RIGHTS-KENYA: Politics and Gathering Water Don’t Mix, Say Women Activists

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Apr 24 2006 (IPS) - Women in Kenya’s North Eastern Province (NEP) say they will not be able to play a more active role in politics unless concerted efforts are made to provide basic services in the vast and arid region.

“Where is the time for politics if women there have to walk about 100 kilometres, or spend between seven and ten hours each day, to get water?” asked Sophia Abdi Noor, executive director of Womankind Kenya, a development organisation in the NEP.

“Unless such basic matters are addressed, we cannot expect much in terms of women here participating in the political arena,” she told IPS.

Both water and grazing land are scarce in the drought-stricken NEP, which has a population of close to a million according to the last population census – done in 1999.

This has sparked conflict amongst communities that are competing for resources: last July, 90 people were killed in inter-clan clashes in Marsabit. The NEP has remained volatile, with fresh violence erupting in the past few weeks; this resulted in death and displacement as people fled their homes due to insecurity.

Pressure on government to develop the area, and in particular calls for water to be provided to communities, recently prompted authorities to announce plans for constructing boreholes in the area.

The issue of increased women’s participation in politics is starting to become a matter of concern ahead of next year’s general elections. Women want to address the disparities concerning their representation in the political field, and the larger decision-making process.

As a result, they have come up with a manifesto, ‘The Kenya Women Manifesto’, which lays out demands that it is hoped will encourage women’s advancement and participation in leadership in the East African country.

The document, prepared by women’s organisations under the auspices of the League of Kenya Women Voters, was launched in Nairobi last month.

In particular, it calls for affirmative action policies to be implemented, to increase the number of women at all levels of government.

Currently, out of the 222 members of parliament, only 18 are women. And while there are 30 cabinet ministers, only two of these are women. None of the eight heads of provinces are women.

Critics warn that affirmative action may be a tall order in the absence of enabling legislation, however. An Affirmative Action Bill is still pending, despite having been given the nod by parliament in 2000.

At a meeting held last week (Apr. 21) in the capital, Nairobi, leaders of various women’s groups and political parties said the manifesto would be used to convince citizens – particularly women – to vote for female candidates.

“Airwaves have been opened up to many vernacular stations in this country. We want to take advantage of that,” Mumbi Ng’aru, an official of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), told IPS. (The LDP forms part of the ruling National Rainbow Coalition.)

“We can prepare flyers with all the information on why women should be voted for, but how many women can read? We can put this information in newspapers, but how many of them can afford to buy the papers?” she asked.

“With vernacular stations, it is only about hearing the message, and so we will be able to reach more people – even at the grass roots – more effectively.”

There are more than ten radio stations that broadcast in local languages; these are considered a powerful tool for informing the country, which has a relatively high rate of illiteracy. Government statistics indicate that of the country’s 30 million people, eight million are illiterate – 60 percent of them women.

As efforts to have women voted for in large numbers intensify, the issue of culture has been cited as a major challenge to bringing this about. Certain customs and traditions are seen as discriminating against women, portraying them as inferior to men, and therefore creating the impression that only men can be leaders.

However, aspirant women politicians are trying to surmount this obstacle – by enlisting the help of men.

“It is time that women made political friendships with men. It is time for women to have strategic male allies to support them in their campaigns,” Josephine Ojiambo of the official opposition party, the Kenya African National Union, told IPS at the Apr. 21 gathering.

“If men are involved in the campaign to let society know that women too can be leaders, negative attitudes towards women will be reduced.”