Intimidation used to keep women from elective posts

It was 2002 and the multiparty campaigns had begun in earnest. As Rose (not her real name) and her driver rounded a secluded corner about 10 kilometres off  the Kaharate-Kangare Road in Murang’a County just after 7 pm, she was happy to see a group of male youths wearing T-shirts with her image ahead, sure  that they  her loyal supporters.

“I happily rolled down my car window to get a better view of these cheering supporters,” she trails off.

Before she knew what was happening, they had grabbed her out of the passenger seat and were dragging her to a maize plantation nearby as they ordered her driver to leave. 

'POLITICS IS FILTHY'

“What happened was the worst experience I have ever undergone. How I found myself at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital three days later when I came to, and how until now none of the culprits has been nabbed, 15 years down the line, is the stuff of a circus Oscar,” she says.

So, does she still harbour any political aspirations?

Her answer is an emphatic No.

“It is said that politics is dirty, but to me it is not just dirty, but filthy. I cannot, even in my wildest dream, think of getting involved even as a voter. The mark the incident left on my soul is indelible!”

She had become yet another statistic of what many female political aspirants undergo. Indeed, violence is one of the major factors that deter many potential and capable women from getting into elective office.

According to Taveta MP, Dr Naomi Shaban, women aspirants need serious commitment from the government that they will be protected against the vice.

“I have been a victim of that evil, although I was not the direct recipient; the hired political goons targeted my son in 2001 when I announced my candidature in a by-election that was occasioned by  the resignation of then area MP Mr Basil Criticos,” she narrates.

She claims that even the media ruled her out of the race “since they reported my candidature in a brief story close to the obituaries”.

FIERY BAPTISM

 “A woman is among five people eyeing the Taveta parliamentary seat on a Kanu ticket. She will face off with seasoned names like George Mangi Mwalaghe, Stephen Kubo Mwazige, Raymond Ndaretoi Mnene and Amos Mutuku Mutungi. She stands little or no chance,” she recalls the story saying.

Five months later, the same media reported how she had won the seat after garnering 58 per cent of the total votes cast. Since then, she served as  as Taveta MP for 14 years uninterrupted.

She says she had a fiery baptism when she entered into politics since her home was raided by goons who would have pushed her three-year old son into  a pit latrine, had it not been for the quick intervention by the police.

“The evil act was designed to cut off my political feet. I had to take my son to a relative’s home as I campaigned. Once elected, I gained some political muscle and in subsequent elections, I have been investing a lot in my security,” she says.

But it is not just the aspirants who suffer, as  Mrs Cecilia Wanjiku Gitu, whose husband, Mr Bethuel Gitu, contested the Kigumo Parliamentary seat in 2007, will tell you.

“My husband was humble and would not have dreamt of using violence to capture the seat. But his competitors were not that civil,” she says.

She cites an incident in which six youths attacked a group of campaigners whom her husband had invited to their home in Heho Village on December 13, 2007.

'SO MANY EVILS'

 “They were interested only in the women supporters. They raped three of them (aged 21, 58 and 62 years) in my house,  attacked my husband and took his firearm. I was lucky to have been away on official duty,” she recalls.

Her husband later died in circumstances attributed to that politically instigated attack.

After retiring, Mrs Gitu was nominated to the Murang’a County Assembly as a legislator, a position she still holds.

“Politics has so many evils and I hope we will find a way to protect women aspirants as they campaign for this year’s high-stakes general election,” she says.

She adds that elective positions now come with high salaries, which makes

men even more determined to lock women out.

Perhaps that explains the poor showing by women aspirants in the 2013 polls as recorded by the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission: none of the 19 female aspirants, out of a total of 237 aspirants in the senatorial and gubernatorial  races, made it.

Of the 290 parliamentary aspirants, only 5.5 per cent of the successful candidates were women while  of the 1,450 total county assembly representative aspirants, only 88 women made it.

UNFAIR COMPETITION

While violence is mostly used to deter women from running for elective posts almost every year, it sometimes continues even after a woman gets elected. Many will recall the incident in September 2013, when Nairobi Woman Representative Rachel Shebesh was slapped by Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero at City Hall.

“Okay, that happened and we settled it. But my greatest concern is how to protect women aspirants. We are at risk of many forms of unfair competition and it is incumbent on security agencies to devise a way of neutering such evils against female politicians,” she says.

But even as Ms Shebesh calls for the intervention of security agencies, an even more blatant act of political violence happened took place last year at the headquarters of security ministry­, Harambee House, which houses the Minister for Interior Security, Mr  Joseph Nkaissery.

According to reports, Laikipia North nominated MP Sarah Korere fwas attacked by Laikipia North MP Mathew Lempurkel, during a meeting at Mr Nkaissery’s office.

“You see, I have expressed interest in unseating Mr Lempurkel in the 2017 polls. Since then, I have been receiving threats from adversaries but it was in the minister’s office that I was physically assaulted. It tells you the herculean task women have if they are to successfully vie for a political position in this country,” she says.

She adds she has been warned “not to contest positions that are men’s , and that she would be better off contesting the Woman Representative position, which is  reserved for women.”

FEMALE ASPIRANT

Another female aspirant experiencing intimidation is Runyenjes MP Cecily Mbarire.

“I am now gunning for the gubernatorial seat in Embu County. So intense is the competition that I have to contend with physical and verbal tussles with male competitors. I was recently attacked in public by a male competitor but as a seasoned person in politics, I can hold my ground and soldier on,” she says.

She has also sued a youth for sending her an offensive message, in which he also threatened to kill her. 

Sometimes the arguments used to campaign against women politicians border on the absurd, For instance, Ms Mbarire’s marriage to Mr Dennis Apaa, a non-Embu, is seen by some of her male competitors as making her unfit to run for the gubernatorial position.

“She is married to an outsider. If you elect her, she will divert our resources to go and develop her home region in Teso. She lost her birthright as a daughter of Embu because of that marriage,” one of her male challengers recently said at a public meeting. 

But Mbarire dismisses such sentiments as coming from “tongues submerged in pettiness, selfishness, desperation and immaturity.” 

She accuses such challengers of being male chauvinists out to disparage women and the nation at large. 

“Such people would do well to  tell us which clause in the Elections Act considers marital status, gender, tribe or sex as a prerequisite for admissibility into political contest,” she says. 

Undergoing similar intimidation is Dr Joyce Labosso, the deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, who has announced her intention to vie for the Bomet gubernatorial seat. Her male compeitors  argue that since she is married to  a man from Nyanza, she belongs there and has no business vying for a seat in the  the Rift Valley.

ALL FORMS OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Dr Laboso has also encountered violence during her rallies, which she says is demeaning to the concept of fair, equal and transparent democracy.

Notably, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett has announced that all forms of political violence targeting both women and male aspirants will not be tolerated.”

“Specifically, we are on high alert regarding incidents that are deliberately designed to deter free and fair campaigns, where violence is used as an edge to beat competition,” he added.

His sentiments are shared by National Cohesion and Integration Commission Chairman Francis ole Kaparo who said: “I am committed to ensuring that we change the mindset of unruly competitors who resort to violence as a competition weapon.”

Mr Kaparo said  all competitors and their supporters “must in 2017 learn to be tolerant of all vote seekers, regardless of their gender”.

He specifically cited direct violence, cold wars, male chauvinism, threats, discrimination and marginalisation as the major challenges female political aspirants face. 

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Women have a long way to go to achieve equal representation

But even as the search for a solution to protect Kenyan female politicians from violence continues, a recent international research report that says global affirmative action is likely to be realised only in 2068.This is despite the fact that in 1995, the United Nations sponsored the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, which was attended by 89 governments and 2,600 non-governmental groups.

The delegates agreed on a set of strategic objectives and actions, including efforts to advance women’s participation  in politics and environmental stewardship.However, as the Beijing Conference marked  its 22nd anniversary alongside the target for the achievement of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, it seems women must brace themselves to continue their struggle not just in politics, but in every sphere of human activity. The 2016 report by US-based World Watch Institute says the global trend is on that  makes it hard for women to have an equal footing with their male counterparts in politics.

LONG WAY TO GO

“Although most countries now allow women to vote and run for election, there is still a long way to go to achieve equal political participation,” writes the institute’s president, Robert Engelman, in the report.“Trends show that at the current rate at which women enter parliament annually, gender equality in national legislatures may not be realised until 2068.”

Indeed, Democratic candidate Mrs Hillary Clinton’s loss to now President Donald Trump in the US elections despite being sponsored  by incumbent president Barack Obama clearly shows just how far women still have to go.

Perhaps this is what made Nyeri Woman Representative Priscilla Nyokabi remark: “If the global superpower cannot give us a formula to make women maximise their political potential, then we in developing countries have tough hurdles to overcome. But all is not lost, we will somehow get there.”

The report bases its findings on a hypothesis that in late 2013, women accounted for slightly more than 21 per cent of the representatives in the lower or popular chambers of national legislatures worldwide.“Low levels of female participation in parliaments undoubtedly reflect similarly low levels of participation in other political institutions as well as in social, educational, and economic spheres generally,” it says.

It adds that the number of women in top national executive offices, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, might  only reflect “changeable political scenes in the world’s 193 United Nations member states more than actual trends in women’s influence in governance.”

But there are glaring regional variations in the average percentages of women in parliaments.

Just like in Kenya’s three-tier legislative bodies (National -parliament, county assemblies and the Senate) women tend to be better represented in the less prestigious houses.

Still, it is notable that six of the 10 parliaments with the highest percentage of female representation are in developing countries, the report notes.

African nations  ranked impressively among the top 25 nations, with the parliaments of Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda, the Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda having strong female representation.

Particularly worthy of note is Rwanda, whose first-ever case of a women-dominated national legislature has persisted, and now stands at 57.5 per cent.