Feminism seems to have a different meaning to different women. To some, it starts with demanding for equality at home and at work. For others it is about walking half-naked or creating a class system within the female rank. The latter is what Kenyan MPs seem to be doing.
They have completely missed the mark on the long stay in the United States of Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika for maternity leave. Her voters are not against her pursuing motherhood; their bone of contention is that she is getting better maternity healthcare than the women of Nakuru who voted for her.
But I do not expect MPs who have always strove to breathe different air from the poor Kenyan voters to think differently, or stand with voters rather than their equally privileged politicians.
Female legislators led by Kisii Women rep addressing the media at Bunge towers Nairobi.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo| Nation Media Group
The right to equity in healthcare should be enjoyed by all. The legal mandate to ensure that right for every Kenyan, especially child-bearing women, lies with MPs and all governors who have the responsibility of ensuring that the devolved healthcare is accessible. How does a female governor leave healthcare in her county in shambles and travel miles away to the US to enjoy better maternity care and female MPs find this defensible?
Just like their male counterparts, Kenyan female politicians are taking the same path of standing with impunity rather than carving a different path for themselves by standing up for justice and the truth. Women are expected to have the natural instincts to protect and nurture. But our female MPs have decided the best thing to nurture and protect are their families, their children and political families.
This is why majority were silent as voters’ children in the Gen Z protests were murdered and maimed. Some of these MPs even had the audacity of suggesting that the female protester deaths were femicide and not extrajudicial killings. Their silence was also very loud when the Linda-Mama program, which was a lifeline for many poor mothers, was abruptly dropped and left many from poor backgrounds exposed.
Female lawmakers support Governor Susan Kihika amid controversy
Violence against women continues to be a problem in Kenya, but this is something female MPs fail to prioritise with a view to ending it. As they lined up at a conference to defend the impunity shown to the people of Nakuru by their governor, a woman was violently assaulted by a group of men at a graveside in Kisii, and a young girl was killed for refusing early marriage in Wajir.
If the female MPs, particularly the women representatives, had been steadfast in fighting to end violence against women and for provision of better healthcare, and had they been as visible as when they fight for their entitled and wealthy female colleagues, we may have been in a better position in keeping women and girls safe from violence and provide better healthcare to all child-bearing women and all those with serious gynaecological problems.
Feminism seems to be have been hijacked by a select number of privileged women to drive selfish agenda at the expense of many women who still lack the voice to express their challenges as women. Feminism does not and should not come anywhere near impunity.
Defending breaches of the law by female leaders or those in the public eye by pulling the feminist card is eroding the rights of upstanding women who came before us and fought for the rights of all women, not just the privileged and self-centred.
There is a lot that Kenyan female MPs can get their stick their teeth into than defending women who can defend themselves. Their silence on corruption should end in order to protect funds for women programmes. Their silence on violence against women must end in order to keep all Kenyan women safe. Their voice should be louder for better healthcare for all women, especially those that have no means to travel abroad for specialist care.
Kenya still experiences high maternal mortality during childbirth, but this is something that seems not to bother our female MPs stuck on their ivory towers. Rural women are the hardest hit due to the inaccessibility of maternity hospitals. Sixty years after independence and they still walk far or are carried on bicycles to the nearest maternity hospital. The risk factors for such pregnant women are unimaginable.
Let those press conferences by female MPs and governors be about the progress being made to bridge the gap between the rich and poor women when it comes to maternity care. Standing by impunity is not a way to better the health or safety of women. Leave feminism out of impunity and make things better for all women.
