Kenya Is Burning: Women’s Voices Are Missing in the Making of the Nation

by Philo Ikonya
– Kenya –

The women of Kenya have always been aware of injustice in our society, all through the years. And they have fought for justice: in 1922 Mary Nyanjiru faced the colonialist’s gun fearlessly after stating that if the men would not fight, they could give her their trousers and she would don them and do the fighting. She died for her rights, as Mekatilili Wa Menza did before her, who fought just as courageously for her people. Analysts say that what Kenya has experienced in 2008 has its roots in colonial times. Well, the stifling of women’s voices is no exception.

We, the women of Kenya, know that what surprised the world and some Kenyans, was something we’ve always known – that the deep inequalities in our country would lead to the destruction of this nation.

Many women, though recognizing the charm of the slogan, have never been convinced that the hakuna matata (no problems) mentality worked in the real lives of people. What a shame that we neglected women’s voices, the most resourceful and prophetic we have. I was at Limuru for a conference on poverty in 2005, when a woman from a pastoral community presented the Vice President with the mini household items she was able to purchase with less than a dollar. A tiny bit of salt, a little bar of soap (to wash her husband’s clothes), a tiny bit of fat and sugar – all acquired in what we call the kadogo (mini) economy. Of course, even in the mini economy, none of it was for her.

If anybody knows what poverty is – the kind of poverty that for many girls means missing school because they have their period and not having a pad to wear, try banana fibers instead – it is the women. If anyone knows what it means to have little children who need to be bathed but who must “rush-rush” to the well to fetch water to make tea for a visitor – again it is the women. Women alone know how to let a baby suckle their drying breasts during a famine – those awful times when in parts of Kenya everything withers and even the camels (the animals most resilient to drought) die in the relentless scorching sun.

The women of Kenya have been tried in a burning furnace – their own country. Who of us can live with the thought that political unrest caused a four year old child to be shot dead by police in Kisumu? Who can remain sane in this situation? We women must at least speak and sing our dirges or be forever doomed.

Women have not had a voice in Kenya; they have been ignored by policy makers. Instead, when women organized themselves into one of the biggest grassroots organizations in Africa, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (Kiswahili for “Women‘s Development”), the politicians, particularly president Moi (who from 1978 to 2002 did not preside over Kenya, but ruled it), manipulated the women for political purposes. Eventually he broke the strength of the famed organization that tried to push women up the ladder – or at least tried to make them face, if not break the glass ceiling. Ironically, now women are ridiculed for the breakup of their own organizations.

The women of Kenya faithfully vote in big numbers and even if most of them are manipulated to vote for men, we know that when there is a serious problem, they are the most vocal persons in their communities. We know that their voices are muffled by culture, by the media, and sometimes by the male leaders, the chiefs and so on, who cannot stand the honesty of women’s raw and undressed truths. But still they speak. So, while Kibaki and Raila have failed in dialogue, I believe it is the women who can best move their communities to stop the violence, even if in some parts of the country they are intimidated by militias obsessed by strange concerns such as why women and girls wear trousers – as if there were no greater things to be done for a still-bleeding nation.

Yes, the two principals have dialogued a little and put out the fires, but the women know where the matchsticks and the petrol are stored to burn the next house. We must empower the grassroots women leaders.

The 2007 election (in which we elected the President and the Members of Parliament – from whom the winning side would form a government by picking about 34 cabinet ministers and their assistants, and also over 3,000 local government positions) had the largest number of women ever to run for the various seats. In retrospect, I so wish that women had been strategic enough in years past to have a woman run for the presidency in earnest. I think the Annan dialogue would be different now.

I know many in Kenya may not believe that a woman can ever get there. I know some are disillusioned by some of the women who have come close to power. But those women are not all there is to the women of Kenya. I ran for Parliament twice to represent the Kiambaa Constituency and I know very well how much political parties must be more committed to the real problems of this country and less concerned with individual greed. If those in power only understood how important it is for women to participate in decision-making, then many more women would be in Parliament.

If women, such as the one who spoke in Limuru about living on a budget of one dollar a day (or those who live on one dollar that must last for three days), were not bribed by wealthy men in the elections, we would truly be a formidable force to reckon with. Women could and should be the sources of better leadership at the national level. I know that if I were in charge of paying the president and ministers and MPs their hefty salaries, none of them would have gotten a pay slip last January. They would get none at all until they opt for peace in Kenya.

I remember noticing the women from my constituency who were minorities from other groups; in speeches and brochures I told them that I had their needs at heart. I told them that I cared about those who had no land but had to rent homes from owners from other ethnic groups. And yes, so many times I reminded them that we had no tribes (the violence had not broken out yet) because our tribe was pain, poverty and solidarity in society. Still I believe even as I write this, that those who erupted in violence (which was often excused as tribalism) would not have if the people had only been inspired to focus more on our shared national values and also on remedying poverty – the main problem afflicting all of us.

Because of this violence, I now know more than ever that it is time women disowned tribes and tribalism because in so many instances, the tribes do not really believe in women. There are proverbs that actually say that women have no tribe – they can be married off anywhere! So now should I be surprised that some Kenyan couples have problems with inter-tribe marriages? What is wrong with us? Violence is irrational.

Women. The first thing a tribe does to them after giving them a name is cut them; in some cases they mutilate them in their most precious of organs just as they are turning adolescent. And while circumcision – not the mutilation girls are subjected to – is said to be the mark of a man belonging to an age set or a peer group, many tribes say that women do not have age sets. Why? Because they belong to the age set of their husband! Now if he is 70 years old and she is a 14 year old virgin, then is she to belong to the age set of 70 year old men? She, like all women, lives with unspoken and often un-meditated (un-mediated too) injustice of the highest order – not to mention the fact that the 14 year old is probably wife number five, with the lowest possible status because of polygamy.

Women, why do we not get out of this tribe thing? What is a tribe? In my life, it is only a word. I had no rituals. My tribe has a language that I speak; is it because of that I am seen to belong? But we also learn many other languages, some of them European and Asian, and we do not belong to those cultures just because of the language. I know we are born and named within an ethnic group; geographical location has even determined how the tribes own land. But it is not impossible to question all this – it was reversed by Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania, for his people. Kenyans, though, were left on their own to deal with issues that really require sharp focus from a national leader – a president. Communities of tribes do not question much between peers to bring about change. They need to be challenged by top leaders, people vested with political power and moral authority, as was Nyerere.

I have seen women in Kenya dealt death and shame by tribes. How can we allow people to die because they are of this or the other ethnic group? We must have the courage to ‘divorce’ our tribes if they will not recognize our humanity. Tribes have nothing to offer us. They are just a weapon politicians use to get higher numbers of votes and better salaries.

It is women who will introduce transformative power to Kenya, the kind of power exercised to quiet the pains of the marginalized, the unemployed, the persons with disabilities, the children – the power to reform and bring justice. As Kenya still reels under the post-election violence that quickly became a cyclone of bloody killings, fires, rapes and riots – I believe it must be the women who find the solutions. A solution without them is useless.

In her series, Kenya Is Burning, Philo shares her thoughts and feelings as her country struggles with the devastating violence that has claimed so many lives and turned its people against each other. In Part I, Philo writes an impassioned letter to a fellow activist, who despite receiving numerous death threats, continues to fight for human rights. – Ed.

About the Author
Philo Ikonya is a Kenyan human rights activist, an ardent poet, writer and lecturer. She holds postgraduate degrees in the Arts and consults on gender, governance and media.