Why Charlene Ruto, Winnie Odinga Shared Stage Despite Their Dads' Political Rivalry

Charlene Ruto and Winnie Odinga for the first time shared a platform to champion for women's cause.

The two who come from powerful political families had never been seen before fighting for a common cause.

The duo was part of the guests gracing a conference organised by Badili Africa in Nairobi to celebrate women a couple of days after the International Women's Day.

Their fathers' political rivalry seems not to have had an impact on them.

They agreed that more ought to be done as regards women's empowerment.

Charlene argued that little had been done as men continue to wield influence in almost all the relevant spheres.

She called for the nurturing women to make them competitive among their male counterparts.

"It has been said that women have been empowered, which is not true. If that was the case, there would be equity and equality in all spheres; political and career space.

"This week as we celebrated the International Women's Day, statistics still show the discrepancy in terms of earning between men and women," said Charlene.

On her part, Winnie advocated for women's education on digital literacy.

She also called for safe spaces for women in the internet given the kind of harassment many had received leading them into depression.

"Anyone can write anything about anybody. And just because it is on the internet it becomes 'fact'. Reputation and lives are ruined, we've seen cases of suicide. We need to create safe spaces for our people to meet and share things safely," said Winnie.

President William Ruto and former prime minister Raila Odinga have not been seeing eye to for over a decade now.

They had previously been political buddies in the ODM party before Ruto quit to focus in his career as a loner.