Background
: Sister Pasilisa Namikoye, LSOSF, is a member of Georgetown University’s Women Faith Leaders Fellowship 2024-2025 cohort. A member of the Little Sisters of St. Francis, Sr. Namikoye has extensive knowledge and experience in administration, strategic management, financial resource management, project management, institutional capacity strengthening, and community mobilization. She is the Executive Secretary of the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya, where she also serves as principal administrator.
Biography: Sister Pasilisa Namikoye is a member of the Little Sisters of St. Francis. She currently serves as Executive Secretary of the Association on Sisterhoods of Kenya, the umbrella body of women religious in the country. In her role, she ensures that the work of the Association aligns with its mission, vision, and aims. She liaises with key partners, including the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, and guides the implementation of projects among the Association’s member congregations. Sr. Namikoye is particularly passionate about women’s empowerment and advocacy. She holds a Ph.D. in business administration, a master’s degree in finance and investment, and a bachelor’s degree in commerce.
To begin, can you tell us where you’re from?
My name is Sister Pasilisa Namikoye. I’m a member of the Little Sisters of St. Francis. I come from the western part of Kenya, from a place called Kimilili in Bungoma County. I went through primary and secondary education there.
I’m the fifth born and fourth girl of a family of 11 children. As I was growing up, we were more girls than boys in the family; there was only one boy among the first six children. The community valued male children more than girls because boys could inherit from their fathers. Later on, my mother gave birth to other boys; the last three children were all boys, so the noise subsided a little bit. The community expected my father to have two or three wives but, being a Christian, he only had one.
I grew up in a rural environment. I was comfortable in the context in which I was growing up: there was food on the table, and I was able to go to school. I only realized later, when I went to school and had exposure to different people, that I realized that my family was not well-off. But that did not deter me from going through primary and secondary education and joining religious life.
What was your journey to becoming a sister?
In Form 1 [grade 9], I attended a school that was not Catholic. When I finished Form 1, my father said he wanted me to attend a Catholic school. The wife of my first cousin was the principal of a Catholic high school, so I joined that school in Form 2 [grade 10]. There were sisters teaching catechism and other subjects. At that time, I didn't understand the inside life of being a sister. I didn't know the difference between one congregation and the other. I didn’t have a feeling of vocation yet, either. I was a young, naive girl in high school, participating in parish activities, attending Sunday school, and singing and dancing in church.
When I finished Form 4 [grade 12], a sister visited our parish to meet girls who wanted to become sisters. I went to listen to her. She told me there’s a “Come and See” event at her congregation. I became passionate about the sister I met; the way she talked to us about vocations attracted me. I quickly went and told my father that I had met a sister and wanted to be like her. From that time, I never looked back. I went to the “Come and See” event to see how the sisters live, how they do things, and how they pray.
When I came home, I said I wanted to become a sister in this congregation. My father said that his dream was fulfilled. He was a very serious Catholic; he ensured that we attended Mass, that we went to Sunday school, and that we always had clean clothes to wear on Sundays. He had wanted to be a priest but there had been nobody to guide him; his father had wanted him to get married and have children. So he was very excited and supportive. He supported me in the process and ensured I had what was required.
My mother was a bit skeptical. Knowing my personality, she wondered if I was going to make it. She was also thinking of one of my sisters-in-law, who is an ex-nun. So my mother asked me, “Will you manage this?” I said I would attempt it. If I didn’t make it, I would have to come back.
In 1996, I joined the Little Sisters of St. Francis. During my formation, I started reading about St. Francis and about Mother Mary Kevin Kearney, the foundress of the Little Sisters of St. Francis. They inspired me to continue the work they started. I joined the sisterhood in order to serve the poor.
Tell us about your congregation, the Little Sisters of St. Francis.
The charism of the Little Sisters is to bring newness of life to the poor and marginalized. When we talk about the poor, we think of ourselves as poor. Charity begins at home. We become our sister's keeper in the communities where we live.
Our foundress, Mother Kevin, moved from Ireland to Africa with the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa. Her first mission was in Uganda, and our motherhouse is still there. We have a missionary spirit; we work across East Africa. We are almost 1,000 sisters as a congregation. Working with the poor is our primary charism. We also follow in the footsteps of St. Francis, who is called the father of the poor. We work with the poor, with those on the streets, with orphaned children, with young mothers, with schoolgirls. Our foundress always used to say, “Read the signs of the time.” What is changing? What do you need to address in order to remain relevant?
You have a background in finance and business. Can you share about your academic and professional experience in this field?
I finished my formation after four years, and in December 1999, I professed my first vows as a young sister. Then I was sent to my first mission, teaching catechism to high school girls. I was still young myself, so it was like me and the girls were speaking the same language. It was an opportunity for me to use the knowledge I had gained during formation about discernment, prayer, community life, Church history, and the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. After working with the girls for one year, I went to Uganda for another formation program called the scholasticate, which emphasized living gospel values and the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. After that, I was told I needed to study.
When I joined the sisterhood, I didn’t know that I could train in a particular field to become a teacher or a nurse. During formation, I was asked what I wanted to be. I said I wanted to be a teacher. My second choice was to be an accountant. I was told there was a scholarship for studying accountancy. I attended St. Augustine University in Tanzania for a Higher Diploma in Accountancy. After that, I was appointed to work in Nairobi as an accountant at a school. Working with different people taught me how to interact as a woman religious. I was still a young sister and was growing in the process.
In 2007, I took my final vows to be a perpetually professed sister. Having done that, I had the opportunity to study again; I did my master’s degree in finance and investment. My masters’ research looked at the relationship between women and finance. My congregation’s charism shaped my passion for working with women. I had a passion for accountancy and finance, but I still want to worked with women.
In rural Kenya, women don’t own land or property. They don’t have an inheritance because they are expected to marry into another family. Men are the ones who own land; whatever is harvested belongs to the men because they are the head of the family. So my master’s research focused on rural women’s access to microcredit financing. I worked with the microfinance sector to help increase access for women to improve their livelihood and well-being.
I also did a paper with a colleague on chamas. A chama is a group where between 20 and 30 women come together and pool their savings to use as security on loans. Accessing finance at the bank requires collateral, but since women don’t have collateral, they need to look for another kind of security. The banks don’t finance individuals, but they do finance chamas, so as an individual, you benefit through the group. Quite a number of women are entrepreneurs, doing small things like selling vegetables. To expand their business, they join a chama. The bank tailors its products to fit the needs of the women to gain access to microfinancing. We wrote up something on the chamas, and I related it to my research in microcredit financing. From that research, we realized that the chamas were the only way for women to grow and own something for themselves.
A lot has improved since the time I did my research. Many women have gotten involved in chamas. Technology has helped women gain access to financing from other sources. There are websites where you can invest and receive a small amount of money, as little as fifty dollars, that can help you start up.
After graduating with my master’s degree, I worked as a project manager for our congregation in the West of the Rift Valley Region for four to five years. While there, I was exposed to like-minded people who were working with women. Then, in 2017, I enrolled in a Ph.D. program in business administration. I wanted to expand my knowledge and skills to help with community empowerment. At the time, I was also teaching part-time at the university in development finance and international finance.
My Ph.D. research looked at international capital outflows and security market volatility. I examined the relationship between the amount of money going out of the country and what we have within the country. I realized there's a significant relationship between international cash flows going out, including debt repayments, and security market volatility. I wanted to know how Kenya can improve its business environment so that it can address social problems. This includes problems facing women, because they are the most vulnerable and marginalized.
You are the executive secretary of the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK). Can you tell me more about your experience in this position, including some of the highlights of your work?
Around the time I did my Ph.D., my superior requested that I apply for work in in the AOSK. I went through the process of recruitment, and with my qualifications and experience, they thought I was the right person for the position.
I have been working for them for seven years now. The experience has been a school for me. I have learned so much interacting with different kinds of congregations, learning about their different charisms and about the way they do things. It has also given me exposure to different partners who support the association.
Our focus as women religious is on the vulnerable and marginalized, including youth and women. We have quite a number of programs at AOSK that are implemented by our member congregations. There is the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Commission, programs in human rights, the Sisters Led Youth Empowerment Initiative, early child development, Catholic Care for Children, as well as an initiative for sisters. We also focus on counseling, catechism, theology, and taking care of the retired sisters.
AOSK runs programs on women’s empowerment. These programs stem from a project we did with Trócaire, which focused on women’s empowerment in an informal settlement in the neighborhood of Kibera in Nairobi. The women in the informal settlement are the heads of their households; they are single mothers or have irresponsible husbands. There is a lack of good health, lack of clean water, lack of proper housing.
For the project, we put the women into chama groups and gave them a small amount of money. I said there should be a revolving fund for them so the women can borrow some money to expand their businesses. This helped quite a few women become economically independent. Of course, there were some challenges, because some women have more needs than others. In terms of group dynamics, we were working with women who were single, those who had husbands but were poor, those who had just migrated from a rural area to the city. I accompanied the women in their journey, ensuring that challenges that arose were addressed quickly. Once they were supported and had access to resources, the women could work wonders and make contributions towards economic development. That is something that I've learned over the course of working with these women.
Misereor also supported a program of ours on addressing gender-based violence, and we partnered with another organization that helped us in our advocacy. As women religious, we have a prophetic role to be a voice for the voiceless. We were able to go to the Ministry of Gender to discuss women’s issues, including violence against women and femicides. We were able to cite some of these cases, and we called for concrete action from the Ministry of Gender. After some time, the Ministry wrote to me asking how they could work with us to mitigate gender-based violence. We gave them a proposal to look at the underlying causes of gender-based violence, including poverty and unemployment. We've been able to work with the government, though we are still very much in the process. The minister has changed; we have to build the relationship again in order to keep the government accountable.
We've done a lot of work on the ground as women religious to empower girls and women. Many girls have gone to school now, not like in the past. They know their right as women, even if they don’t own property. They can work and own a bank account. There are many other organizations empowering girls and opening up opportunities for women. But when it comes to ownership of property, the barriers are still there. Our 2010 constitution states that women are allowed to inherit. But it’s not really happening because we are in a male-dominated society. Women still don’t own land or property, unless it’s the property of their husband.
Could you tell us about the history and mission of AOSK?
The AOSK was founded in 1962 following the call from the Holy See for women religious to come together and work in solidarity in mission. Quite a lot was happening at that time in Kenya. It was immediately after independence. The sisters were focused on evangelization.
A lot has happened since 1962. There has been growth in AOSK. When I started working there in 2018, we were developing a strategic plan for 2018 to 2022. Our focus was to ensure that AOSK remains dynamic in its mission, working in collaboration with our 177 congregations to promote holistic formation for women religious living gospel values.
We collaborate with the Religious Superiors’ Conference of Kenya, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, and other like-minded organizations who support and fund our mission. We are guided by our core values of prayer, diversity, inclusivity, mutual respect, and, above all, integrity. We need to uphold the highest level of ethical values in all of our operations: being accountable to ourselves, our congregations, our beneficiaries, and our funding partners.
We are now implementing our strategic plan for 2022 to 2027. We are looking at membership growth and member satisfaction. How do we design programs that address the needs of our members in the communities they are serving? We are also looking at holistic education and capacity building. How do we empower our sisters so that they are able to guide the mission? Times are changing very fast: new technology, a changing environment. How do we equip ourselves as women religious in order to remain relevant?
Lastly, we are looking at our own institutional sustainability and development. We need to read the signs of the times. Times are changing; there's donor fatigue. How do we remain focused on our mission and continue to support it, with or without donors? We are looking at how we can come together as an institution that is going to be there for a lifetime, for generations to come, so that the mission of Christ in Kenya continues and the Church in Kenya remains firm. We want to move together in the spirit of synodality as the people of God.
You’ve touched upon the role of advocacy in your work. What are some of the most important skills you’ve gained throughout your career?
There are quite a number of skills I’ve gained over the course of my work experience. I’ve acquired leadership skills; working with other people has helped me to grow. Joining the Women Faith Leaders Fellowship also opened me up in terms of leadership. I was able to see that a leader needs to be resilient and courageous in their beliefs and actions.
Another skill I have learned is advocacy. At AOSK, we advocate against gender-based violence, speaking on behalf of women who cannot speak for themselves. We also advocate for safeguarding minors and vulnerable adults. I also speak on behalf of women religious. I meet with bishops and partners, including like-minded organizations and academic institutions. I talk about the challenges sisters are facing; for example, low pay from parishes and dioceses. I have advocated for sisters to be paid in accordance with their qualifications. I also advocate for young sisters and encourage their superiors to be accountable, transparent, and aligned with the mission of the church. The congregations are not here to compete with the dioceses but to continue the mission of Jesus Christ with our different charisms. If all of us speak the same language, we will make a difference within our contexts.
The other skill I acquired over time is public speaking. I used to not be able to stand before people and talk. But with time, I’ve developed the skill of public speaking, and now I’m able to speak straight to the point without fear of contradiction.
I have also learned how to network. I have to network and collaborate with other people because we cannot achieve much if we work in isolation. We have to work together as women religious and as Christians in spiritual synodality. I've been vocal and passionate about working together with priests and fellow women in the Catholic Women Association. Meeting sisters from other congregations and countries as part of the Women Faith Leaders Fellowship has also helped me to network.
All of this is driven by my charism. As a sister, I am not just doing this because I want to. This is my charism: to work with the poor, marginalized, and abandoned.
Can you speak about your capstone project for the Women Faith Leaders Fellowship?
My capstone project is about helping women in informal settlements become economically independent. I focused on one of the informal settlements at outskirts of Nairobi (Gataka). The project grew out of the Trócaire project that I was working on in the informal settlement in Kibera, which was very successful. Being a WFLF fellow, along with my background in finance and investment, I realized it could be helpful to do a similar project in another location. I lived close to the informal settlement and felt a passion to help these women.
After assessing the local needs, I realized the problems are the same across informal settlements. There were many teen mothers. There were also single women or women living without their husbands. Some of the women were widows forced to live there because when your husband dies, you are not allowed to inherit. COVID-19 had negatively impacted people; they lost their jobs, and women in particular were struggling.
For my capstone, I journeyed with these women. They are businesswomen who are operating on a small scale. I supported them in forming a Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC), which helps them save together and borrow money with interest. As a finance person, I was able to join these women and encourage them to continue saving more. The more you save, the more you can borrow. We also showed the women to open their own individual accounts so they grow the culture of saving as individuals and increase their credit ratings in order to borrow more and expand their businesses.
I've already formed a second SILC group. The first group will be able to support this new group. I hope to grow these two groups and, at some point, bring them together. Once in a while, I’m able to meet them, see where we are, understand the challenges they face, and discuss how to address those challenges. Group dynamics are among the challenges we’ve addressed. The women have accepted one another and supported one other financially. Their synergy has helped their businesses grow. Every Thursday, whether I am present or not, the group meets. One of our sisters is journeying with them now because I cannot be there every week due to the nature of my work.
The capstone has really expanded the horizon of my networking. I've been able to network with another group that is helping small businesses to grow. We also have a group that comes once in a while to help mentor and accompany these women, not just in terms of growing their finances but also in developing their entrepreneurial skills.
I hope to train sisters within AOSK so that we can replicate this project in other parts of the country, not just within informal settlements. My vision is to support one hundred sisters so that they can support one hundred women each. I want to see a ripple effect, replicating the work of women’s empowerment to other parts of the country and advocating for these women so that they can stand on their own and speak out. Once they have assets, they are not going to be easily intimidated by men. Right now, I'm looking to see how I can get the finances to help sisters support women wherever they are. That's my mission: to support the sisters so they can support our fellow women. We know the challenges that single women, widows, and women from broken families face. We know all those challenges, and this will help bring change within our communities.
The fellowship has helped me grow up personally and professionally. We’ll continue supporting the sisters so that they learn more. Part of the challenge has to do with finances. I'm looking forward to getting more funding so that I can empower the sisters, because I cannot do all this work alone. Once the sisters are empowered across the country, we'll have a ripple effect of ensuring that there's change within our communities.
Any final thoughts you’d like to share?
We are in a male-dominated society. As women, we need to speak out more. We need to encourage one another in the work we are doing. Woman religious need to encourage other women, because they need a voice. They need a shoulder to lean on. We need to provide a platform for women to feel they are supported.
My appeal to women is this: speak out. Don’t just keep quiet. If you don't speak out, nobody's going to know what you are thinking. We need to say what we believe in without fear of contradiction. That has given me a lot of courage and resilience in what I am doing.
