From among more than 500 who applied to join the inaugural phase of the Bettina Fund twelve women have been selected for the Bettina Fund programme to find future leaders and entrepreneurs in Kenyan media. The programme, which runs for three months, seeks to foster the next generation of women leaders in a country where despite 61 per cent of journalism graduates being female, only eight per cent are represented in Kenyan media houses.

The programme has been set up by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a media training and development organization, in memory of its Director of Development Bettina Peters who died in 2020. Bettina was a tireless advocate for equality in the media, and hence they have teamed up with Baraza Media Lab, which promotes a strong and diverse media ecosystem from its collaborative space in Nairobi.

The aim is to empower them to take on senior roles in media and build a sustainable network of women journalists and media professionals. This will be done through training and mentoring in different areas of media to acquire key skills in areas such as business, management and leadership. The women recruited represent the diversity of Kenyans with finalists hailing from Nakuru, Kisumu and even Kakuma in Turkana County.