A Kenyan Based in Minnesota Running for Garissa County Women's Representative Seat

Shukran Hussein Gure

Shukran Hussein Gure, based in Minnesota, USA is running for the Women's Representative seat for Garissa County in the upcoming Kenya general elections. With over a decade of career and business experience in the complex corporate healthcare services sector in the United States and a vast experience working with local leaders and senior executives across the state of Minnesota, Shukran Gure tells Mwakilishi.com she has a distinguished career profile that started with her early education in Kenya and university education in the United States.

These accomplishments culminated in a successful career and a thriving business in the healthcare industry in Minnesota, USA. Working with a wide spectrum of organizations, institutions and business executives in the healthcare industry, Shukran helped raise the entrepreneurial profile and respectability of the immigrant African and, in particular, Somali immigrant community. As a community mobilizer, she has made significant contributions to raising women’s voice on issues affecting the Kenyan community in the Diaspora. 

Shukran holds several advanced professional qualifications in the healthcare sector both as a trained care provider and as a business executive. Shukran is a graduate of Saint Catherine’s University where she completed her Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) and a graduate degree in Public Health. She is a Minnesota Board of Nursing certified Registered Nurse.

Shukran studied at Modogashe Primary School then proceeded to Umulsalama Girls Secondary School and finished her O ‘level at Madogo Secondary School. She then proceeded to the United States where she pursued her university education, professional career and established a successful business. As a career healthcare professional, Shukran has also trained extensively and holds professional certificates in Neurology and Neonatal Intensive Care. As a professional Shukran, has worked extensively across Minnesota’s healthcare delivery system. She worked at Fairview Hospital, Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Richfield Nursing Homes where she reached to the highest levels of management before she opted to establish and run her own healthcare business. Shukran is the managing partner in Metro-Area Health Care Company in Minnesota, USA. The successful healthcare care business also owns and operates physical therapy and other health services clinics in major cities in the state of Minnesota.

Shukran says she is a strong community mobilizer and activist on women’s and youth empowerment and that her leadership role has been acknowledged across the Kenyan Diaspora community. Shukran has built a grassroots network of collaboration amongst the Kenyan community in Minnesota, holds several leadership roles in women’s organizations within and beyond the Minnesota Somali community. Shukran strongly believes that community decisions must involve community voices!

With a substantial background in entrepreneurship and business management, social and community leadership, Shukran says she truly understands a balanced and transformative approach to leadership. She is a keen advocate of building bridges of co-operation and promoting community prosperity by fostering a climate of social harmony and understanding. She has been an outstanding community and top level business manager. In these roles she has led strategic changes as well as growth in both public affairs and business. Like many Kenyan women aspiring for leadership roles, she has grown tired of the inertia and poor development records that deny our youth and women access to opportunity and perpetuate poverty.

As a candidate coming in from the Diaspora, Shukran tells Mwakilishi.com her training, business accomplishments and community leadership have prepared her to be a leader for prosperity and positive change. She is committed to eliminating the unending cycle of poverty by empowering the people of Garissa County and closing the developing gap through strong-willed leadership, strategic planning and advocacy towards equity and social justice. Shukran believes she is ready to be a leader for her community, a champion and a voice for women, the youth and for development. She pledges to reflect your voice and your priorities as a Women’s Representative and help build a common vision for growth and prosperity. Garissa County has real problems and real problems need real leaders to solve them!

“I am running for office as the Garissa County Women’s Representative on the platform of transformative leadership. I pledge to provide strong decisive leadership towards closing the overall development disparity between Garissa County and the rest of Kenya. My priorities include the empowerment of women and the youth by increasing their voice and participation n in addressing the development challenges that impact their life chances. It is my goal and to shore up girls’ education, deal with the unemployment crisis, and lead the onslaught in infrastructure development, improvement of health services and the eradication of the poverty that has afflicted our people since independence. Under my leadership, Garissa will explore socio-economic progress through strategic partnerships I will facilitate using my established networks in Minnesota, USA and the wider international community,” says Shukran.