Gender equality in energy: James Ngomeli's Africa-wide initiative
Brands and Beyond Limited Sustainable brand and communication expert James Ngomeli addresses conference participants at KICC, Nairobi, on October 17, 2024.
What you need to know:
- James Ngomeli transforms Africa's energy sector by championing female talent through continental awards.
- His advocacy began at home with his wife's imposter syndrome and expanded to tackle systemic barriers facing women in a male-dominated industry.
- His initiatives prioritise impact over credentials.
James Ngomeli radiates an infectious energy when speaking about women’s empowerment. With a burning curiosity in his eyes and stories that command attention, he’s easily the life of any conversation. Beneath that charisma lies a relentless advocate who has spent decades dismantling barriers for women in energy, a male-dominated space.
James wears many hats, including chief energising officer and co-founder at Brands and Beyond; board chair at Epicentre Africa; secretary-general of Africa Smart Meters, an award-winning children books author recognised by the United Nations (UN); and the convener of the Africa Queen of Energy Awards programme, the largest gender stakeholder forum in Africa recognising women in energy.
At 53, he’s the kind of storyteller who can make a boardroom feel like a fireside chat, especially when the topic is women’s empowerment. “Women aren’t just participants in progress but the real architects. But first, someone has to hand them the blueprint,” he says, eyes gleaming.
That blueprint, for James, began not in a corporate office but at home. His wife, brilliant yet hesitant, became his unwitting muse. “I’d tell her, ‘This job is yours—apply!’ But she’d freeze,” he recalls, shaking his head. “I would introduce her to people I knew would help her get to the next level. Coach her even on how to express herself for the opportunity as she was already qualified …. but she would come back and tell me that she didn’t bid for herself. Imposter syndrome? Oh, I saw it everywhere.”
As head of restructuring at Kenya Power in the early 2000s, he watched talented women shrink from promotions in a male-dominated hierarchy. “They’d say, ‘That position doesn’t belong to me.’ I would approach those who qualified for particular positions before announcing, grooming them to apply and alerting them when the advertisement went live. I’d wait then open the application portal in anticipation but nothing. Zero applications from these qualified women and it would break me.”
But James did not stay broken for long. In 2016, he launched the Women in Energy Awards that have now morphed to Oscars of Energy. His aim was to celebrate stories of women in Kenya Power then who were leaving remarkable marks. What started as a Kenyan passion project has now become a continental wildfire almost 10 years later.
“When I introduced the awards, I expected CEOs in heels and suits to be the winners,” he laughs. “But instead, the dominators were young women below 30s with their solar startup narratives and fire in their eyes. As we expanded, the awards spread from only female energy engineers to all women working in the energy sector, even Human Resource officers.”
With a distant look in his eyes, James recalls one standout moment when a South Sudanese engineer, who’d been rejected three times, broke down on stage after her win. “She returned home to a presidential reception. Recognition isn’t confetti but a detonator. Over the years, we have awarded more than 1,000 women in the energy sector in Africa”
The awards, now in Uganda, Rwanda, and francophone Africa with World Bank backing, prioritise impact over titles. “We are not keen on qualifications and PhDs,” James insists. “Show us the village you lit up, the girls you mentored, the stove you redesigned and you have our attention. We are about impact because impact has ripple effects.”
Ripple effect
Ripples, though, often start with resistance. James’s journey hasn’t been a straight line. At Kenya Power, like in many corporates and projects, he battled with the “arrogance of assumption”.
“Most people plan for execution of things without consulting and engaging women. For instance, when we were electrifying the country, men sat in bars in Naivasha, drawing lines (where the electricity lines would pass) on maps. No one asked the women tending farms where those lines would slice their lives how they felt about the project or whether they had suggestions,” he recounts deeply.
He saw similar gaps in donor projects when some organisation imported 3,000 stoves to Samburu, only for them to be used as stools. “You see, the donors’ assumption was that the women in Samburu needed the stoves to cook and completely ignored consulting them on what they really needed. That is not empowerment. You just can’t parachute solutions …. you need to speak to women on the ground to know what works.”
Even recognition has its thorns. Some male leaders bristled when the Women in Energy Awards gained traction. “I’ve had CEOs whine, ‘Where are the trophies for men? We also need recognition,’” James chuckles. “But others leaned in. Kenya Power went from lukewarm at the beginning of the awards, to winning multiple awards now that they are regional.”
The deeper battle, he admits, is internal. “Self-belief is our Everest in my view. On most occasions, women are taught to shrink while men assume space. My job, therefore, is to hand the women a megaphone and watch them bloom.”
He does this with equal parts charm and bluntness. To a protégé paralysed by self-doubt, he once said, “Sometimes you must go mad to have things move the way you want them to. If you’re not mad, you will not get anywhere. She’s now a top executive and still quotes me,” he says with a proud smile.
James’s own “madness” began long before the awards. As chair of Kenya’s Chartered Institute of Marketing, he noticed women excelling externally but lacking internal clout. “They’d win clients but get sidelined in promotions. Their careers felt like quicksand.”
So he launched the 30 per cent Club in 2010, a mentorship engine to propel mid-level women into leadership. “We taught them to fight inside first. You can’t hand over dummy cheques onstage if you’re invisible in the boardroom.”
The club’s legacy is a generation of female CEOs and a lesson James carries: “Visibility breeds possibility.” Today, James’s fire hasn’t dimmed. His latest mission is the Women in Pension Initiative, tackling a sector where only two of 1,300 Kenyan schemes are led by women.
“Retirement planning is seen as a man’s job. We’re rewriting that script.” True to form, he’s launching awards here too. “Yeah, I intend to launch awards here too because I know their stories move mountains. A woman explaining her pension reforms can inspire a thousand others,” she notes with hope.
The real legacy
But when asked about his proudest legacy, he doesn’t mention trophies. He talks about all the women he watches thrive after he has intervened in one way or another. And they are quite a number; a secretary-turned-leader, a mother’s tearful call, or the young engineer from Egerton University whose family watched her shine through her presentation. “When you empower one woman, you ignite a chain reaction.’”
James’s own chain reaction started with frustration disguised as his wife’s hesitation, a corporate blind spot that eventually became a life’s work. “My wife’s journey taught me empathy,” he reflects. “Now, I tell men: Look at your daughters. Would you want them sidelined? That’s how we shift cultures.”
“And I am also proud to say that my wife finally owned her space and voice and ditched the imposter syndrome. Yeah, she is now thriving and I am happy because my empowerment work is also reflected back at home,” shares the dad of four sons.
As for the future, he’s eyeing renewable energy and motherhood storytelling campaigns. Partnering with Java House, he’s creating platforms for women in energy to share their journeys as mothers on International Mother’s Day. “Last year, 80 mothers wrote about balancing power lines and parenting. This year, we’re going bigger.”
Through it all, James’s mantra remains: “Be defined by opportunity, not circumstance.”
To women worldwide, he says: “Wake up asking, ‘What’s ahead?’ Your power isn’t in today’s limits but in tomorrow’s possibilities.” And to sceptics who ask, “Why women?” He grins: “Simple. They’re not half the sky …. they hold it up.”
