Kenyan Woman Issue 26

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Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Clan politics at play Women strategise as representative seat promises to be a bruising battle

…By Hussein Dido

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s the scramble for political positions take shape in Isiolo, women are bracing themselves for what promises to be a hot contest for the women representative seat created under the new Constitution.

The seat has attracted several aspirants who include Rahma Dida, Tiyyah Galgalo, Fatuma Dullo, Lucy Mworia and Mumina Konso among others.

The region has never had a single woman in an elective position since independence and those who are there have only been nominated into civic wards.

However, the cast is different this time as the new constitution has not only created elective positions for women but also set out the gender rule which provides that not more than two thirds of elective seats shall go to either gender.

Elders Elders in this region play a major role in the process and all candidates seeking elective positions are usually endorsed during clan meetings.

Women have in the past been excluded in meetings held by elders to deliberate on clan issues. They have, this time around, been allowed in clan meetings in order to get endorsement from the elders as communities re-organise to make alignments with other clans ahead of the general election.

Out of the five candidates contesting for the women representative seat, three of them have sought clan endorsement at meetings held at Kinna that brought together elders, youths and women seeking elective positions.

Dida, Galgalo and Dullo who hail from pastoralist communities have attended clan meetings where they have enumerated their vision and agenda for the County a Continued on page 7

EDITORIAL

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Signs of hope as land bills are assented to

he land question has always been a sensitive issue in the country’s history long before the colonialists arrived took over the best prime agricultural land in the country.

Kenyans have fought each other for it at the individual, family and community level leaving a trail of blood, destruction and hostility.

Indeed, it has always been a major topic at all forums since independence 49 years ago and featured prominently at the Lancaster Constitutional Conference, in the Kenya We Want in the 1980s, in the Bomas Conference in 2005, and was finally captured in the new Constitution in 2010.

The thorny issue has been politicised over the years and led to political

land clashes in 1992, 1997 and the 2007 post elections violence which left over 1,300 men, women and children killed and over 600,000 others displaced in Rift Valley Province and other parts of the country.

History But that dark phase of our country’s history is about to change forever, thanks to the assenting of three crucial land laws by President Kibaki last month, that have captured the women’s gains in the new Constitution aptly.

Indeed, Kenyans can now heave a sigh of relief remembering the words of the founder of the nation, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, in 1952: “God said this is our land, land in which we flourish as a people. We want our cattle to get

fat on our land so that our children grow up in prosperity; and we do not want the fat removed to feed others.”

The three are the long awaited National Land Commission Act 2012; the Land Act 2012; and the Land Registration Act, 2012, which activists like Odenda Lumumba, the CEO of the Kenya Land Alliance, among others, have been lobbying for decades have been assented to by President Kibaki.

The National Land Commission Act establishes the National Land Commission and as well as creates rules for the management and administration of land in accordance with the principles of land policy as outlined in the Constitution and in the national land policy.

The Act further provides for a link-

age between the Commission, county governments and other institutions dealing with land and land related resources. On the other hand, the National Land Commission shall manage public land on behalf of the national and county governments.

Land With regard to the Land Act, the law provides for the mechanism to revise, consolidate and rationalise land laws as well as to provide for the sustainable administration and management of land and land based resources.

On its part, the Land Registration Act establishes mechanisms to revise, consolidate and rationalise the registration of titles to land, to give effect to the principles and objects of devolved gov-

ernment in land registration and other related purposes.

Now that the new laws are in place, Kenyans will look up to the implementing actors and agencies to translate their dreams into reality.

During the ongoing AWC Features Service countrywide peace forums in Garissa, Kibera, Eldoret and Nakuru, women from all walks of life have singled out the unresolved land question as one of the major causes of conflict in their respective families pitting brothers against sisters and/or in-laws; in their homes and in their community.

These women now have a reason to smile, as they look forward to Parliament taking the next step towards legislation of the three laws and ensure that women fully reap the benefits.

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Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Numbers not the answer to women’s agenda

…By Henry Kahara

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s more women prepare to ascend to positions of leadership and decision making as guaranteed in the Constitution, questions abound as to whether the seats will attract individuals who are able to articulate women’s issues in a way that helps in the alleviation of poverty to spur development in different parts of the country.

According to Joy Masheti, a programme’s officer with the Caucus for Women Leadership, numbers alone may not help to bring about the desired change.

Masheti says zeal is the key, it must be women who are committed to aspirations of fellow women at all levels and are determined to see change.

Election “Some women will be elected in Parliament but still stand with their respective parties even when important women’s issues are being discussed,” Masheti observes.

She cites an example of how women in the tenth Parliament came together during the Constitution review process in Naivasha and endorsed affirmative action which is now entrenched in the constitution.

“That was our first time to see Martha Karua who is Narc Kenya leader take a unified stand with the likes of Rachel Shebesh and Millie Odhiambo from ODM,” explains Masheti.

She notes that unless we have gender sensitive women, then we are likely to miss out on this grand opportunity to mainstream gender in all governance processes.

“When women are included in decision making process they will help in making a gender sensitive budget which is likely to spur development and address the needs of all without discrimination,” Masheti observes.

“If you look at our parliament which is male dominated, many of the times they make decisions that appear to favour men, but if we can have more women representatives, the needs of both gender are to be addressed and thus contribute to meaningful development.”

According to Masheti, if Kenyans want to reap the fruits of this constitution they have to be ready to implement it to the letter.

Gender “This is the only way to go, to involve both genders and to elect people who are result driven not just for the sake of getting the numbers but people who are driven by passion,” she advices.

Masheti says that the Constitution enables this to be realised in the County level where it states that not more than two third of one gender will be allowed to seat in the County Assembly.

According to the Constitution, (Article 177(b)) not more than two thirds of the membership of the assembly shall be of the same gender.

According to Beyond Numbers a book that narrates about the impact of women in leadership in East Africa, “one way to improve women’s status is to train those in various cadres who will serve in the government and non-government organisations to act as catalysts of change and will facilitate the integration of gender in decision making and policy formation.”

Executive Director for Global Programs at Women for Women Karen Sherman says: “When you invest in women, they typically invest 90 per cent back into the health, nutrition and education of their families, as opposed to 30-40 per cent for men.”

Empowerment and inclusion captured in ground breaking index …By Rosemary Okello

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t 56, Jane who lives in the Central part of Uganda has not known any other way of life apart from that which she has been doing diligently since she was seven years old.

Her life has been centred around waking up every morning to go to till the family farm.

Before she was married, Jane diligently accompanied her mother to the farm. Today, as a mother of four, her life has been centred on their small farm which acts like a source of income and food.

“This is the only way I can beat poverty, using my sweat,” she observes.

Even though Jane is not aware of how to empower herself, last month a group of researchers undertook a ground breaking study whose aim was to measure women’s empowerment in developing countries.

Empowerment The pilot study on the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) is the first measure to directly capture women’s empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector and it revealed that women are considered to be empowered if they have adequate achievements in four of the five areas namely power over productive resources such as land and livestock, decisions over income, leadership in the community and time use.

Carried out in three countries with diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts — Bangladesh, Guatemala, and Uganda — the Index was developed to track the change in women’s empowerment and capture it through the inclusion to all levels of leadership within the agricultural sector.

Grwoth The index focuses on women because they play a critical role in agricultural growth in developing countries yet face persistent obstacles and economic constraints, limiting further inclusion in the sector.

A statement by the researchers reveals that women play a critical role in agricultural growth in developing countries. Yet they face per-

sistent obstacles and economic constraints, limiting further inclusion in the sector According to Agnes Quisumbing Senior Research Fellow on Poverty, Health and Nutrition who was one of the researchers, despite numerous cultural and traditional barriers which women face, the study was able to reveal that areas where women lack empowerment is with respect to lack of leadership at the community, the time burden and lack of control over resources.

She explains that in Uganda men report relatively less disempowerment in decision-making over income, less time poverty, and relatively greater achievements in community leadership than women.

“The fact that men report less time poverty probably arises because women in Uganda (as in much of Sub-Saharan Africa) play a very important role in food production, over and above their roles as caregivers and guardians of their families’ food and nutrition security,” explains Quisumbing.

Since the question of leadership is critical in Africa and because the political leadership and food production are linked and this has always had a negative impact on food security, Quisumbing points out that if African leaders really want to bring about change, the areas to begin with are those where women are disempowered.

A woman tilling her land. This is how many women earn their income and also keep away poverty at bay.

Leardership “Lack of leadership in the community, time burden, and lack of control over resources are some of the areas to look into. This means giving women more opportunities to participate in economic, social and political groups in the community and giving them more voice and the ability to express their needs,” notes Quisumbing.

She explains: “It means giving women access to ways to reduce drudgery through more appropriate tools for food processing, better infrastructure for water, and more fuel efficient stoves. It also means promoting reform in property rights to important productive

resources such as land and making women more aware of those rights.”

Although there have been reforms in property rights in Uganda such as in the land law, women still need to be made aware of those rights, and need to be able to claim those rights before the law.

So interventions that provide legal aid to communities, for example, in support of women’s land rights through paralegal activities are a way to strengthen women’s land rights and also give them a voice within the community.

According to Dr Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI: “The Women’s

Empowerment in Agriculture Index marks a major advance in our ability to measure empowerment. It brings into stark relief the ways in which women are empowered, and the areas in which they are disempowered.”

The Index study is a partnership between the US Government’s Feed the Future initiative, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) of Oxford University.

Busia woman tops list of youth seeking senatorship …By Frank Ouma

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he race for the position of a Senator for Busia County in the coming general elections has kept many aspirants away after former Attorney General Amos Wako announced that he would be seeking the position in the next general election.

Many aspirants in the area have been reluctant to come out and challenge Wako for fear of his financial muscle and personality.

However, there are some who do not fear to tread where lions dare and one youthful woman has come forward and declared her interest in the seat.

Susan Mangeni, a Director with Youth Enterprise Fund says she will face Wako for the position during the coming elections. She has promised to upstage Wako who served as Kenya’s attorney general for a long time.

“My desire to seek the Senator’s position is to serve people of Busia who have starved for long due to poor leadership that has led to high level of poverty in the County which stands at 68 per cent,” observed Mangeni.

She said her desire to serve the people of Busia will not be deterred by Wako who is seen to have financial muscle saying that it’s the voters in the County who will decide.

“Our people need servant leadership and I am seeking the seat so that I can serve the Busia people by helping develop the region,” she reiterated.

Resources Mangeni says that the County has a lot of resources that have not been utilized due to the failure by elected legislators to seek views of the electorate.

“I was born and educated in Busia County and, therefore, I understand challenges that

face our people and through their support we will get out of poverty that has affected us for long,” she stressed.

Mangeni said that despite the County being a gateway to the Great Lakes region, the leadership had failed to tap that potential and develop the area to alleviate poverty.

Busia County has a population of about 500,000 people and borders Kakamega and Bungoma Counties while internationally it borders Uganda.

“Our election should not be about money but rather be issue based,” she said adding that voters must make informed choices.

She blamed politicians who rely on their money while seeking leadership adding that such leaders do not have the interest of the electorate at heart and should be rejected out rightly.

According to sources, Wako has already stepped up his campaign towards becoming one of the senators in this country.

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Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Micere Githae Mugo Struggles and resilience of top Pan Africanist

…By Carolyne Oyugi

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obert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president is known to many people as a tough President, and others even refer to him as a dictator. However, there are those who have kind words for him and one of them is Prof Micere Mugo. “He is a comrade; he was a friend when my own people did not want me,” she says.

Micere always stood for what she thought was right, she never hesitated to question the authority and demand for the people’s rights.

Her inquisitiveness brushed the regime of President Daniel Moi the wrong way. This led to the beginning of her many problems and journey from one country to another.

“Things became very bad for me that I was denied landing rights in Zambia as a result of the relationship between the Kenyan and Zambian Presidents,” she said during a public lecture and launch of her book: From the Heart of my Mind-The Story of our Journey at the University of Nairobi.

Micere further explains that when she inquired why she could not land in Zambia she was informed that she had expressed an act of sincere aggression to be allowed to land in that country.

She was forced to depart Kenya in 1982 after becoming the target of official government harassment, and has worked, written, and taught abroad for many years since.

Friendship Among other countries that welcomed her at the time that Kenya disposed her were Tanzania, and Mozambique. Her friendship with Samora and Graca Machel ensured that her children and family did not suffer or feel left out, she said during an interview with Capital Talk on K24.

Micere is a professor of African studies at Syracuse University in New York State. She sought asylum in several African countries.

“President Robert Mugabe is the only head of state who understood my situation and decided to host me in his country,” said Micere.

She lived in Zimbabwe for a time, where she found a teaching post. Among her friend being Sally Mugabe, the first lady of Zimbabwe who has since died. Micere continued to write, something that she loved.

From the act of kindness that she received from Zimbabwean government, she was able to fight for her rights and has been able to work and live in many countries.

“I am a child of the universe, I have lived in almost all continents,” she said.

Micere is a Kenyan woman who can be described in so many words yet none can give the exact picture of who she is. Others say she is courageous, daring, brave, strong, intelligent while others are still looking for the right word that can summarise her character.

She is, however, quick to admit that she is considered by some people as a nuisance and being too vocal for a woman.

“I was brought up in a family where we were encouraged to speak out our minds regardless of your gender,” she says.

Colonial Micere Githae Mugo was born in 1942, in Baricho, Kenya. At the time, Kenya was still under colonial government.

Her parents who were both teachers valued education and did not discriminate between sons and daughters as was a common trend in most African families at the time.

She owes her success as a woman and as a leader to the education system that she went through.

“I used to be a little bit of an over withdrawn and anti-social child. Boarding school, however, taught me how to speak out,” says Micere who attended Embu Girls Primary school and Kangangaru Girls next to Mt. Kenya.

Her adolescence was disturbed by the Mau Mau uprising, which endured from 1952 to

1956. For this reason she has very bad memories of the period.

“The colonial government would be shooting Africans just next to my school. That is when I realised how brutal the colonialists were. We would be forced to look at the corpses,” she recalls adding that some had been dead for days and had started to decompose.

According to Micere, that was meant to make them keep quiet and not fight for their land because those who went against the colonialists would end up like that.

The next school that she went to had good teachers and they performed well. It was there that she got rid of the stereotype opinions that people had always expressed.

Writing “People kept saying that people from Ndia were thick. My teachers however insisted that you must define yourself not to prove yourself but to name yourself,” says Micere. This experience later on led to her writing of, African Orature and Human Rights, which was published in 1991. The work is a discussion of the storytelling culture of the Ndia people in Kenya’s Kirinyaga District and its culture’s relation to politics.

Learning was not easy. They were thoroughly beaten by the teachers in order to get them to concentrate. “That is what characterised the colonial system of education, they used terror,” she says.

When she joined Alliance Girls’ High School, Micere had a different experience. “We were called big names like the cream of the nation. For the first time I felt the sense of being among Kenyans. We spoke as one, we teased one another but not out of hate,” she recalls.

She later on joined Limuru Girls’ High School becoming the first black students to be allowed to enrol in what had previously been a segregated academy.

She was enrolled together with an Indian girl. They were admitted on condition that if they performed well then they would allow more Africans.

“That was a very big role we were given to play. The other girls depended on us to pave way to better education for them,” she notes.

Here she faced racial discrimination but this did not pull her down. Instead she learnt not to make it personal but instead blame the institution.

Education After Limuru and Alliance, Micere found her way into Makerere University in Uganda. This taught her to be good and confident. It extended her identity as a Kenyan, a woman and a student.

She studied drama and even won an award for best actress at the Uganda Drama Festival.

“It opened up my land; I learnt some things that I have never even used like Greek language.

But all these were used to bring us together,” she says with nostalgia.

Micere is not only a teacher; she is a poet, playwright, and scholar. She taught at the Department of Literature at the University of Nairobi as a senior lecturer and Dean until 1982. She would later teach at the University of Zimbabwe. Today she is a Professor of African American studies at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.

At the time when no one thought of women, Micere wrote Daughter of My People, Sing!

Which is partially about the strength of women, but also concentrates on the consumerism and competition that arose in post-colonial Kenya.

She would later on wrote many literature pieces.

Her English-language verse and drama draws heavily upon indigenous African cultural traditions. As a critic, she has also written extensively on contemporary African literature. She embraces the black race.

Micere’s parents hoped that she would become a doctor, but she harboured literary ambitions. She was already writing poetry in her teens. Her literary ambitions were encouraged by acclaimed writer Chinua Achebe during her time in Makerere University. After graduating

“I am a child of the universe, I have lived in almost all continents.”

— Prof Micere Mugo. with honours in 1966, Mugo became active in leftist politics, and was once arrested and detained in a jail cell with only men.

Micere finished her Master of Arts in 1973, and went on to the University of Toronto to earn a doctoral degree. She teamed with acclaimed Kenyan literary figure Ngugi wa Thiong’o to write The Trial of Dedan Kimathi.

Leaving Toronto, she returned to Kenya, and enjoyed a prominent post at the University of Nairobi as a senior lecturer and the first woman dean at the university.

In 1982, her political opinions once again threatened her safety. Kenya had become a oneparty state after 1978, and the government of Daniel arap Moi was forced to put in place harsh measures against internal dissidence in order to secure its political power.

In 1994, her second volume of poetry, My Mother’s Poem and Other Songs, was published.

Her poem, Mother Afrika Matriots, ties in the political struggle of African women with that of other groups. It links their spirit to uprisings elsewhere on the continent and even Black Panther politics in urban America.

In her other work, The Woman’s Poem, Micere exhorts her reader to imagine a resourceful woman who makes good things happen including victory. She addresses political awareness touches upon the antiapartheid movement in South Africa, for example, or critiques postcolonial political leadership in other African nations.

She also served as chair of the Department of African American Studies and was instrumental in developing the department’s master’s programme in Pan African Studies. She has served in numerous college and university committees, including the university senate, the faculty council and as a faculty member of the Reneé Crown University Honours Programme, among others.

Micere was a founder of the Pan African Community of Central New York and one of the organisation’s first presidents. She is also the founder and former president of the Syracusebased United Women of Africa Organisation.

Her many awards and honours includes the CNY Women of Distinction Award (2008), the Distinguished Africanist Award (2007), the Lifetime Community Service Award from the Syracuse Chapter of Above and Beyond Community Recognition Awards, Inc. (2004), and the Human Rights Award, Onondaga County Human Rights Commission (2004). In 2002, the Kenyan East African Standard Century placed her on its “The Top 100: They Influenced Kenya Most” during the 20th Century list. She is also a recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Award for writing and publication (1992), a Ford Foundation Award for research on African orature and human rights (1987-1990), and the Marcus Garvey Award from the Canadian Branch of U.N.I.A. (1985).

She is also the 2012 Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival Lecturer award.

Additional information from the internet

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Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Gender based violence survivors want government commitment

…By Kenyan Woman Correspondent

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eating of women and men as well as sexual abuse remain issues that need constant visibility and participation of all stakeholders if the war against gender based violence is to be won.

This was evident on the eve of International Women’s Day, when hundreds of people from all walks of life participated in a campaign against gender based violence.

During the event, a gender based violence survivor presented a memorandum to the Assistant Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Alfred Khangati. The memo sought to secure Government commitment on the three pillars of the campaign namely prevention of violence against women and girls, provision of services to survivors of violence and promotion of justice and end impunity.

The walk was flagged off at Uhuru Park by Regional Development Minister Fred Gumo who said gender based violence has no place in today’s society and called on both men and women to respect each other.

Violence Gumo who was representing Prime Minister Raila Odinga, said that both the President and the Prime Minister were committed to ending violence against women and girls in Kenya.

Pomp and colour marked the event with a Nairobi based band Shangilia, belting out tunes as the campaigners walked in the city. There was also entertainment by a Kibera youth group.

Speaking at the event, Grace Wangechi, Ex-

ecutive Director of Nairobi Women’s Hospital Gender Violence Recovery Centre said that cases of gender based violence have increased.

“We treated about 2,900 victims in 2011 compared to 2,487 in 2010,” observed Wangechi.

She reiterated that more needs to be done to reduce the rise in cases.

“Survivors of sexual violence should report the incident and go to hospital within 72 hours after an attack,” advised Wangechi. She added: “This will ensure that evidence is not interfered with as well as help prevent sexually transmitted diseases.”

According to Njuguna Thuku, who represented the civil society, “nothing can justify violence in the community as it affects both men and women”.

Gender Thuku observed that violence happens due to unequal power relations between men and women. He called on the Government to opera- Regional Development Minister Fred tionalise the Children’s Act as well as the Sexual Gumo flags off a walk on the eve of the Offences Act. International Women’s Day. Below, According to Fidelis Zama Chi, the UNFPA participants jostle for positions as they Representative who represented the UN, the Ke- walk in commemoration of the day. nya Demographic and Health Survey of 20082009, demonstrates that 39 per cent of Kenyan women have experienced violence since they were about by men and women joining hands in full understanding and respect of one aged 15.

Chi noted that statistics by the Kenya Police another,” Chi explained.

At the same time about 75 men, Crime for 2007 pointed out to the vast numbers gender based violence cases with many of them women and youth representing 36 African countries, 14 United Nations still lacking justice and closure.

“Ensuring men and boys, women and girls agencies, businesses, women’s rights are engaged in prevention and response activities activists and civil society organisations remain key to successful eradication of violence. also took part in a three day trek to the Society needs changes which can only be brought top of Mt. Kilimanjaro — Africa’s highest moun-

tain — in a continent-wide campaign to end violence against women and girls.

Changing gender roles slowly reducing Gender Based Violence (GBV)

…By Carolyne Oyugi

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henever a child is born, the parents are usually filled with happiness. The family and friends are excited about the addition of their own .The mother is pampered and treated kindly just to appreciate her successful pregnancy.

There is however a special treatment when a mother gives birth to a male child. You will hear words like ‘a bouncing baby boy’ or ‘dume’. The mother receives a different and better treatment compared to if it were a baby girl.

This scenario characterises most African communities and it is replicated worldwide. According to Prof. Nyokabi Kamau, a gender consultant, the society has always defined the gender of the child from a very tender age by developing a clear cut definition of male and female and expected each gender to fulfill its obligation.

Domestic Both male and female were expected to behave in a certain way; they had their tasks to do.

While addressing a public gender forum organized to understand Gender Based Violence: Deconstructing Masculinity and Femininity, Kamau, stated that this has led to the present crisis of domestic violence and in particular Gender based violence.

“Times are changing, technology has moved at a very high speed and the definition of gender also has to change in order for both genders to co exist in peace,” she said.

Kamau observed that unlike many decades back when the man was expected to be the bread winner of the house there are however many women who are now doing that. Some are single mothers while others do it as a result of a failure

by their husbands to provide.

“The society is playing double standard, how do you encourage girls to go to school then stay at home as a house wife and take care of domestic chore?, she asked.

Kamau noted that not all men gain from patriarchal dividend since it is just some men depending on their financial and societal class.

According to Dr. Mbugua Mugai, a lecturer at Kenyatta University, some men have become violent because they feel that the society has been unfair to them.

“I once talked to a bus conductor and he told me that women are doing better than them. He further told me that it’s unfair for a woman to drive a big and expensive car when he can barely feed himself,” he added.

This situation according to Mugai cannot be avoided since both genders have equal opportunities and you cannot blame a woman for being successful while a man is failing.

Mugai also mentioned that music and mass media is used by some people, especially frequent radio callers to demean women.

“That is a national radio and the programme is in the morning yet the man portrays women as useless, he emphasises on the point that women should be brought under men’s heels.

Mugai explains that this is no longer possible and everyone should treat one another with the required respect.

He warns that if the society does not find the source of the current gender violence then it will miss the real problem.

Men are usually expected to be macho, their tears are not to be seen and they should have more opportunity than women.

But Ms. Beverlline Ongaro, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and the programme officer, Act Transform disagrees with this.

She believes that men have their shares of problems and since they are human they should express their emotions and not be embarrassed about it.

“Men are frowned on if they do not have more opportunities than women. The societal expectations have led to exploitation of the male members of the same society,” she added.

According to Ongaro, men have been forced to pay dearly for the dowry; some men have had to take loans in order to please their in-laws.

“Women have also for along time been expected to serve men and so when a successful woman hires a poor man in the village to do some manual work then the people around are not happy about it,” noted Ongaro.

She however emphasises that there is hope for the men. The constitution, which many people think has only empowered women, also has so many gains for the men.

For example, article 45 has clearly spelt out the matrimonial rights without discriminating any gender.

Article 15 (1) has also given men the right to be Kenyan citizens by marrying a Kenyan woman.

This was not provided for in the old constitution.

Men who have been denied visitations by the mother of their child or children are also protected by Article 53(e).

Children Men who have been battered by their spouses also have access to protection by law and access to healthcare.

Ongaro also added that women empowerment does not mean men’s disempowerment.

Article 45 also assures both genders of a right to reproductive health. She disputed the common belief that this is only for women.

“Men have reproductive issues and a good

example is prostate cancer and the government should make treatment of prostate cancer affordable and accessible to all men.

Participants at the forum also complained about the prevailing conditions at the health facilities.

“Children’s wards are designed in away that it is only comfortable for the women to stay with the children, what if my wife can not make it to the hospital,” said John Owando.

Owando called on the authority to seek effective remedies to change the situation to benefit the people.

The forum also pointed out lack of role models in men as a factor contributing to violence, something they noted is contributing to several cases of violence.

According to Kennedy Otina, the regional programme associate, Men to men Programme at African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET).

FEMNET, when a boy grows up in a family where the father is always absent and when he is there then he is violent, then he tends to think that that is how it should be.

He urged men to change their attitude and appreciate how the environment and the society is changing.

The forum was organized by Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS) in collaboration with the FEMNET. Its aim was to interrogate the root causes of GBV by situating it within the context of culture, masculinity and femininity. It further sought to bring out the fact that GBV is about power dynamics and a problem of the entire society and not that of women or men.

A toolkit on working with men to combat gender based violence titled “The Men to Men Strategy Toolkit” was also launched.

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Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Leadership has nothing to do with marital status, says Muthoni

…By Henry Owino

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s the space for politics has widened with the new constitutional dispensation, so has the number of women who are aspiring for various seats.

Kellen Muthoni is one woman who is not being left out within this political scheme. She is aspiring to contest for Chuka Ward in Tharakanithi County, Eastern Province in the forthcoming General Elections. The seat is currently held by the Mayor and has attracted both contemporary and old politicians.

This means that it will not be walk over for her.

Education locks out most Women aspirants

…By Bob Ombati

“I will not contest for the Kisii County Women representative seat since I do not have the minimum educational requirements” says Jane Justine Oruru, a widow.

Oruru, who is the only elected female councillor in Kisii Municipal Council ( KMC) out of 17 councillors — 12 elected and five nominated — says that her education background consigns her to defending her seat as a ward representative seat in the forthcoming General Elections.

The councillor, who beat ten candidates, nine men and a woman to capture the Nyabururu Ward civic seat in 2007 observes that the education threshold that one must have post secondary education certificate will automatically disqualify many female aspirants.

Difficult

Challenges Already she is facing huge challenges. Her opponents are riding on her marital status to discredit her. The major challenge she is experiencing at the moment is opposition from men who have started citing her marital status as she is not married. She affirms that marital status should not be used to discriminate against women seeking leadership positions.

“Men want the society to believe that women who are not married are unfit to hold public office and that their candidature brings bad picture in the society,” she says adding that her critics want her to get married first then seek the leadership mantle.

However, she plans to remain in the race despite the insults and criticisms directed at her. Muthoni says hate speech is not an excuse to surrender but an inspiration to “Men want the society to believe that women who are move on.

The aspirant who paraphrases not married are unfit to hold public office and that their the Bible states: “Trials and affliccandidature brings bad picture in the society.” tions qualify us to the next level of — Kellen Muthoni glory in our lives. So please when you come across one do not quit but stand firm...and change the situaShe plans to give priority to the Muthoni. tion... I am in the race until the last To the youth working in the matatu day when the elections results will be road network and sewerage system in industry, the aspirant wants to encourthe first two years in office. announced and winner declared.”

She believes that leadership is all age them to form Savings and Credits Muthoni has big plans for the residents and has already rolled out her about passion, networking, hard work Cooperative Societies (Saccos) where campaign strategy. “For many years, and determination not just education they can save and borrow money, buy the seat has been held by men who have alone citing how some national leaders property such as houses and land to exnot initiated any tangible development. in South Africa excelled in leadership pand their wealth.

She is disappointed that many Roads are still in a deplorable state, despite having little education.

Muthoni hopes create a conducive youth in the area have gone to school security is lacking and the area experiences acute water shortages,” she notes. environment for trade and says that and trained in various fields but majorMuthoni blames this on bad lead- women who operate mainly in the ity are unemployed and have turned ership as development is mainly con- market must be provided with better to be drunkards, engage in illegal accentrated in areas where politicians working conditions such as enough tivities and do not want to get married. space, security lights and proper fence “With my leadership, I pledge to work perceive as their political strongholds. day and night to provide solutions as If she wins the seat, Muthoni will at the main entrance.

She will also encourage women to the trend might get out of hand if not employ an inclusive approach in her leadership style. “My first duty will be form and join welfare groups where addressed in time,” Muthoni notes.

Her mission and vision for the to call all the Ward residents so that we they will get funding to start up joint can jointly identify areas that require businesses and thus eliminate the cul- people of Chuka Ward is, mwamko immediate attention. The residents will ture of dependency and empower them mpya-uongozi bora (new dawn, good also be empowered to set the agenda in to educate their children and fend for leadership). The young aspirant says the incumbent is the Mayor but his detheir families. development,” she explains. velopment track record is wanting.

She says a bottom-up approach She affirms that it is high time the is the best way to work in any given community as the people know their “Currently I am the secretary of old guards retire in politics to allow needs much better than one may as- Mitsum Welfare Group with a mem- young leaders to take charge. She is yet sume. “Most leaders have, however, bership of over 25 women who came to declare the political party which she favoured the top-down method which together for a common goal and today plans to use as her vehicle during the means that development projects have we have gone far. So, I understand how campaigns.

She says voters must choose wisely, been imposed on the people leading best a well organised welfare group can to either stalling or collapsing of some promote one from a mere house-help make decision and elect the next Chuprojects at some point.” to self sustaining income,” observes ka Ward representative.

Savings

She says it will be difficult for the current crop of civic leaders to contest for positions outlined in the Constitution as majority lack the required education qualifications.

Oruru, who won the seat through the late Prof Wangari Maathai’s Mazingira Party, asserts that she is the second civic leader to be elected after Clare Omanga since the inception of the council 30 years ago.

She observes that many councillors are not highly educated but they still clinch seats due to their campaign strategies and policies.

Oruru, who was elected for the first time in 2007 says she is unable to advance her education owing to the fact that she is the sole bread winner in her family and has committed her resources to educating her two children and needy relatives.

“As a widow, I am heavily burdened. I prefer to educate my children rather than advance my education. I want to empower my children to make them self reliant in the future,” she reiterated.

The constitutional dispensation, notes the civic leader requires visionary, educated, focused and sharp grassroots leaders who will rightly interpret government policies to their subjects and mobilise them for community development.

She says that the merging of several civic wards to form County Wards requires massive resources and tactics during the campaigns to convince voters to support one’s candidature.

Nyabururu ward in Kitutu Chache Constituency, Kisii County has been merged with others to create Kitutu Central Ward. Oruru says although this presents a new challenge in her campaigns, she is sure to recapture the seat which is likely to attract an array of contestants.

The wards were created by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) after Kitutu Chache was split into Kitutu Chache North and Kitutu Chache South in line with proposals by the residents.

Oruru advises women aspirants to take an active role in their respective political parties to enable them win the party tickets during the nominations.

The former Kitutu Chache Constituency KANU Treasurer failed to get an Orange Democratic Movement ( ODM) ticket after another candidate received direct nomination from the party.

Assets “As women aspiring for various political and apppointive positions, education and confidence should be our assets. We should be assertive and defend our policies to ascend to power,” says Oruru, urging women not to wait for leadership posts on a silver platter.

She advises women aspirants for various elective seats to guard against being short changed during nominations or compromised to step down in favour of their male competitors. This, she says, will deny them a chance ascend into power and address problems facing the electorate.

“As women aspiring for various political and appointive positions, education and confidence should be our assets. We should be assertive and defend our policies to ascend to power.”

— Jane Justine Oruru She challenges women to further their education to qualify for appointive positions in the county and national governments which require professionalism in specific areas, “The time when appointments to Cabinet positions and other sectors were based on patronage, political party affiliation, tribalism and nepotism is long gone,” reiterated Oruru.

6

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Pastoralist women seek to take the leadership mantle …By Faith Muiruri

C

all it defiance, call it utter disenchantment or still rhetoric, but for Tiyah Galgalo nothing will stop her crusade to push for the inclusion of women from pastoralist communities in decision making processes.

Galgalo, a former commissioner with the disbanded Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), has launched a fierce onslaught towards the oppressive cultural and traditional practices that have for decades denied women from pastoralist communities access to opportunities in the political and economic sphere.

Armed with the dictates of the new Constitution, Galgalo promises to consign the repressive cultural norms into oblivion.

Law “The law of the land is clear that all persons including women must participate in decision making processes and, therefore, any other law that appears to undermine the enjoyment of these values as set out in the constitution is null and void,” she reiterates.

And as the scramble for political seats ahead of the General Elections gains momentum, Galgalo is leaving nothing to chance. She has embarked on a massive campaign to mobilise women to reject candidates endorsed in ongoing clan meetings in their absence.

She intimates that a series of clan meetings have been convened to endorse preferred male candidates in complete disregard of the Constitution which outlaws exclusion on the basis of gender or sex.

Clans “Currently all the bigger clans in Marsabit and Isiolo Counties are meeting to endorse their preferred male candidates ahead of the forthcoming General Elections. However, women are not supposed to sit with men in the clan meetings because they are exclusively for men,” observes Galgalo. She adds: “Women are only allowed to attend the meetings and notify clan elders of their plans to contest in the elections for the sake of profiling but they are not part of the agenda.”

Speaking during an interview with the Kenyan Woman in Nairobi Galgalo says this disfranchises women candidates from the outset and places male aspirants at a vantage point to clinch the seats since the elders have the knack to rally the community into supporting candidates of their choice.

“The biggest problem with this kind of scenario is that women who represent 52 per cent of registered voters are relegated to the periphery despite provisions in the Constitution which demand that women be included in decision making processes,” Galgalo observes.

But in what is seen as a courageous move, women from the County have vowed to reject the traditional system of vetting candidates if they are not part of the process.

The women have appealed to the elders, expressing their reservations in the system and asking to be included in the ongoing process even if it is on the sidelines.

Seat “I intend to present grievances on behalf of the women as I notify the elders of my willingness to contest for the Isiolo County women representative seat and it does not matter whether they accept the appeal letter or reject it, the most important thing is that the message will have reached them,” says Galgalo adding the appeal letter is the first of its kind.

She observes that clan elders have always suppressed women and gotten away with it but the Constitution is specific and women must stand firm and fight for their rights.

She says that “men should know that women are no longer sleeping and are watching keenly to expose any forms of violations”.

She notes that although the clan system of vetting candidates was more elaborate than what is provided for in the Constitution, it was biased and skewed in favour of male candidates.

“If this is the only system that will vet candidates for the next General Election, then men will impose leaders on us including hand picking candidates to fill up seats earmarked for women,” Galgalo reiterates.

She says that women have resolved to map up campaign strate-

Tiyah Galgalo (right), a former commissioner with the Interim Independent Electoral Commission is joined by Hindia Salat, women leader Marsabit County where they called for empowering of women and men to ensure that the Constitution is observed to the letter.

Picture: Kenyan Woman Correspondent.

gies as independent entities during the General Elections which must be respected.

“We will oppose any bid to trade women positions as clan elders solicit for votes for their preferred male candidates. We are telling them, you look for your own votes as we look for support for our female candidates as we can no longer accept to be ignored,” she stresses.

Funding “At the moment we are sourcing for funding because it is difficult to mobilize women from all parts of the extensive County. Some of these women are also wives of people pushing for their exclusion. We want to convene meetings within their reach to sensitise them on the numerous seats enshrined in the constitution so that they do not crowd on the seat for women representative,” Galgalo explains.

“The meetings will serve as a wakeup call for women who have shied from the political seats because of the cultural barriers, lack of resources and capacity in terms of thinking that they are not the best people who should be elected,” she reiterates.

The former Commissioner says that, once resources are availed, numerous meetings will be held across the County to allow women an opportunity to be heard.

She says that unless women from pastoralist communities are facilitated, the one third rule on elective posts will be a mirage.

“Most female candidates in arid and semi arid regions lack knowledge on the Political Parties Act have no resources to traverse their extensive Counties and lack the charisma to pool crowds into their meetings,” she notes.

She says the situation has been aggravated by the ongoing skirmishes

“We will oppose any bid to trade women positions as clan elders solicit for votes for their preferred male candidates. We are telling them, you look for your own votes as we look for support for our female candidates as we can no longer accept to be ignored.”

— Tiyah Galgalo

which have scared away women aspirants and should therefore be addressed as a matter of urgency.

She says the next General Elections present a bigger challenge to all aspirants and mainly women who will be required to traverse the two counties which have been torn by recurring conflicts.

“For instance, Marsabit County comprises of North Horr, Laisamis and Saku constituencies. Each constituency has been electing their own leaders. However, the new law requires the constituencies which have over the years fought over the limited resources including pasture to unite and elect a Governor, a Senator and a Woman Representative when they still harbour deep rooted unresolved conflicts.

Majority In fact the minority tribes namely Rendile, Gabras and Durji’s have formed an alliance namely RIGADU to make sure Borana’s who are the majority and have ostensibly enjoyed power for decades do not win the seats.

Galgalo says that such alliances complicate matters for women as normally the people elected do not represent the interests of women.

“The Government should involve local people in finding lasting solution to the endless conflicts,” she advices.

Married women forced into genital mutilation

…By Kirimi Murithi

Shock has gripped Tigania East Constituency of Meru County after married women opposed to Female Genital Mutilation were kidnapped and forcefully made to face the knife.

The incident which took place in Athanja sublocation in Muthara left the area in shock after one of the women who was kidnapped went missing and is believed to have been hidden after being mutilated in Kaithe Village.

However, one of the women was rescued after residents intervened and wrestled those holding her.

According to Evangeline Kangai an anti-FGM activist, the victim who managed to escape had been lured to enter a house after the women lied to her

that they were holding a meeting.

“When she entered the house she was ordered to undress. She screamed and neighbours came to her rescue,” explained Kangai.

As this was happening, the victims had already circumcised and hidden another woman in one of the rooms.

Kangai said the group made up of young and old women has been targeting married women whom they threaten with isolation if they do not undergo circumcision.

“The group has turned to married women because we have sensitised the school girls against FGM. We are now appealing to the Government to take stern action against the perpetrators who are trying to revive this vice in the region where it had earlier been kicked out,” she said.

She said the group has been training younger women on how to carry out FGM which threatens to advance the practice into the future.

While confirming the arrest, area Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) Superintendant Charles Koskei said the suspects will be arraigned in court for propagating harmful cultural practices.

He urged the community to intensify the campaign against the vice.

“The Constitution protects women against harmful cultural practices and we will not allow anyone to violate the basic rights of women,” noted Koskei.

He revealed that the police have gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute the suspects and assured the public that justice will be done at long last.

Koskei said the arrest of a 23-year-old woman and

an elderly circumciser is evidence that there has been training for younger women to take up the circumcising role.

According to Susan Munya, chairperson of Maendeleo ya Wanawake Tigania East the group assaulted four other women in the last one month. She called for a crackdown on other suspects.

According to Ann Kaburo, a health worker, the practice by the group has broken some families since they have been mutilating women without the knowledge of their husbands who in turn kick them out when they discover what has taken place.

A survey by the Reject revealed that the vice has been going on for sometime and that an operation by the police in the area netted seven elderly suspects who are believed to be behind the vice in the region.

7

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

UN reinforces partnership with local women’s CSOs

…By Rosemary Okello

W

hen Letty Chiwara, the United Nations Chief of Africa Division was in Kenya recently for a consultative meeting of partners from Central Africa, she took the opportunity to meet over 45 representatives of women’s civil society organisations. Chiwara took the opportunity to expound on the role of the new entity from a national point of view. She informed participants present that since its formation, the UN Women has come up with thematic areas which it will be working on within the next two years.

The thematic areas include among others economic empowerment and enhancement of entrepreneurship skills among women in Africa. It will also look at peace and security which is critical for the majority of women. The UN-women will focus its work in the area of HIV/Aids which forms a cross-cutting theme.

Since its establishment almost a year ago, the entity has come up with 53 offices and out of these 23 are in Africa.

Presence “The UN-Women sees Africa forming the bulk of its work and this translates into over 43 per cent when it comes to regional presence,” explains Chiwara.

She explained that the offices are grouped as follows; 19 offices at country level with four offices at sub-regional level.

“This offers us an opportunity to engage with regional bodies working in Africa,” she observed during the informal meeting.

According to Chiwara, Africa holds the key to the success of the UN Women’s strategic plan and the organisation, therefore, values very much the partnership with the Kenyan women’s organisations.

Chiwara noted that the UN Women plans to work with every stakeholder and whereas like any other UN agency, whose primary goals is always focusing on governments, it will strengthen its partnership with the CSOs. “The new entity plans to form a CSOs Advisory group at global and regional level to enhance their programmatic areas and also help in giving directions,” she explained.

According to Chiwara, the UN Women’s two year strategic engagement which is focusing on women’s rights issues means that it will be opening space at policy and resource allocation levels.

“That is why within the thematic areas of economic empowerment, the UN Women will be looking not only at micro-level but also at macrolevel and these include policies in trade, budget and agriculture among other issues.”

Chiwara explained that the UN Women plans to create a body of knowledge within Africa, Kenya included where it plans to enhance women’s skills and knowledge to empower them to become leaders in their own right. This will include market information and how to access them; ensuring that women have got information to develop their own entrepreneurship strategy and also working with commercial banks to ensure women get more capital.

“The new entity plans to form a CSOs Advisory group at global and regional level to enhance their programmatic areas and also help in giving directions.”

— Letty Chiwara

For Kenya, Chiwara sees the UN Women’s strategic engagement coming at the right time.

The country strategic plan focuses on political participation of women, ending violence against women as well as focusing of economic empowerment.

This comes against the backdrop of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 which recognises gender equality and which has entrenched the Affirmative Action Principle which is spelt out under Article 81 (b) which states; “Not more than two-

thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.”

Spelling out how the UN Women Kenya country office is going to work with the women’s CSOs, Zebib Kavuma, Country programme manager said they are soon rolling out a holistic civic education for women. “We will be working with the various partners to ensure that women’s political participation is enhanced during the scheduled General Elections.”

The UN Women also plans to work with women CSO and other partners under the UWIANO Platform on issues around electoral violence to come up with mechanism on how to prevent, mitigate and ensure that the election monitoring also recognises violence against women either as voters or aspirants.

According to Simon Elise Oluoch-Olunya, Deputy Regional Representative of the UN Women, although previously the work around gender based violence was not based on the theory of change, this time round it will inform their work

on gender based violence.

“To this end the UN Women is already working with the Kenya Police Training Institute where they have already engendered their curriculum.

They plan to borrow heavily from their work in Rwanda where the police force is at the forefront in the fight against gender based violence,” notes Oluoch-Olunya.

Since the Constitution of Kenya 2010 recognises the devolved structure of governance, the UN Women has also devolved their engagement and plans to work with the County governments and all the women’s organisations in the rural areas.

“Our strategic engagement with the decentralised governance will be critical,” explains Kavuma.

Representative of the women’s organisations present were happy that the UN Women’s work is now being felt at their level and relevant to majority of the poor women in whose name the Agency was set up. “We are very happy with the new agency and we now see how mama mboga (ordinary woman in the village) will identify with it.”

communities.

“Once elected, I will help improve the standards of education by supporting educational initiatives in the county,” reiterates Mworia.

On the other hand, Galgalo hopes that she will consolidate votes among the larger Borana speaking communities in the County and bring on board others to ensure that she captures the seat.

Galgalo served as Principal of Isiolo Girls Secondary School and later worked as a Commissioner with the disbanded Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) before she joined the race for the county women representative.

Galgalo and Dullo served as commissioners and have helped youths in the county secure employment besides highlighting the plight of people whose rights have been violated.

Many suspect that they are working together in order to clinch the votes and then one of them will step down in favour of the other.

Konso who hails from Karayu clan has hit the ground campaigning for the position and hopes to bag some votes.

Already the aspirants have had a series of secret meetings with their clansmen and those eying other political seats to survive in politics ahead of the 2012 General Elections.

Some of the meetings failed to reach agreements with key politicians positioning themselves for the governors, senators and parliamentary seats in the County.

The meetings are usually done at grassroots level during the electioneering period to pick on candidates.

The position of Governor has attracted several aspirants among them, Isiolo South MP Abdul Bahari Ali, Godana Doyo, Gollo Boru, Abdi Wario, Doti Halake and Yussuf Dogo.

The position of Senator has attracted Livestock Minister Dr Mohammed Kuti, former Isiolo North MP Charfana Guyo Mokku and Mohamed Konso who is Chief Executive Officer at Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

In fact they are likely to come up with their own alliances to find a new political vehicle to

drive them to power.

Isiolo North Constituency is cosmopolitan area with more than 42 communities but the larger ones are Borana, Meru, Somali, Turkana and Samburu. Others are Kikuyu, Sakuye, Kamba, Luo and Embu.

Isiolo North has 33,434 registered voters of while Isiolo South has 11,867 registered voters according to figures availed during the referendum exercise for the new Constitution.

Isiolo County occupies an area of 35,565 km square and boarders Marsabit, Meru and Samburu counties and has a population of 180,000 people.

The residents heavily dependent on pastoralism and subsistence farming along the Ewaso Nyiro and seasonal rivers which is limited to central division of the district.

Isiolo has four game reserves which serve as major tourism earners for the region which has also been earmarked for transformation into a Resort City in the Vision 2030.

The County will soon have a modern slaughterhouse and the facility is expected to help herders market and process their beef for export to other parts of the country once fully operational.

The construction of the proposed Isiolo Airport to decongest Wilson Airport has officially commenced and the project is expected to be completed in four months time.

Area MP Mohamed Kuti says President Kibaki is expected to commission the projects of Abattoir and airport in June, this year, upon completion.

In Isiolo North and South, party politics do not dictate the voting patterns but tribal groupings and individual influence play a great role in the politics.

As the scramble for 56,795 votes begins in earnest, we are likely to witness major political realignments but the electorate will identify with individuals driving it.

Party of National Unity (PNU) was still strong in the area after it captured all the parliamentary seats and almost all civic wards in the last general elections followed by ODM and UDM. Kuti, who won the seat in the last general election enjoyed overwhelming support from his

Sakuye clan, Warjida, Meru, Digalu Matari, Nonitu, Gabra, Somali, Samburu and Merus among others who still prefer him for the position of the senator.

Isiolo had experienced a measure of peace since 2003 after Kuti won the elections leading to expansion of the town. Investor confidence has been restored with the government’s commitment to elevate Isiolo airstrip into a fully operational airport to serve the entire upper Eastern region.

Previously Isiolo had only one banking institution, the Consolidated Bank but owing to the period of uninterrupted peace in the lasting years, four other banking institutions have come up.

These include Equity Bank, K-Rep and a teachers’ SACCO. Barclays Bank that fled the town during the skirmishes of the1990s and the Post-Bank are in the process of re-opening branches in the town.

China Offshore Oil Corporation has also discovered gas in Merti Division of Isiolo District and the country will soon join other gas producing regions.

Three years ago the Minister for Energy Kiraitu Murungi announced that the gas was viable for exploitation and that the product would support Kenya economically. If we are to go by this, Isiolo County would remain the richest in the region.

However, the government is yet to initiate more development projects including sinking bore holes, shallow wells and provision of drugs among other lacking facilities in the area.

Further, the government is yet to implement the second phase of water project in Isiolo town which has witnessed rapid expansion and high demand for the commodity.

The district relies on water facilities initiated by colonialists despite the fact that the population has tripled, resulting in acute water shortage.

Isiolo is likely to face major challenges posed by high population growth. The government ought to move fast to address this.

The political prospects of the Isiolo County cannot be predicted due to the cosmopolitan state where all the tribes exist in the district.

Engagement

Women strategise as representative seat promises to be a bruising battle Continued from page 1

head of the next General Elections.

Tiyyah and Dullo served in the government as Commissioners of Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights respectively while Dida, Konso and Mworia have served in various civil society organizations.

Most of these women are angling themselves to key politicians in order to clinch victory in the General Elections.

Dida says she is banking on support from Warjida, Karayu and Sakuye clans to win the seat.

She says that her close ties with the communities on the ground will give her an upper edge over her competitors as majority are new comers.

Dida reiterates that she has the experience in politics because her father was a one-time MP for Isiolo South while her husband was also an MP for Moyale and she will use every means possible to emerge the winner.

But things may not be easy for her since political alliances may not have a sway on voters but on individual’s development track record.

“Once elected, I will lobby for the waiving of interests charged on women and youth fund to enable more people benefit from the same,” notes Dida.

Mworia says her agenda is to initiate programmes that seek to uplift the living standards of the electorate and empower women politically so that they can be able to realise their goals and participate in decision making processes.

She intends to promote peace in the area and push for the reconciliation of warring communities in Isiolo County.

“I am concerned with the spate of killings sparked by clan animosity in the area,” observes Mworia as she spoke during a peace walk she had sponsored in the area.

Mworia says she has helped secure sponsorship for at least 45 bright and needy children in the vast Isiolo County and hoped that this will help her secure votes across the board from all

8

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

A street in Mandera town. Women here have come up with proverbs that showed local meaning of conflict

Women’s skill enhanced on managing resource based conflict …By Kenyan Woman Correspondent

I

t’s Friday morning and a group of women peace builders from various villages in Mandera district and their counterparts from Belet Hawa area of Somalia gathered in a joint venue for community training on resource based conflict.

The training which is of its kind in the region brought together women and youth peace builders as well as elders from the Mandera of Kenya side and the Belet Hawa side of Somalia that borders Mandera town.

The border region known as Mandera triangle is popularly known for its constant and internecine conflict that pits pastoralist communities over resource competition. There is also clan rivalry that has claimed thousands of lives and contributed to huge humanitarian crisis that included massive displacement.

Peace Training organiser from the Regional Centre for Resource Based conflict (RBC) in conjunction with its partners Wagalla Centre For Peace and Human Rights and SARDO came up with idea of training women peace builders separately with other stakeholders so that each of the groups could be free in airing their views and absorb the training content while sharing their experience and forging a cross border network.

According to William Tsuma, RBC regional Coordinator the training will build capacities of various stakeholders on resource based conflict and peace building in the conflict prone triangle that is shared by Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Tsuma noted that border areas are breeding grounds for conflicts of all kinds adding that people are exposed to ethnic disputes as well as political and resource related conflicts.

“These areas are also marginalised in every sense (economically, socially

and politically), making their inhabitants prone to human rights violation and poverty related vulnerabilities,” noted Tsuma.

In addition border areas are not well accessed by the Government and non-governmental organisations’ initiatives because of the growing insecurity.

Capacity “It is on the basis of this background that the RBC Regional Network sought to engage in this area through supporting its members to strengthen the capacities of peace building and conflict prevention within the border area,” explained Tsuma.

He further said that the RBC network has engaged in conflict mapping in the past and the communities showed that there was need to provide capacity building in resource based conflict and peace building in the triangle.

“So far, RBC’s partners in the Mandera Triangle have engaged in joint cross-border conflict mapping and analysis to enhance the understanding of border resource based conflicts in the Mandera Triangle,” Tsuma noted.

In addition to the mapping, gender focus group discussions have been held in order to generate information and enhance understanding of the gender dynamics in the Mandera Triangle. The information will inform and shape the gender policy for the Network and its members.

The objectives include analysing the link between resources based conflict and sustainable livelihood, understand the sources, causes and interplays of the interest within a given conflict, describe linkage between human and resource interaction, understand the trend of conflict and how they manifest into violence and to develop strategies for peaceful co-existence and encourage communities to live in harmony.

The peace building training that was funded by Oxfam Novib through

RBC took an approach of participatory learning and action approach where the participants were taken on real meaning of conflict, what cause conflict, conflict players, conflict mapping, factor that exacerbates conflicts, resource based conflict, conflict transformation, conflict prevention, peace enforcement, conflict transformation and change.

Skills All stakeholders including women peace builders were taken through skills building that will empower them in solving, mitigating, preventing and offering rapid responses to conflict in the Mandera triangle area.

They were taken through methods of conflict resolution like mediation, arbitration, negotiation, dialogue, law enforcement and religious interventions.

The women peace builders stressed that the Mandera triangle is conflict prone with constant conflict occurring and recurring between various communities and people. They stressed that the conflict is fought by armed men from warring communities while women and children face attacks at village levels.

The women peace builders recalled recent armed conflict that pitted two communities in Mandera district over the ownership of a watering point in Alungu area of Mandera East area that claimed many lives from both sides.

Arms The chairlady of the women peace builders Mama Fatuma stressed that the conflict between the two communities over water point generated into regional conflict as each community approached their friendly cousins along the Somalia side of the border for strength and arms.

She said that each community procured large cache of arms from friendly communities with view of cleansing and driving their rival com-

munities from the watering point.

“If it were not for the Government intervention after realising the conflict has taken a regional angle, then we could have seen massive killing and a big conflict which could continue for years,” noted Mama Fatuma.

“This is a normal occurrence in term of conflict in this border triangle of Mandera and again this is the first time we have received such detail training which addresses everything and others that we don’t know,” she observed.

Another woman participant Najma Odhwai narrated how communities suffered during the Alungu clashes that claimed hundreds of lives in the contentious watering point. She said it started with one community attacking the other after the government through its drought relief programme drilled a borehole in the area.

The borehole, she noted, triggered the ownership row between the two clans in Mandera area. “One morning a contingent of armed men from one community attacked the Alungu village from the Elwak side of Mandera and killed hundreds of innocent people before fleeing with livestock,” explained Odhwai.

The attacked community responded by mobilising their armed youths to revenge against the attack and they attacked various villages that is inhabited by the attackers.

“The majority of people killed in both attacks were women, children and elderly who were caught up in the attacks. Men too were killed in the attack that saw everybody coming with arms from Somalia. It was a big war which made the government to intervene and carried out military operation in the area,” said Odhwai.

Injury She narrated that the conflict caused more problem to both communities as military operation that followed left many innocent people injured as they were beaten to produce

cache of arms procured by the communities and women pastoralist were raped and gang raped by the military officials.

“I personally led group of women to offer relief to women who were raped by the military and the militia and the situation was worse, it was one of major humanitarian crisis I have ever witnessed in the region. All this trouble was caused by the fact that all communities established contacts with communities across the border in search of support and arms against their local rivals in the conflict,” Odhwai said.

To reinforce their argument on meaning of conflict the women participants came up with Somali proverbs that showed local meaning of conflict.

One of the Somali proverb says “labo marodi meeshay kudirirto cos kuma bad baado (where two elephants fight grass does not survive).”

However, women peace builders took the initiative of mapping conflict in the triangle and raising various factors that influence and blow conflict into large scale. They stated that small arms was the major problem as it flows from the border areas of the triangle and thus used as tools of waging bloody conflict.

Arms The stakeholders confirmed that small arms are easily available in the triangle and further named various types of arms that included AK-47, multipurpose machine guns, anti aircraft dual gun, pistols, hand grenade and light weapons.

They noted that the small arms and light weapon has caused untold sufferings to the residents of the cross border towns in the Mandera triangle.

They concurred that the light weapons has contributed to loss of lives, property, destruction, loss of virginity, used as tool of rape, trauma, depopulation, social degradation, poverty and loss of marriage as young men continued to be killed.

9

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Coming elections set to usher in real woman power

…By Cyprose Asiago

W

omen have slowly and gracefully taken leadership and political roles that for many years were regarded as a male domain.

Biological determinist Geddes and Thompson in 1889 argued that social, psychological and behavioural traits were caused by metabolic state.

Women supposedly conserve energy (being ‘anabolic’) and this makes them passive, conservative, sluggish, stable and uninterested in politics.

Men expend their surplus energy (being ‘katabolic’) and this makes them eager, energetic, passionate, variable and, thereby, interested in political and social matters.

These biological ‘facts’ about metabolic states were used not only to explain behavioural differences between women and men but also justify what our social and political arrangements ought to be.

More specifically, they were used to argue for withholding from women political rights accorded to men because (according to Geddes

and Thompson) “what was decided among the prehistoric Protozoa cannot be annulled by Act of Parliament”.

It would be inappropriate to grant women political rights, as they are simply not suited to have those rights; it would also be futile since women, due to their biology would simply not be interested in exercising their political rights.

Moral

To counter this kind of biological determinism, feminists have argued that behavioural and psychological differences have social, rather than biological causes. For instance, Simone de Beauvoir famously claimed that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman, and that “social discrimination produces in women moral and intellectual effects so profound that they appear to be caused by nature”.

Commonly observed behavioural traits associated with women and men, then, are not caused by anatomy or chromosomes but are culturally learned or acquired.

This explanation could be a factor to the change of attitude in the Afri-

can man and towards women in the society and in politics or maybe the woman has simply over time proven that she is indeed worth and fit to stand in positions of power among the menfolk. I owe this rather slow but welcome development.

It is great that the political arena has a number of women like Jael Mbogo, Grace Onyango (the first woman mayor and elected legislator), Chelegat Mutai, Phoebe Asiyo, Charity Ngilu and Martha Karua, to mention but a few.

These are women who took their stand against male counterparts in elections and emerged winners. They helped prove to the electorate that they were worth their votes hence disapproving biological determinists, Geddes and Thompson of social, physical and biological traits that women cannot be active in politics.

The issue of third positions that has been given in the constitution and set to be experienced in both the political party nomination and at the parliamentary level has brought a lot of controversy.

By reserving the positions to fe-

male only takes us back to the assumption that women biologically are sluggish and uninterested in politics and of which has been proven that they are interested and can manage politics.

The only way this country will have the assurance that leadership by our women is indeed anything to go by is when women do not get these positions as handouts (nomination) but rather earn them through hard work, competition and playing to the beats of the political game.

Policies

It is high time women realised that the equality rights they have always fought for must be put in practice. If women are going to fight for gender equality then they have to learn that it comes with every aspect of life.

Politics just as much, they will need to work much harder, get to the fields and campaign, sell their policies to the people and gather as many supporters as their male counterparts do. It is only when the people vote that it is clear they are ready for a female leader.

The excuse that politics is a dirty

game and that the woman would not find it easy to take a stand in the game is a male thinking and farfetched. That which comes easily withers easily and, therefore, I challenge women not to wait for nominations to parliament but fight for it just like the men and those women who have fought and won under tough conditions.

I do not doubt the woman’s capability of leadership in politics or whatever area of life, I just believe time has come for women to claim those parliamentary seats just like they have claimed every other right out there.

It has been proven already that today’s woman is very much capable of diligently carrying out her managerial duties just as much as the man and, therefore, it’s time she grabbed that opportunity on her own than on a platter.

Sojourner Truth, through her publication, Ain’t I a Woman, addressed women’s rights issues and argued that if a woman of colour can perform tasks that were supposedly limited to men, then any woman of any colour could perform those same tasks.

Constitution offers a relief to land injustices M …By KIGONDU NDAVANO

agarini residents are patiently waiting for the full implementation of the Constitution to seek redress in past injustices that saw them lose their ancestral land.

The residents have for years watched helplessly as genuine land owners have been ejected from their ancestral land or forced to accept meagre compensation to create room for commercial developments by Italian tycoons.

Areas that have witnessed massive evictions include Mambrui and Ras Ngomeni after a government initiated registration exercise along the shoreline culminated in the issuance of letters of offer to private developers. “The original map was altered to reflect that the beach and second row plots were private plots without an explanation from the government,” says Morris Mangi, chairman Adu Ranch, Magarini District.

Mangi observes that it was as if somebody somewhere had decided that the indigenous people of Magarini had no use for beach plots and hence they only needed third and fourth row areas.

Land Mangi lost a large section of his land in 1981 during the adjudication of land covering beach plots in Magarini District. He says: “While the four acre beach plot was registered under my wife’s name during the exercise conducted by the Ministry of Land, I was shocked when the letter of allotment reflected that I only owned half an acre. The entire area covering the beach frontline had been hived off and classified as private land.”

Mangi says the residents watched in disbelief as an Italian tycoon moved to the area shortly after the exercise and fenced off areas that had been repossessed by the government during the exercise.

The Italian has been disposing off sections of the land to other Italian investors keen to build hotels and villas.

Profits

According to Mangi, the Italians are making huge profits from the land grabbed from indigenous people and sold to them for peanuts by cunning land officials who were driven by greed to make quick money.

They realised that holding onto irregularly allocated land could be short lived once the government revokes those that were illegally acquired across the country. Mangi says that land owners have at times been forced to accept peanuts after

being intimidated to levels where they are asked to cooperate and sign compensation documents rather than wait to be forcefully evicted and left with nothing.

He says that some land transactions are finalised in Italy where Italian investors in Malindi exchange documents with new owners who are shown the parcels of land on sale through photographs.

An acre of land in the prime beach area in Magarini according can fetch between KSh10 million to KSh15 million, yet most original owners are offered between KSh200,000 and KSh.350,000 which has to be shared among family members.

However, Mangi is optimistic that with the new Constitution such anomalies will be corrected and that aggrieved parties will be able to either reclaim their land or seek compensated.

The land question in the coastal Kenya strip. Most original land owners are today landless and can only pass through land that used to be theirs, courtesy of irregular allocation of large tracks of land to foreigners.

Mangi reiterates that Magarini District and Coast people in general should not resort to illegal means in attempts to recover illegally acquired land because the new constitution offers remedy.

“I have confidence with the new constitution, land injustices visited on Kenyans since 1963 to date will be dealt with,” he observes.

“We should not pursue our land rights through war, we should passionately wait for the full implementation of the constitution because it will be a saviour in the recovery of our lost land,” explains Mangi. He suggests that foreign land owners also need to read the Constitution and understand that

foreigners are barred from owning land in Kenya.

The Constitution is categorical that foreign investors should cooperate with the original land owners to offer them compensation equivalent to the profits they have accrued over the years.

According to Mangi, the procedure should be based on dialogue and mutual understanding between the different parties as outlined in the constitution.

He proposes that Coast people should agree to enter into investment partnership with foreigners or wealthy people instead of merely selling prime beach plots to them.

10

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

African women’s movements catches fire

…By Monica Luwondo

T

estimonies from women across the social divide prove that women’s issues are similar. This assumption came to play in two separate movement building forums held in Arusha, Tanzania for grassroots women from pastoralists as well as hunter and gatherer communities and in Entebbe, Uganda for professionals from West, East and Horn of Africa.

Kijoolo Kakeeya, a Maasai villager from Loliondo Piaya, Tanzania and Lina Zedriga, a Ugandan former magistrate and guest speaker in US and African universities are both widows with extended family to fend for.

They both matched to State House for a cause and have been jailed for their role in the women’s rights movement.

Their action indicates that there is no social divide among women no matter where they come from.

“There is no divide between grassroots and women in boardrooms, they endure same sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBVs),” says Zedriga, quoting a Kenyan feminist.

Zedriga’s political consciousness started when her husband, an opposition politician disappeared in 2002, in circumstances that forced her to quit her job as magistrate.

Jail She suffered in the hands of the authorities including spending time in jail, before she settled for rural development and peace work through a non-government organisation.

In her work, Zedriga targets women affected by the civil war in Northern Uganda area of Gulu and Karamoja.

On the other hand, Kakeeya’s journey on fighting for women’s land rights started after the July 21, 2009 following forceful evictions of Maasai from eight villages in Loliondo, an act that saw her and many more villagers lose their homes, livestock and food crops.

The military police invaded and torched bomas (Maasai’s traditional houses) demanding that the pastoralists leave to pave way for an Arab investor on a hunting of wild animals business.

“I have gone through hell ever since then but I am not retreating,” reiterates Kakeeya.

She mobilised hundreds of women after the evictions, who marched to the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party district headquarters to return their membership cards.

Groups “We divided ourselves in two groups and took different directions.

My group managed to reach the destination after a night long trekking down hills and bushes,” explains Kakeeya.

The other group was stopped by police on their way.

Kakeeya was not satisfied by the administration’s intervention on their case and so she participated in many other protest marches later that year that went as far as the State House in Dar es Salaam, Parliament and Ministry of Tourism.

Kakeeya was subjected to long police interrogations while Zedriga has spent nights in Ugandan jails several times after her husband’s disappearance.

Zedriga’s milestone was her participation in the Juba Peace talks in which she spearheaded a media and grassroots campaign to get even one woman into the negotiations, leading a four-day march into areas of war and

Women in East Africa face similar sexual and gender based violence. It is such meetings that help them counsel each other.

rape, then flying into Juba to deliver a peace torch to the Vice President.

The Juba talks were a series of negotiations between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group over the terms of a ceasefire and possible peace agreement. The talks, held in Juba, the capital of autonomous Southern Sudan, began in July 2006 and were mediated

by Riek Machar, Vice President of Southern Sudan.

The talks, which had resulted in a ceasefire by September 2006, were described as the best chance ever for a negotiated settlement to the 20-yearold war.

Zedriga went from being a magistrate to a war widow. However, she refuses to be called a ‘victim’. “We are the stakeholders, nothing about us without us,” she says.

Zedriga served as programme advisor to Northern Uganda Peace Initiatives, where she designed the Women in Peace Building and Reconciliation programme, which included bringing together 300 internally displaced women and other Northern Ugandans to advance peace in the region.

The brave acts of the two women have obviously inspired others to start questioning deep structures in the community skewed in favour of minority or interrogating issues affecting the nation such as corruption.

“When situations squeeze you, sometimes it is the creative juices that come out… you sometimes jump hit the sailing and wonder how you managed such a heroic act?” she says with a giggle.

Both meetings aim at forming women networks. The Arusha meeting of Hadzabe, Barbaig and Maasai

women was organized by PINGOS forum, a membership non-government organisation promoting land rights and livelihood of pastoralists as well as hunter and gatherer communities in Tanzania.

Meanwhile, the Entebbe meeting brought together lawyers, journalists and social workers working on gender aspect on forced migration from Senegal, Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.

It was organized by the Kampala based international non-government organisation for African women, Akina Mama wa Afrika.

Leah Chatta Chipepa, a Zambian who believes in women movement for change sacrificed her well paying job in an international institution to join Akina Mama wa Afrika to mentor young African women leaders.

“We need to stand up as women because liberation cannot stay for long unless a number of women enjoy the privileges,” she says.

Chipepa believes that in the wake of globalization of world economy, financial crisis, climate change, Euro zone crisis, occupy Wall Street in the US, occupy Sandton in South Africa, and the recent Nigeria fuel occupy there is no time to interrogate but to engage.

“The world is interlinked and interrelated. Women need to be concerned on world events because anyhow they are the most affected,” she says.

Land “Already we are witnessing scramble for Africa’s land and water resources,” notes Chipepa.

Participants from all the eight Af-

“We need to stand up as women because liberation cannot stay for long unless a number of women enjoy the privileges.”

— Leah Chatta Chipepa

rican countries reported takeover of huge chunks of land by investors from Europe, America, the Middle East and Asia in the name of Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs).

From the Niger Delta state in Nigeria Grace Oshiet says pollution from oil wells operated by multinational companies has forced communities to destitution because the soil cannot grow crops anymore.

Carolyn Kandusi from PINGOs Forum, says the ongoing evictions of pastoralists in the country to pave way for investors have impacted more on women.

It was against that background that the Arusha meeting of women from pastoralists as well as hunter and gatherer communities from Mbulu, Hanang, Longido, Loliondo, Kilosa, Mvomero, Same, Mwanga, Iringa and Bagamoyo was convened to assist them form a network to address their needs.

Forced evictions leaves women with emotional trauma, increased family work load as they are left to fend for children when men are out in search of pastures, loss of livelihood and deleted pride.

NGOs What should be done to build a strong African women movement?

Hope Chigudu, a Zimbabwean who has helped build some reputable women’s non-government organisations in Zimbabwe, Uganda and Tanzania as part of her dedication to African women’s movement building, cautions women against patriarchy.

“I lost friends in the women’s movement,” Chigudu admits adding that it brought her psychological, emotional and physical pain.

“Yes it is okay to differ but patriarchy makes women to fight,” she says further advising that women should work around those differences not kicking each other out.

Peace and cooperation in the movement will attract more support-

ers. There should be no doubts where some people can say “we don’t want to join such movement and mess up our names!”

Chigudu, a founder of Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre says organisations must dream, have an agenda, be creative in designing projects to attract funding otherwise they won’t survive if it is business as usual.

One of her main concerns is how organisations favour women with money to sit on boards instead of engaging women with no history of success.

Chigudu is of the opinion that an organisation needs structures, owners and members of the governance board with the ability to determine directions, raise funds and disciplines.

She says women should also learn that in the movement people differ but they should capitalise the strengths of individuals. “Some are frontiers, cheer leaders or information gatherers while others take care of other people’s health,” notes Chigudu.

All in all movement building remains to be an effective tool for mass organising for social change as it allows formation of an organised body of people pursuing the same policy agenda.

The good part of the movement is the fact that there is sharing of information, resources and expertise as well as advocacy strategies that make it difficult for authorities to label an individual person or organisation.

Treaties No matter how strong the local movement is use of treaties and other international instruments should not be ignored. This is according to Marren Akatsa Bukachi from EASSI who says: “More often than not we ignore treaties and so we missed chances of placing our issues to international women’s agenda.”

Instruments that are worthy of applying include CEDAW, Beijing Platform for Action and Maputo Protocol.

11

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

President Joyce Banda says the time is now!

…By Daud Kayisi

I

n an interview with an Aljazeera news anchor, the newly swornin Republic of Malawi President, Joyce Banda said “my election (in 2009) as the vice president and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberian president) shows that Africans have grown in democracy [and] they have confidence in both women and men in leading them.

Africans have decided that the time is now that women can also participate in leadership.”

Banda has become the first female president in the region (Southern Africa) after the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika and the second in Africa after Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.

The former deputy president replaces (and had clashed badly) with her predecessor who had vowed never to relinquish power before experiencing a heart attack.

Hope Her appointment brings a wave of hope to Malawi and is one way in which the region is moving towards the attainment of 50-50 representation of women and men in politics and decision making by 2015. This is in line with the provisions of the 2008 SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

As a journalist and a gender activist, I have known President Banda as a politician who has the welfare of people at heart. She has always emphasised the need for deliberate policies to challenge the patriarchal values still embedded in Malawi and in Southern Africa.

In 2011, Forbes Magazine recog-

nised Banda as the third most powerful female politician in Africa after Johnson-Sirleaf and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweal, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance.

Banda has worked tirelessly to empower women economically in Malawi.

Upon her divorce from an abusive marriage in the 80s, Banda founded the National Association of Business Women (NABW) in 1990, a financial lending institution that aims to economically empower rural women. I personally benefited from NABW as my mother borrowed her first small business loan from the association in the mid-1990s.

Hunger She is also behind the initiatives such as Young Women Leaders Network and Malawi Hunger Project both of which have benefitted millions of Malawians. In 1997, Hunger Project, a US based NGO awarded Banda the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger alongside Joaquim Chissano, former Mozambican president. She used the prize money to fund the establishment of the Joyce Banda Foundation for Children, a charitable foundation that assists vulnerable children and orphans through education in Malawi.

President Banda has steered numerous women’s rights initiatives in Malawi. As Minister of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services, Banda fought that the Domestic Violence Bill be passed into law. Parliament enacted the law, after it had previously failed to for seven years. I am, therefore, confident that Banda will use her position to influence gender aware policies

and measures that will enable women and girls to enjoy their rights.

Malawi is still battling with cultural practices, policies and constitutional and customary laws that contribute to the violation of women’s and girl’s rights. If not amended, these conflicting laws will impact on the attainment of the 2015 targets of the SADC Gender Protocol.

Banda’s first major assignment will be in July this year, when African Union (AU) delegates will gather in Malawi for the AU summit and election of the new chair following the last polls that ended in a deadlock. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister will stand again for AU commission chair after stopping Jean Ping to a second term of office in the previous elections. She will, therefore, have to assert her power and ensure that African leaders support the appointment of Dlamini-Zuma.

Ability In addition, the recognisable work being done by Banda, Sirleaf — the Nobel laureate — and Ngozi OkonjoIweal, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance (currently vying for World Bank’s presidency) demonstrates that leadership has nothing to do with sex but a person’s ability to deliver. This brings in a new definition of politics, a space that has largely been dominated by men.

The work being done by women leaders proves that putting women in leadership positions is not only democratically correct but it is the right thing to do. Women have shown that they are capable of delivering positive results

“Africans have decided that the time is now that women can also participate in leadership.”

— Joyce Banda, Malawi President in difficult circumstances, a thing that points to the fact that they can do much better if given full support.

Banda has to now prove to the region that the time for female leaders in Africa is now. She can create a specific niche on inclusive governance not only in Malawi but the whole of Africa. Her elevation to power is therefore not just herstory in the making, but the emancipation of women in Malawi and Southern Africa.

Women I hope that neighbouring countries in the region and Africa as a whole will begin to entrust power in the hands of women. Political parties should start fielding women in winning constituen-

cies. Within political parties, women should be voted for the top jobs which lead to election for top government posts.

Banda should be an inspiration to many women who are vying for elections. There is no doubt that the face of politics in Africa is changing for the better. While the women’s movement is advocating for 50-50 representation by 2015, the time for female leaders in Southern Africa is now!

Daud Kayisi, a Malawian, is the Gender and Media Diversity Centre Programme Officer at Gender Links.

This article is part of the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service, bringing you fresh views on everyday news.

Fish farming opens door for women enterprises

…By Miller Omega

F

ish farming in Nyanza Province, a culturally preserve for men, has opened doors for women entrepreneurs.

Prior to starting of the fish farming through the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), women fish mongers were only allowed to get their stock from men, the only ones allowed to venture into the lake. Most often, they are forced to trade sex for fish which is blamed for the high HIV/Aids prevalence rate.

Equally there was fear that with the region’s proximity to Lake Victoria which produces about 60 per cent of stock in the country, the venture would flop. However, the venture launched by Ministry of Fisheries Development has been a success, thanks to women’s groups in the area.

Initiative One such group is the 52 member Ngege Women Group in Migori County who took the venture in the earlier stage. The members, whose name means tilapia in Dholuo, have ponds.

“Prior to the coming of the ponds women had been locked out completely from fishing and were stigmatised when they started. However, after our husbands and the society saw the financial benefit they have been receptive,” says Dorina Atieno, a member of the group while feeding fish in her three ponds.

Atieno started with one pond three years ago after getting approval from her husband and the benefit from the pond which earns a farmer KSh30,000 to KSh70,000 for 300 square metres of land used has seen her build four more ponds.

“After my husband built the pond I literally take care of the fish like one will do to livestock and keep away the taboo of going to the lake to fish, Atieno explains. She adds: “During the actual harvesting I employ workers like any other farm hand.”

Atieno’s husband who works in Kisii town

has left the management of the pond to her.

“When we had the first harvest and the society around saw how big the catch was compared to the ones from the lake coupled with the income it generated, there was a remarkable change of attitude towards us,” Atieno observes, adding it was a move which increased their members from the initial six to the current number.

KSh and her group members are among farmers in 31 constituencies in Nyanza who are producing over 100,000 metric tonnes of stock worth KSh140 million which translates to KSh530 million the Government got from ponds in the last financial year, according to the ministry figures.

“Last term I entirely paid fees for my children, money from my three ponds which gave me KSh16,000 each after partial harvesting. This saved us as my husband’s sugarcane money delayed as Sony Sugar Company didn’t harvest the cane on time,” says Malin Likowa, a two years old fish farmer.

Fish farming has a higher return as fish is not prone to disease like other farm animals and unlike crops their survival is not limited by poor weather condition as a farmer who started with 1,000 fingerlings is assured of the same number at harvesting.

Ponds “In Migori County, the government started with 1,065 farmers especially from women groups by building 1,244 fish ponds through the ESP. This success is mostly attributed to the women groups,” explains Simon Munguti, Migori County fisheries officer.

The groups have been instrumental in building additional 1,500 ponds which is producing 2,000 metric tonnes annually from the ponds alone.

According to Awino said that this success made them approach the government which has agreed to build a Ksh 50 million fish processing plant at Rongo district in the County to preserve

Above, a fish farm, middle, a man holding fish from the farm and below, people enjoying a meal of fish.

Picture: Miller Omega

the surge from going to waste by producing five tonne of ice for preservation.

“Fish farming has opened new avenues of production which will surely outpace production from lakes in the region and the country at large and in Nyanza apart from catch from the lake, ponds are a major boost and women are opening major avenues in the game” Munguti says.

When the effort begun in Nyanza, Munguti says they didn’t have women in mind and started by sensitising the community to view fish from the pond as the same quality with ones from the lake under ‘Kula-Kuza-Uza’ initiative.

“However, the women have given the fish farming a new breathe as they are adapt at forming groups and taking development loans” he says.

12

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

More needs to be done to cushion Kenyan women from inflation

Women invent survival tactics in semi arid Mwingi

…By Karani Kelvin

I

n a country where a vast majority of people survive on less than a dollar a day, an inflation rate of about 17 per cent worsens the situation in ways that only the poor know too well.

The weakening of the shilling against the dollar has resulted in increased fuel prices which has in turn translated to increased commodities’ prices.

Inflation can be loosely translated to mean the increase in prices of commodities or services over a period of time. It means then that the unit value of money reduces and people need more money to buy the same goods or services.

Inflation is linked directly to the cost of living. An increase in the rate of inflation always means an increase in the cost of living. A high cost of living is seen in high cost of goods and services vis-a-vis reduced purchasing power of the people.

Inflation

While all Kenyans are suffering greatly under inflation, it’s the Kenyan women who perhaps suffer most. Given that women are on average poorer than men, it goes without say that they, more than the men, are the ones who struggle most under the yoke of inflation.

The prices of essential commodities like sugar and maize flour have almost doubled and many families are learning to do without them. The prices of non-essential commodities are also high thereby worsening the situation. The problem is not that there is no money, it’s that the value of the money has greatly reduced.

Women especially from the rural areas and those living in informal settlements are realising by the day that they are selling less and less of their farm produce and goods. Those engaged in other businesses are also registering a decline in their sales as the purchasing power depreciates.

Weighed down by the responsibilities of taking care of their families, Kenyan women are finding creative ways of tackling the situation. Some have opted to cut down on their expenses while others are finding other sources of income.

Although the government through the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has come up with measures to curb the downward spiral of the shilling, more needs to be done to blunt the effects of inflation.

There is need to do more to save people from the adverse effects of high cost of living.

Since essential commodities like sugar, maize and cooking oil are at the heart of every Kenyan, the government must come out strongly to regulate the prices of such commodities. It is unfortunate that while Kenyans, and women especially given that they are the ones taking care of families, are struggling to make ends meet and make sense out of the whole situation, politicians and government officials are paying lip service to the matter.

Let politicians and government officials know that talking about the high cost of living means little to the people, if anything. It does not also help to shift blame from person to person — that won’t do either.

…By JANE MUTUA

I

nspired by the drive to become self reliant, a group of women have embarked on an initiative that has helped to transform their livelihoods and increase their earnings.

The group first began by growing drought resistant crops such as sorghum, millet and sunflower before they invested in value addition.

They now bake bread, snacks and chapattis using the traditional crops. They have established a niche in the market through their trade name “Enziu Commercial Bakers”.

According to Mwikali Momboko, the group’s chairlady, the membership currently at 30 has been able to educate their children and fend for their families.

The women are also engaged in traditional basketry, mats and ropes which are sold within the district.

Revenue “We are able to generate revenue, just in the same way as our counterparts in offices,” observes Momboko.

The group has helped to demystify the traditionally held notion that women are basically dependent on their spouses for survival.

The women have also been able to attract

support from the government sponsored National Agriculture and Livestock Extension Programme (NALEP).

“Through NALEP, the women have been sensitised on how to grow drought resistant crops such as sorghums among others including other income generating activities,’’ explains Momboko.

Market She adds: “With more donors and well wishers, we believe we can do much and be able to reach regional market.”

NALEP has donated a posho mill that facilitates in the production of flour from their cereals much faster as opposed to the popular traditional ways Women with traditional baskets. A woman grinding sorghum of grinding flour. flour using traditional method.

“However, the posho mill is currently not operational because we have not yet been able they spent a lot of money in controlling pestito identify a safe place to operate the mill,” ex- cides in their farms. plains Momboko. ‘‘In the previous rainy season, we registered In an interview with the Kenyan Woman, poor harvest following an attack by stalk borMomboko said they have suffered a setback as ers,” she adds.

Savings group loans keeps single mother afloat

…By Thomas Bwire

F

rom her stall, she sells different items ranging from school bags, scarves and women’s handbags among other items.

She has managed to attract a large clientele and this even disrupts my interview with her forcing me to take photographs at her stall and the neighbouring stalls.

Meet the self made business woman, Colonia Awino Okello, one of the active members of Kibera Agenda Four Business Savings Group.

I watch as she attends to her customers. A male buyer had wanted to purchase one of the hats and in this case, several samples were given out to him for comparison.

“The prices range between KSh80 to KSh100.

You just need to choose what you want and we

will negotiate and agree on what is affordable for you,” she notes.

A mother of six children, Okello, 39, joined Kibera Agenda Four Business Savings Group two and a half years ago. Her move was driven by her desire to start a business of her own 18 years ago.

She had her personal savings that had accumulated for over a period of three months when she worked as a cleaner in one of the organisations in town.

After she left the cleaning job, her passion drove her to start a green grocery business where she sold vegetables at Toi market, in Kibera for five years. Later on she moved to selling teddy bears, caps, bags and school uniforms.

“I heard of the group through a friend two and a half years ago and received my first loan

of KSh2,000. I was expected to repay back by contributing KSh200 every Wednesday, and that worked for me,” Okello explains.

From there on she has never looked back.

After repaying the first loan, Okello applied for KSh5,000 of which she repayed with KSh500 per week. Her last loan was KSh10,000.

According to Okello, business is not that bad, and on a normal day she makes KSh1,500, but when business is low she may manage KSh500.

“One challenging factor is that, some customers always want to buy items on credit and in the end fail to pay,” she says.

The single mother has lived in Kibera for the last 20 years and besides taking care of her six children, she also cares for five other orphans.

13

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Can female genital mutilation be delinked from religion? …By Carolyne Oyugi

S

ongs have been composed, campaigns launched and leaders condemned the vice but much still needs to be done to stop the very dangerous and deep rooted culture of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

As advocates heighten efforts to curb the practice, perpetrators of the heinous act are changing tactics and finding ways of carrying on with this act away from the public eye.

Though the culture has been abandoned in some communities, a research done by a local non-governmental organisation Mothers’ Lap Foundation (MLF) titled Delinking Islam from FGM, reveals that this problem needs a holistic approach for it to be tackled.

Beliefs The survey paints a grim picture in the fight against FGM. The organisation’s survey strongly links religious beliefs in the Somali community and cultural practices among the Gusii and Maasai community to the current prevalence rate.

The survey indicates that FGM is still embraced in the three communities with a prevalence rate of 90 per cent.

According to Mothers’ Lap Foundation’s Executive Director, Faraha Manzoor, the practice is condemned globally and proscribed in Kenya. It is viewed as a form of violence and discrimination against girls and women.

It has serious physical and psychosocial consequences and adversely affects victims.

The findings illuminate that 97 per cent of the Muslims in North Eastern Kenya practice FGM as a religious and cultural rite. The study puts the Gusii second at 96 per cent after North Eastern Kenya, followed by Maasai at 94 per cent and Taita at 62 per cent.

Despite sensitisation against the vice, the survey indicates that FGM is practiced in most of the 47 Counties in the country with Central Kenya recording a steady rise after recording a drop a few years back.

“Due to sustained Mungiki (outlawed sect) activities in central Ke-

nya and other adjacent regions, FGM has been on the rise again, despite initial results showing that the vice had dropped,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Lethome, Mothers’ Lap Foundation Legal advisor.

Among the Kikuyu community, FGM prevalence is 33 per cent. The survey further notes that despite political good will among the Kalenjin to stump out FGM, it is still practiced with a prevalence of 49 per cent, the rate among the Meru and Embu stands at 43 per cent and 41 per cent respectively. The prevalence rate among the Kamba has remained relatively low at 27 per cent.

Recalling her experience, Manzoor sheds tears as she narrates how a young girl she was trying to rescue bled to death in her arms.

“It was a horrible experience, how for Allah’s case can one do such a dehumanising thing to a young girl like that? This completely defeats logic,” Manzoor argues.

International Human Right activist, Ansar Burney, who is visiting Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, challenged the media to strongly voice out for the helpless girls faced with FGM and forced marriages.

Rite “We need to create awareness, positively sensitise communities that practice it. This can only be done best by media through conveying the right information. I urge the Kenyan media to fight for the rights of the girl child because FGM is a human rights violation that is killing girls,” observes Burney.

The three main reasons cited for the practice of FGM in Somali community were that it is a Somali tradition, that it is an Islamic requirement, and that it enforces the cultural value of sexual purity in females by controlling their sexual desires, thereby ensuring virginity before marriage and fidelity throughout a woman’s life.

The study shows that there is a fear of women “running wild” and becoming promiscuous if they are not circumcised and infibulated. FGM is erroneously seen as a way of complying with the Islamic requirement of chastity and morality, and is also believed

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is outlawed in Kenya and viewed as a form of violence and discrimination. Many organisations have stepped up its eradication.

to enhance women’s ritual cleanliness to enable them to pray.

The practice, prevalent in some Muslim countries, has grave consequences as many girls bleed to death or die of infection. Most are traumatised. Those who survive can suffer adverse health effects during marriage and pregnancy. New information from Iraqi Kurdistan raises the possibility that the problem is more prevalent in the Middle East than previously believed and that FGM is far more tied to religion than many Western academics and activists admit.

However, at the village level, those who commit the practice regard it as a religious ritual. Religion is not only theology but also practice and the practice is widespread throughout the Middle East.

Diplomats Many diplomats, international organisation workers, and Arabists argue that the problem is localised to North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa, but according to Thomas von der OstenSacken and Thomas Uwer of Middle East Quarterly they are wrong.

The problem is pervasive throughout the Levant, the Fertile Crescent, and the Arabian Peninsula, and among many immigrants to the West from these countries.

“Silence on the issue is less reflective of the absence of the problem than insufficient freedom for feminists and independent civil society to raise the issue,” Uwer says.

FGM has been a top priority for

United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) fighting for human rights for almost three decades. As early as 1952, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution condemning the practice. International momentum against the practice built when, in 1958, the Economic and Social Council invited the World Health Organisation to study the persistence of customs subjecting girls to ritual operations.

Practice Nearly half of the FGM cases represented in official statistics occur in Egypt and Ethiopia; Sudan also records high prevalence of the practice.

Egypt is part of the African continent but, from a cultural, historical, and political perspective, Egypt has closer ties to the Arab Middle East than to subSaharan Africa.

In 1995, after President Hosni Mubarak announced his intention to ban the practice, he was persuaded to drop prohibitive legislation. The move to ban FGM had been supported by Dr. Mohammed Syed Tantawi, the Mufti of Egypt, but has been fiercely opposed by the Sheikh of Al Azhar University, the largest Sunni theological college. Even a gynaecologist from Cairo University, Dr Munir Fawzi, stated: “Female circumcision is entrenched in Islamic life and teaching.”

However, FGM was banned in general in Egypt in 1996, but was allowed in some circumstances if carried out by a doctor.

In early 2003, WADI, a GermanAustrian NGO focusing on women’s issues, started to work with mobile teams to take medical aid and social support to women in peripheral Kurdish areas such as in the Garmian region of Iraqi Kurdistan. After more than a year of working in the area, women began to speak about FGM. Midwives often perform the operation with unsterilized instruments or even broken glass and without anaesthesia on girls four to 12 years old.

The extent of mutilation depends on the experience of the midwife and the luck for the girl. The wound is then treated with ash or mud with the girls then forced to sit in a bucket of iced water. Many Kurdish girls die, and others suffer chronic pain, infection, and infertility.

Tradition When asked why they subject their daughters to the operation, many women respond “it has always been like that”. Because the clitoris is considered to be “dirty” (haram, the connotation is forbidden by religion), women fear that they cannot find husbands for their daughters if they have not been mutilated; many believe men prefer sex with a mutilated wife. Others stress the religious necessity of FGM even though Islamic law is unclear with regard to FGM statement about whether FGM is a good practice; rather, they refer to FGM as a female practice in which men should not interfere. None of the men said he had ever discussed the question with his wife.

Married women forced into genital mutilation

…By Kirimi Murithi

S

hock has gripped Tigania East Constituency of Meru County after married women opposed to Female Genital Mutilation were kidnapped and forcefully made to face the knife.

The incident which took place in Athanja sub-location in Muthara left the area in shock after one of the women who was kidnapped went missing and is believed to have been hidden after being mutilated in Kaithe Village.

However, one of the women was rescued after residents intervened and wrestled those holding her.

According to Evangeline Kangai an antiFGM activist, the victim who managed to escape had been lured to enter a house after the women

lied to her that they were holding a meeting.

“When she entered the house she was ordered to undress. She screamed and neighbours came to her rescue,” explained Kangai.

As this was happening, the victims had already circumcised and hidden another woman in one of the rooms.

Kangai said the group made up of young and old women has been targeting married women whom they threaten with isolation if they do not undergo circumcision.

“The group has turned to married women because we have sensitised the school girls against FGM. We are now appealing to the Government to take stern action against the perpetrators who are trying to revive this vice in the region where it had earlier been kicked out,” she said.

She said the group has been training younger

women on how to carry out FGM which threatens to advance the practice into the future.

While confirming the arrest, area Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) Superintendant Charles Koskei said the suspects will be arraigned in court for propagating harmful cultural practices. He urged the community to intensify the campaign against the vice.

“The Constitution protects women against harmful cultural practices and we will not allow anyone to violate the basic rights of women,” noted Koskei.

He revealed that the police have gathered sufficient evidence to prosecute the suspects and assured the public that justice will be done at long last.

Koskei said the arrest of a 23-year-old woman and an elderly circumciser is evidence that

there has been training for younger women to take up the circumcising role.

According to Susan Munya, chairperson of Maendeleo ya Wanawake Tigania East the group assaulted four other women in the last one month. She called for a crackdown on other suspects.

According to Ann Kaburo, a health worker, the practice by the group has broken some families since they have been mutilating women without the knowledge of their husbands who in turn kick them out when they discover what has taken place.

A survey by The Reject revealed that the vice has been going on for sometime and that an operation by the police in the area netted seven elderly suspects who are believed to be behind the vice in the region.

14

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Participants at a climate change workshop

Calls for gender equality in managing Climate Change …By Henry Owino

T

he issue of climate change has become a concern to many not only scientists, environmentalists, health workers, researchers but now to ordinary Kenyans especially women who are feeling the effects brought about by the ever changing climate condition.

Human activity, especially relating to their action towards the depletion of the ozone layer, and such like is also an important factor.

Kenyan women leaders from various towns drawn from all the 47 counties in Kenya converged in Nairobi hotel for two a two day workshop to discuss the impact on climate change in the lives of women brought by the ever changing weather pattern.

Action The initiative is being coordinated by the Kenya Climate Justice Women Champions (KCJWC) and sponsored by CARE-Kenya, Practical Action and Oxfam International.

The participants shared their own experiences and those from within their localities to inform and educate each other of what actually is happening to other women farmers, children, environment, water towers, rain fall among other impacts of climate change so that to forge way forward.

The major issues that came out clearly and drew many discussions included the marginalisation of women in climate change discussions both at national and global level, vulnerability

of women due to climate change in the country and what the impact change has on food security, pastoralism, poverty and conflicts between communities and families.

KCJWC National Coordinator, Kenyan chapter Cecilia Kibe said that while the impacts of climate change vary between and within countries, societies, communities and individuals, women are however the most vulnerable.

Gender “Despite existing evidence of the impact of climate change on women, the gender aspects in government policies are still wanting,” noted Kibe. She added: “It is high time women realise the impact of climate change and mitigate it.”

Kibe reiterated that the threat of climate change is manifested in the increase of extreme weather conditions such as droughts, storms or floods that has been recognized as a global priority issue.

“Climate change is a sustainable development challenge, with broad impacts not only on the environment but also on economic and social de-

velopment,” she observed.

Effects of climate change will vary among regions and between different generations, income groups and occupations as well as between women and men but something need to be done to avert it.

According to Kibe, climate change affects the water, fuel wood energy and these greatly endanger women’s lives in all communities especially women in rural areas in developing countries most of who depend highly on local natural resources for their livelihood.

She said because of women’s responsibility to secure water, food, and energy fuel for cooking and heating, most communities are yet to fully grasp the magnitude of climate change, as the magnitude of exclusion is greater in women.

“The effects of climate change, including drought, uncertain rainfall and deforestation, make it harder to secure these resources. By comparison with men in poor countries, women face historical disadvantages, which include limited access to decision making and economic assets that compound the challenges of cli-

mate change,” noted Kibe.

Most participants at the meeting observed that the decision making role is still largely dominated by men who still control access to social and physical resources which, according to Kibe, is a deliberate scheme to exclude grassroots women in the important debate on climate change.

She urged the government to create room for qualitative and quantitative representation of women and other marginalised groups such as grassroots, technical and elite at all discussions on the environment, climate change and sustainable development discussions.

The KCJWC group called upon the government to consult regularly with grassroots women of different constituencies in environmental and climate change discussion for evidence before statements, policies and national positions are taken over the issues.

Impacts Previously, in 2002 during the Commission on Status of Women meeting at the 46th session, climate change was considered an emerging

“The effects of climate change, including drought, uncertain rainfall and deforestation, make it harder to secure these resources. By comparison with men in poor countries, women face historical disadvantages, which include limited access to decision making and economic assets that compound the challenges of climate change.”

— Cecilia Kibe

issue.

The agreed conclusions on environmental management and mitigation of natural disasters adopted by the commission called for action to mainstream a gender perspective into ongoing research on the impacts and causes of climate change, and to encourage the application of results of the research in policies and programmes.

The participants drew attention to the fact that climate change is not a gender neutral phenomenon, stressing that it has a direct impact on women’s lives due to their domestic work and makes their everyday sustenance even more difficult.

The Commission even proposed for efforts on financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women, especially referring to the impact of climate change on women and girls.

Furthermore, it called on governments to integrate a gender perspective into the design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of national environmental policies to strengthen mechanisms and to provide adequate resources to ensure women’s full and equal participation in decision making.

The workshop that brought 60 women from all the Kenya’s Counties came at a time of heightened activities geared towards building the momentum to the sustainable development conference for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil scheduled to be held in June this year.

15

Issue Number 26 • May 2012

Climate funding needs gender equity …By Rousbeh Legatis

G

ender considerations remain largely disregarded in existing climate funds, even though women are some of the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change on livelihoods and agriculture.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), which would receive a portion of the $100 billion a year expected from rich nations by 2020, could prove to be “important way to put equity back into the multilateral response to climate change”, says Liane Schalatek, Associate Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in North America.

However, she noted, most climate financing — whether channelled through funds, governmental spending programmes or bilateral and multilateral agencies to reduce emissions and to help societies to deal with the adverse effects of climate change — lacks gender responsiveness.

Funds Together with the Oversees Development Institute, the Heinrich Böll Foundation monitors the 25 most important climate funds (Climate Funds Update), tracking down who pledges what, how much donors have disbursed, and to where climate financing flows.

A participant in the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held in New York from February 27 through March 9, Schalatek spoke with IPS UN Correspondent Rousbeh Legatis about taking stock of climate financing through a gender lens.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Question: Looking at existing dedicated climate funds, you found gender considerations to be an “afterthought” instead of being systematically addressed. Could you explain that further?

Liane Schalatek: Several of the existing climate funds, for example the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) or the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), both dealing with adaptation and administered by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), have been in existence for more than 10 years.

Exotic Others, such as the Climate Investment Funds at the World Bank or the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund, have only operated since 2008-2009. At the time of their operationalisation, the discussion about gender and climate change was an exotic one that had not yet extended to climate funds and financing instruments and need to make them more gender-aware and gender-responsive. This is a fairly new topic in the global climate finance discourse itself.

However, these funds several years into their operations with their first projects and programmes implemented have realised that without gender considerations, their funding is less effective and less equitable. Their experience confirmed that of development finance, where a focus on gender equality has proved to be a core contributor to better development outcomes.

Better outcome of climate actions is particularly important in times of scarce public funding availability. By including some gender provisions retroactively, for example, consultation guidelines that stipulate the outreach to women as a special stakeholder group or the inclusion of a gender analysis in project proposals, fund boards and administrators feel that they have a better chance of benefitting more people in developing countries.

A woman arriving home after collecting firewood. Women’s interaction with environment need to be recognised.

However, putting some provisions retroactively into funding mechanisms is not the same as designing them in a way that is focusing on improving gender equality in recipient countries as an important and expected cobenefit of funding climate actions.

A climate fund designed this way would include gender equality as one of the goals of its actions; would strive for gender-balance on its governing bodies; make sure that there is gender-expertise among its staff to evaluate proposals for their contribution to gender equality; write operational and funding guidelines that stipulate the inclusion of gender indicators and gender analysis in any project proposal; and monitor for gender equality cobenefits as part of a results framework.

So far, no existing climate fund has managed such a comprehensive integration.

the extreme weather variability and long-term weather pattern changes brought on by climate change — women and girls are often likely to receive less food because of gender-based distribution dynamics within households.

To be effective, adaptation policies and funding for adaptation projects and programmes in agriculture in Africa need to consider the gender dynamics of food procurement and distribution both within households and markets.

For example, they should target rural women in Africa specifically with capacitybuilding, consultation outreach, technical assistance and tailored agricultural extension services. Without a gender-sensitive lens, climate financing instruments delivering adaptation funding for Africa can exacerbate the discrimination of women.

Mitigation

Question: You point to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as particularly promising to change business as usual in global climate financing. Why? Schalatek: The Green Climate Fund in its governing documents already has several references to a gender-sensitive approach integrated, for example, with respect to genderbalance as a goal on the Green Climate Fund Board and among the staff of its secretariat.

Most importantly, it has stipulated in its objectives and principles that promoting gender responsiveness is to be considered an explicit ‘co-benefit’ of any funding done by the Green Climate Fund. Verbally, this is already more than any other existing climate fund has integrated.

Question: Could you describe the consequences if climate funds are not gender-responsive?

Schalatek: If the financing that climate funds provide for mitigation and adaption actions is not gender-responsive, projects and programmes done in the name of climate protection might actually hurt women or discriminate against women (in violation of women’s human rights).

They are also likely to be less effective in reaching long-lasting results. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, women are still the primary agricultural producers, accounting for up to 80 percent of the household food production.

As women own little of the land they work on, they are often kept out of formal consultation processes to determine adaptation needs of rural communities and are unable to secure credits or other agricultural extension services.

In times of food insecurity — aggravated by

Challenge Of course, the challenge is now to make sure that these words are operationalised into concrete measures or mechanisms, for example in the form of gender indicators and gen-

der-inclusive stakeholder participation guidelines. The outlook is not too bad: The level of awareness of governments, both of contributing and recipient countries, on the relevance of gender considerations to address climate change, has increased. It is today far greater than just a few years back when many of the other funds became first active. International organisations such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) or multilateral development banks as implementing agencies of many climate funds have become better in supporting governments in writing more gender-aware funding proposals and investment plans.

Lastly, civil society groups, which have played a key role in the Green Climate Fund design process in pushing the integration of a gender perspective, are committed to work with the new Green Climate Fund Board and Secretariat, but also to challenge the Green Climate Fund publicly if necessary, should it fail to turn promises contained in the governing document into actions.

Political Of course, the Green Climate Fund can only be operationalised as a gender-responsive climate fund if it receives the full political and financial support of developed countries quickly. Some large funding pledges now would secure its viability.

It would also send a signal to developing countries that developed countries are willing to fulfil their part of the Durban package without quid-pro-quo, but in the spirit of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”.

A gender-responsive, fully funded Green Climate Fund would be one important way to put equity back into the multilateral response to climate change.

16

Issue Number 23 • November 2011

Lack of mothers care, turns girl child education upside down …By Jane Mutua

M

ost parents have passed the buck of nurturing up their children as they grow up and left teachers to do the whole task, leaving the girl child education in the brink of precipice.

“It is so pathetic that most of the parents even don’t bother to find out their children performance until when the child completes his/her final examination,” laments Mwingi Central Senior Education Officer Gideon Mukiti Mwiyei.

Mwiyei said that if it happens that the child has performed poorly, the parent reacts angrily to the poor performance, yet he or she contributed nothing for the good of the child’s education. He observes that most children in primary level perform poorly due to the lack of parent’s guidance and counselling.

Selection “Despite the fact that girls are favoured in secondary school form one selection unlike boys, they can as well perform better and get better secondary schools without obtaining any favour,” urges Mwiyei. He adds: “This can happen only if both parents can resort to disciplining their children in order to produce good results.”

As goes the Swahili adage that asiyefunzwa na mamaye hufunzwa na ulimwengu (whoever fails to adhere to mother’s advice, the world

will harshly teach you).

Most street urchin in urban centres just find themselves begging in streets when their parents fail to take care of them as others sadly turn out to be gangsters due to peer pressure.

“These children you see loitering around are all not orphaned. Most of them fled their homes after lacking someone to educate them and provide them with the basic needs,” observes Mwiyei.

“Education is the foundation and an open key for a successful life for all people. This is the reason why we (Uweso Kenya) are moving from one school to another as we monitor the progress of the pupils in school,” says Phyllis Kimotho, coordinator of Uweso Kenya, Kyuso Branch.

Changes Uweso Kenya revealed that most girls in primary schools in Mwingi District attain teenage and start experiencing biological body changes yet their mothers are not aware.

Many of the girls are suffering in silence as they use pieces of clothes or mattresses for sanitary towels.

“This is what we call ignorance.

Most mothers need to be close to their daughters. If we want our girls to perform well, we need to adopt our traditional culture of mothers staying close to their daughters as they discipline and guide them.

I strongly believe that this will improve the girl child education,” notes Kimotho.

She reiterates that both teachers

and parents must play their part in ensuring the wellbeing of the innocent girls adding that a study revealed that most girls in primary school miss classes when experiencing their periods. ‘‘The mother needs to be sensitive to their girls by monitoring their body changes to help boost their school performance since most of the girls start receiving monthly periods, and no one provides them with sanitary towels,” noted a concerned teacher from Ithumbi primary school in Mwingi Central.

Cheat “They cheat that they are unwell without disclosing the kind of sickness due to naivety. As a teacher I just get to know her problem through the look and shift in to help her. But it becomes unmanageable if it turns out that five girls per day experience the same problem,” said the concerned teacher.

Mothers’ ignorance to take care of their daughters is too high within Mwingi. Most of mothers are not close to their daughters and, therefore, most girls turn up to other people to solve out their problems.

“I don’t know who to blame. Girls from both primary and secondary schools are giving birth while doing their final examinations. Last year alone we had three girls from primary school who gave birth and four from secondary school and both were candidates. They had difficult time to do their examinations

Many children in school lack parental guidance as they get into teenage.

Ida Odinga, the prime minister’s wife gives sanitary towels to a school girl early this month at Kaningo, Kyuso District. Inset: Uweso team assess primary school pupils. in hospital, I know these girls didn’t perform well,” said one of the top ranking official in Mwingi hospital who did not want to be named.

Pregnancy She said the number of school girls getting pregnant is too high adding that most girls in secondary schools have gone to the extent of procuring abortion.

“We had a girl with a special case who did an abortion last year from secondary school within Mwingi, barely two days before sitting for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE),” she added.

According to James Malla, a Guidance and Counselling Officer from Nairobi, the buck of bringing up the child in a moral way stops with the parents, not teachers.

He observed that both parents should be in a position to guide and discipline their children unless those with exceptional cases.

“If both parents are alive, let all of them play part to bring up their children together if they really want them grow well and perform well in their academic,’’ noted Malla.

However, parent’s separation is still a big problem that has contributed to poor performance among school children.

“Parents’ disagreements and divorces can lead to a child’s poor perform since there is no conducive environment for that child to learn,” he added.

He observed that children can only pass their exams when they have a conducive environment both at home and school.

Executive Director: Rosemary Okello Editorial Director: Arthur Okwemba Managing Editor: Jane Godia

The Kenyan Woman is a publication of African Woman and Child Feature Service E-mail: info@awcfs.org www.awcfs.org

Sub-Editors:

Duncan Mboyah and Faith Muiruri

Contributors:

Hussein Dido, Henry Kahara, Carolyne Oyugi, Frank Ouma, Henry Owino, Bob Ombati, Kirimi Murithi, Kigondu Ndavanu, Cyprose Asiago, Monica Luwondo, Daud Kayisi, Miller Omega, Karani Kelvin, Jane Mutua, Thomas Bwire and Rousbeh Legatis.

Design & layout: Noel Lumbama (Noel Creative Media Ltd)

This paper is produced with support from HIVOS