A women's university has been opened in Kenya, bringing to two the number of such institutions in East and Central Africa.
Kiriri Women's University of Science and Technology has opened north of Nairobi to improve women's access to science and technology courses. The only other women's university in the region is in Sudan.
Kiriri will offer courses in mathematics and computer science from July and eventually in physics, biology and actuarial sciences.
Women comprise 31 per cent of the intake of state universities but only 21.1 per cent of them take courses in science and technology.
At Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, which offers science and engineering courses, only 19.5 per cent of the students are women.
The government set lower entry requirements for women students this year. Nevertheless, they continue to be underrepresented.
Most of the lecturers at Kiriri will be women, according to university sponsor Paul Ndarua.
"By recruiting a majority of women academic high-achievers," he said, "we will be sending a clear message to girls to work hard. In fact, they will be their role models."
Mr Ndarua said that social, cultural and economic factors continued to exclude girls from fulfilling their educational and training potential in sciences.