Power, politics and public scrutiny: The price of leadership in an era of online abuse

Gladys Boss Shollei, the National Assembly Deputy Speaker and Uasin Gishu Woman Representative, was attending a function in her county when she found herself at the centre of a public storm.

“I had the scandal of my divorce. I remember I was the number one trending topic in Kenya and I was like, my God, I mean, what has it got to do with who I am and what I do?” she shared during the Women Achievers Conference & Awards 2026 held on July 28, 2026. The conference was hosted in Nairobi by the Office of the President’s Women’s Rights Adviser.

In sharing her experience, she was encouraging the women leaders who had gathered at the conference to rise above the violence and harassment they are subjected to online and in their physical environments.

“What's happening now... gender-based violence before was physical, but now it's in social media and so on. They judge women more harshly than they judge men... but it just tells you that it's harder for women. But my advice is just grow a thick skin.”

Read: What it takes to lead: Top women share lessons they learned the hard way

She recalled that her sister showed her the breaking news while she was at the function, but she asked her to tell her how bad it was after she had finished the event.

“But I remember I was encouraged by a lady who came on stage and decided she was addressing us. So she came on stage, then I saw her crawling to the stage and I said, but I thought I bought this lady a wheelchair. But you see, she came on stage and she talked about how I changed her life,” she said.

“And then she had the wheelchair brought dramatically to the stage and then she got on it. So after that I told myself, who cares what's on social media? And that's when I told people I'll never talk about it again because if it were men they wouldn't say anything about it.”