Theme: Bold+Brilliant- Without Apology

This event is organized around the official TEDWomen conference that brings together a global community of people interested in exploring how change begins: with innovative thinkers who catalyze ideas toward action. TEDxParklandsWomen brings together speakers and an audience passionate about women and gender from various fields.

Anderson Centre
Nairobi Hospital
Nairobi, Nairobi, 0010
Kenya

Buddha Blaze

Head of Talent, Temple Management East Africa

Buddha Blaze is a creative entrepreneur heavily involved behind the scenes in management of platforms for African creatives to harness their craft. His passion includes shaping the artistic business narrative to get brands to partner with creatives in achieving their goals. He has been heavily involved in projects such as WAPI (British Council) that has given birth to many African creatives from across the continent. He was instrumental in the production of Coke Studio Africa by Coca Cola and managed it for the initial seasons. He has been involved in many productions such King of Bold by Pilsnes, Blaze TV Show by Safaricom and he continues to lead the path in highlighting the immense talent that exists in Kenya specifically music and entertainment.

Cyprine Odada-Mitchell

Urban Planner & Organizer - Critical Mass Nairobi

Cyprine Odada Mitchell is an Urban Planner with a keen focus on non-motorized transport. She is also the Organizer and Coordinator for Critical mass Nairobi, which currently stands as the largest gathering of non-competitive cyclists in Africa. As a mother and an avid cyclist, Cyprine seeks to get more people back on bicycles and change how people view, experience and interact with bicycles so that by the time her little one is old enough, she can safely enjoy the joy of riding bicycles without fear or intimidation.

Dr. Jane Wakahe

Reproductive Wellness Coach

Dr. Jane Wakahe is a specialist obstetrician/gynecologist with a Master’s degree in Public Health whose practice spans over 35 years. During this period, she has handled many varied cases that span cancers of reproductive health organs, contraception, infertility, pregnancy, menopause, STDs and all other matters reproductive health. This is best demonstrated by her history of treating over 15,000 patients and having delivered over 10,000 babies. Outside of her private practice, Dr. Jane Wakahe has also been involved in auditing hospitals to check and advise on their preparedness to handle Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Maternal and Neo-natal mortality. Additionally, she has been a lecturer at the University of Nairobi (UoN) and has facilitated medical camps. Given her wealth of wisdom and her years of experience, Dr. Wakahe now feels compelled to share with others what lies within and has in the past given talks especially to groups of women on matters reproductive health.

Janet Mbugua

Media Personality and Gender Advocate

Janet Mbugua is a Kenyan Media Personality and Gender Equality Advocate with a focus on Menstrual Equality. She is a TV Host with experience as a News Anchor, Reporter and Producer both in her country, Kenya and in South Africa. Janet is the founder of the Inua Dada Foundation, an organization whose mission is to create a supportive and accessible environment for primary school girls in Kenya by conducting research to identify issues that hinder learning and working collaboratively with strategic partners to implement sustainable solutions. She consults for The Hive, a US Based organization seeking to amplify Gender Equality messaging in Kenya and other African countries. She is the Project Lead for #Better4Kenya, their first campaign in Kenya. Janet announced her first book, ‘My First Time’. The book, which uses storytelling to influence change around menstrual equality, will is available in stores and online.

Laura Chite

CEO, CIO East Africa

With over 20 years working experience in the IT industry, Laura is responsible for driving CIO's transformation to strategically position and collaborate with industry players yearning to digitally transform their enterprises. To this effect, she organizes focused top-tier corporate roundtables as well as quarterly summits inclined to sharing insights on new disruptive technologies. As a champion of corporate networking, she has made immense contributions in the sector and has been involved as a moderator, adjudicator and panelist in diverse East Africa speaking sessions. Laura previously worked at Microsoft where she built the corporate brand and oversaw the execution of several product launches - Windows 10, Office 365 and Azure. One of her biggest wins was taking a focused lead in the launch of Microsoft 4Afrika, an initiative that’s positively impacting on people’s lives.

Lorna Muthamia Ochido

Founder, Director, Speech Therapy Totos

She is a wife, mother, and the Founder + Director of the largest speech therapy clinic in East and Central Africa - Speech Therapy Totos. She has in the recent past taken up online content creation for courses parents can conveniently access in order to empower them on how to improve their children's communication outcomes. She is soon to launch the first speech therapy online school in East Africa to cater for the training needs of teachers, therapists as well as parents. She thoroughly enjoys creative writing and writes the blogs www.blog.speechtherapytoto.com and www.speechmama.co.ke

Qabale Duba

Founder, Qabale Duba Foundation

YALI fellow 2016, McKinsey & Company Next Generation Women Leaders award winner 2017 and Global Citizen’s choice award winner 2019, Qabale Duba is the founder of Qabale Duba Foundation, an organization that's empowering pastoralist girls and women through education in Marsabit County, Kenya. She is a nursing graduate currently pursuing a master’s degree in Epidemiology and a wife & mother passionate about education and women empowerment. Qabale attributes who and where she is today to the privilege of getting an education in a community where girl child education is not valued & she gives back to the community through mentorship/career talk programs in schools & colleges, projects such as PAPA (Pads and Panties) a sanitary pads and panties drive and community literacy. Qabale believes in the power of self-belief and a 'go-getter' attitude that have paved her way to unimaginable dreams. She would like to inspire other young girls and women through her stories of success and struggle.

Shikoh Kihika

Founder & Executive Director, Tribeless Youth

Wanjiku (Shikoh) Kihika is the Founder and Executive Director of Tribeless Youth - an initiative established with a view of promoting peaceful coexistence among the youth in Kenya devoid of tribe. Shikoh is passionate about empowering young people and young creatives, so that they know and understand that their true power lies in their voice and creativity. Her everyday mantra is to inspire a new generation of young men and women to rebel against any forms of impunity being thrown their way by the political elite. She believes that sharing her own experiences and highlighting the struggles and plight of other Kenyans, serves as a necessary voice that is representative of those who have been held silent for far too long. She hopes that future generations will identify themselves within her story, learn about their history and grow.

Simon Bransfield-Garth

CEO, Azuri Technologies

Simon Bransfield-Garth is CEO of Azuri Technologies, a business that combines the latest solar innovation with mobile payment technology to bring affordable, clean energy to the 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa that have no access to mains power. Simon has developed Azuri Technologies into a leading pay-as-you-go off-grid solar home solutions provider with a vast network of agents and distributors across sub-Saharan Africa. He is an award-winning entrepreneur with a passion for technology and the role it plays in addressing some of the biggest challenges facing developing economies. Through state-of-the-art innovation, Simon believes African economies can bypass costly traditional infrastructure to directly access the digital world and knowledge-based economy. Simon has spent the last 30 years building rapid growth, technology-based businesses in a range of sectors including, automotive and telecoms sectors.