Candidates are jostling for the Malian presidential election on 29th July. About twenty applicants have expressed their wish to embark on the race.

On this Sunday, a name has just been added to the list and for the first time it is a woman: Kante Diébou Ndiaye, businesswoman and entrepreneur.

Sitting in the living room of her house, located in the popular district of Bamako, Ms. Kante Diébou Ndiaye receives the world, support clubs, curious people, but also her campaign team.

The opportunity to explain why she is a candidate for the Malian presidential next July: “I am a candidate because I am revolted. Because I see that the men who are there as candidates are making stories. They think only of themselves. They do not think about the country.”

The first Malian woman to declared her intention is 55 years old. She worked for a while in the Central African Republic, when Francois Bozize was in power. But it is also to defend the rights of Malian women that she throws herself into the race: “Malian women are isolated because, for them, they do not have the right to present themselves. I trust too, because I know my country, Mali and I know the reality of Mali. I know I will go and I will be president.”

A rather successful businesswoman, Ms. Kante Diébou Ndiaye now claims to have 65 support clubs and associations to help her take power. “I have my sponsorships, I have my deposit to pay,” she concludes as a way to say she is ready.