How Ndorobo Ng'ania built a mentorship network reaching Mt Elgon to Kajiado

By  Moraa Obiria

Senior Gender Journalist

What you need to know:

• The network brings together 915 professional women who call one another “girls” despite their senior positions.
• Founded by Ndorobo Ng’ania and Justice Caroline Kendagor, Iriip Gaa connects professional women with girls.

A judge walks into the room. So does a cabinet secretary. A principal secretary, a deputy governor of the Central Bank and a chief executive may be there too.

But once they enter the world of Iriip Gaa Group of Professional Ladies, their titles stay at the door. They are simply “girls”. “We call them girls, we call each other girls,” says Ndorobo Ng’ania, the founder of the group.

There are now 915 of them in the group’s WhatsApp community, the professional women from across the Rift Valley who, despite their different positions, call one another “girls”.

Celebrating wins

The idea was born in 2018, after the women came together to celebrate Flowrence Jematiah following her appointment as a Member of the East African Legislative Assembly. She is the current Baringo Woman Representative, having successfully vied in 2022.

“Her achievement prompted a bigger question: ‘If a woman from Baringo could make it to the East African level, what could other girls from the villages achieve if they had someone to support and encourage them?’” she recalls.

So, they began thinking about the girls back home who might have the same potential but whose opportunities were limited by early pregnancies and a culture where girls were expected “to be seen, but not to be heard”.

“I was like, I mean, we can still pull other girls right from home and give them a platform and show them that the world can actually embrace them and that can conquer,” she says.

The group was initially larger, but many dropped out as they realised that building the initiative required money, time, and commitment. Eventually, only Ndorobo and Lady Justice Caroline Jepyegen Kendagor remained.

In 2024, Justice Kendagor made history when she was appointed a judge of the High Court of Kenya, becoming the first High Court judge from her village in Sangurur, Elgeyo Marakwet County, and the first from the Marakwet community, a marginalised subgroup among the Kalenjin.

The two then sat down and came up with Iriip Gaa Group of Professional Ladies. Ndorobo explains that Iriip Gaa is a Kalenjin name. And that Iriip means “take care”, while gaa means “home”. The name cuts across the Kalenjin dialects, which Ndorobo says brings together communities from Mt Elgon, Nandi, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet and the South Rift, including the Kipsigis.

The group is currently registered as a community-based organisation and is considering becoming a foundation. It is self-funded. Members contribute when there is a function or activity that requires money. As the group grew, however, it attracted interest from people and organisations that wanted to support its work, prompting discussions about restructuring it as a foundation.

The ‘big girls’

The group’s growth was also shaped by women who had risen to senior positions. After they celebrated Jematiah, several appointments followed. Farida Karoney was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Lands and Physical Planning, while Esther Koimett was appointed Principal Secretary for the State Department of Broadcasting and Telecommunication. The current Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Dr Susan Koech, was also appointed Principal Secretary for the State Department of East African Community and Regional Development.

“Iriip Gaa invited them to celebrate their achievements,” Ndorobo says. “They became the big girls and formed the executive wing, which continues to advise the group.”

Ndorobo says the relationship between the “big girls” and the rest of the women is itself a form of mentorship. She says the senior women have deliberately broken down the barriers created by professional titles. “When they come to the girls, they intermingle,” she says.

The women also support Iriip Gaa from behind the scenes. They may not attend every activity, but one of the executive members will often be present when the group goes to the ground, she says. “They've taught us that you can facilitate and just be behind the scenes but make things happen,” Ndorobo says.

From boardrooms to villages

The group has travelled to villages and brought mothers and daughters together for “girls and mother talk” sessions. They work with leaders in different regions to reach communities. It has visited Mt Elgon, Nandi, Trans Nzoia, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kajiado, Narok, Bomet, Kericho and Uasin Gishu.

In Uasin Gishu, for example, the group can tackle an entire constituency in one day, she says. “The women may travel in a group of about 60, divide themselves and meet mothers and girls in different centres before coming together in the evening to compare what they have heard,” she says.

She says local leaders have helped mobilise communities, while county governments have provided vehicles. For instance, in Marakwet East constituency, Ndorobo says, the group received support from area Member of Parliament, David Bowen and then-Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Alex Tolgos.

The conversations with mothers have exposed the struggles women face in their homes, including pressure from men to have their daughters married, alcoholism and gender-based violence. She says seeing professional women return to their villages gives mothers a different picture of what education can make possible.

The sessions, she says, have also exposed challenges facing girls that may appear small from the cities but can have major consequences in the villages. One such issue is access to sanitary towels.

During forums in Nandi and Elgeyo Marakwet, Ndorobo says girls spoke about using leaves and old clothes during their menstrual periods because their families could not afford sanitary towels. She says that in some cases, a girl may see a boda boda rider as someone who can provide the Sh50 needed to buy sanitary towels.

From boardrooms to grassroots

For her, the lesson was that supporting girls cannot be reduced to education alone. “There are small things that really contribute to the growth of this girl back in the village,” she says.

To address the challenges facing women and girls, she proposes that every county government establish and operate a safe home for women. “Mothers in villages should know where they can go when they face violence or when they need help protecting their daughters from practices such as early marriage or FGM,” she says.

She also wants greater sensitisation so rural women know that there are laws that protect them and that they can report cases. “It is high time that we move from boardrooms and go to where the rubber meets the road,” she says.

‘The fact that a girl can give up’

The motivation behind the work, Ndorobo says, is knowing that there are many professional women willing to help girls but who may not have a way of reaching them. “The fact that a girl can give up, yet we are here,” she says.

She believes that if a professional woman in Nairobi can reach a girl in West Pokot, the geographical distance should not be an obstacle. “I’m not a Pokot, but the fact that I am able to, and there's a way I can reach, that is our driving force,” she says.

But there are limits. The group cannot reach everyone, and its members also have jobs and other responsibilities. “You will want to help the whole society, but you can't,” she says.

For now, they help those they can reach. Among the outcomes she is proud of are women who have gained the confidence to pursue leadership. Through their membership, some women have actively participated in politics and gone on to be nominated to county assemblies, including in Elgeyo Marakwet and Uasin Gishu counties. Another member has declared interest in vying for a senatorial seat in Uasin Gishu.

Beyond politics, others have been inspired and motivated by the professional women in the network to take up leadership roles in their fields. “Iriip Gaa revived my leadership dream,” says Sally Rono, a beneficiary.

“I was serving in the Association of Women Accountants of Kenya as a board member, but after Iriip Gaa’s mentorship, I was inspired to serve at a higher level as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors. While serving in that position, together with my team, we organised one of the biggest conferences, the 11th Ladies Leadership and Accountability Conference 2026.”

She adds: “I have learned from the wisdom of women who have broken the glass ceiling. Through Iriip Gaa, I now have a mentorship programme and have founded Legetyo Professionals.”

Recognition she did not expect

Ndorobo’s work was recently recognised through an award for Outstanding Leadership in Mentorship and Women Empowerment.

She says the recognition came as a surprise. She had received a letter from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Women’s Rights inviting her to a Women Achievers Conference & Awards 2026 held on 28 July, 2026. She assumed she had been invited because she was a woman and because of Iriip Gaa’s work.

Then, on the final day, her name was called. “I actually shed tears. I really cried,” she says.

She says President’s Women’s Rights Adviser Harriet Chiggai told her: “We see what you do, and we follow what you do.”

The words struck her deeply, she says. “She may not know, but she ignited more fire in me that while you do what you do, you could be doing it out of passion; you could be doing it out of maybe the resources that you have, but somebody somewhere sees, and the impact can be felt,” Ndorobo says.