization through a Facebook group page while living in Missouri. She joined the group during its first year, in 2015.
“You want that connection,” said Machehu, who now lives in Phoenix, Ariz., where she has a financial planning business. “What motivated me most was the women empowerment. Everyone from different backgrounds, you come together and make something great.”
Suzanne Wanja, a Kansas City based nurse practitioner who has also been a member since KWITU’s founding, said that the friendships she has formed with other women have been an integral part of her life.
“One of the things about KWITU is I’ve been seeing the same faces every year,” Wanja said. “You create a bond and relationships.”
The friendships Wanja has found through KWITU go beyond just meeting once a year for conventions. Earlier in the summer, she was one of 30 women who took a group trip to Bali, Indonesia. And when it came time to launch her organic cosmetic business, she said she first consulted Richards, KWITU’s founder and president.
Her company, Tivon makes organic skincare products and is also part of her medical esthetics business where she performs various beauty procedures. The practice even offers medically assisted weight loss medications called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), commonly known as Ozempic. The pharmacological agents work to promote weight loss by increasing glucose uptake and delaying gastric emptying which makes individuals feel full for longer periods of time.
“I get inspired a lot,” Wanja said.
Wanja is now leading a bid to host the next KWITU reunion in Kansas City, Mo. The organization has been holding reunions around the country since its founding. Members who would like to host a reunion make a bid and the honor is given to city with the most votes.
Author
About Cynthia Simba, Mshale Reporter
Cynthia is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism. She has interned at Mshale and Voice of America and previously worked at the Minnesota Daily. She recently returned from Seoul, South Korea where she was an English educator.
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 concluded their annual reunion and 10-year celebration at the InterContinental Riverfront Hotel in St. Paul on Saturday.){kind=link}