In a country with as high corruption levels as ours, that statement can - and often should - be construed negatively, but enough money in enough of the right hands would transform Kenya.
Who is an empowered rural woman? She is a woman who can choose how many children to have and when to have them, is assured that her family has access to nutritious meals every day, knows that her children have access to good, quality education and her family to optimal healthcare. She is involved in and aware of decisions - from household to national - that affect her life. She is free from violence and the threat of violence, and can be reasonably assured of a financially secure future for herself and her family.
At least 50 per cent of Kenyans are classified as poor. Nearly 80 per cent of Kenyans live in rural areas and, of that number, more than half are women. Most do not have easy access to clean water, health facilities or education. They are subject to cultural systems that dictate what girls and women can and cannot do, and usually these norms are to their detriment. Female genital cutting, restrictions on access to schooling, early marriage, domestic and sexual violence are all manifestations of systems that keep women down.
Against the odds, women contribute significantly to the rural economy, which is mainly agricultural. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, women do most of the work involved in growing, processing and marketing food. But in Kenya, they own just one per cent of land title. Practices like wife inheritance often dispossess women of the land that they work.
What would it mean for rural women to have access to money? They could have the freedom to join cooperatives for their produce. They would have free access to local, regional and international markets. They would receive pay for their produce; pay that is justly rewards their efforts. They would have access to banking and money transfer systems. They would have enough money for the crucial things in their lives like food, education, healthcare.
It is not only unequal power between women and men, but between the state and citizens that is at the root of rural women's inequalities. Kenya has a progressive constitution with tremendous women's rights gains. We have a progressive land policy that is yet to be implemented. We are also signatories to important women's rights treaties like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Protocol on Women's Rights to the African Charter on Peoples and Human Rights. Devolved government will make it easier for women to participate in decisions that affect them.
The government cannot be excused for failing rural women. It has made many promises that women need to be aware of, and hold it to account. It must find ways to empower rural women economically.