Cynthia Mutere - Aspirant Budalangi Constituency

On her campaign activities and how she involves men in these activities

From my own experience I would say that men fit more in political activities than the women and this gives an upper hand to involve them in areas of consultations, advices and meetings in general. I have involved the council of elders, church elders and church groups in most of my consultations and most of these are male dominated.

I have gotten to work with men mainly because I started working with them when implementing a fishing project that was funded by the European Union. I also sit in the executive committee of the beach management unit which is an initiative of the government this has given me a good platform with the men.

On the attitude of men towards being involved
When working with the council of elders and the church elders and different groups, sometimes the men would shun the meetings and maybe send their wives to sit in consultations, but overtime they have come to appreciate women’s leadership and you find them showing up for meetings in large numbers. According to the traditional culture of the Budalangi people, the art of wrestling was used to evaluate strength between 2 rivals and in the same way, the men just need to see the strength in a woman. And having seen my strength, character and being steadfast on my calling into seeing a change in economic empowerment they take me as credible candidate therefore becoming very supportive, ready and willing to work with me.

On whether men are adequately involved in gender equality
I can say no based on my experience from my constituency. Men there only hear of gender equity issues on at the national level, but it has not come down to the community. They do know that a woman can come to leadership like Julia Ojiambo but really its advocacy has not been felt.

On how men can be more involved
One thing I have come to learn is that you cannot reach the woman without going through the man. Most people confuse gender to focus on women while gender is really that balance between the man and the woman. It is about partnering and not competing.
 
I think there has been the lack of civic education especially down in the grassroots where most people are brought up by culture where a woman is not really recognized. There has been a lot of awareness created by the media especially the FM stations and this has brought out the willingness to be involved by the men, but the people need more of the people who will come to educate them, engage them and implement the gender issues.

Another way that the men can be involved is by working with them especially from their community based organizations trying to bring out the gender aspect. Action aid and world vision have been able to do this down at my community.

On prominent men who champion for women rights
Yes, I would pick from my neighbouring constituency where our vice president, hon. Moody Awori has strongly involved women groups in development. He has offered them income generating activities like basketry and weaving where they improve on their stock and helps them to market some of their products. He also speaks strongly in public barazas on supporting women and with him being just in the neighbouring constituency makes a great impact even in our constituency. I would say that he is a role model down at the grassroots where much is not known on gender equality aspects.

On how political parties can be more receptive and accessible to women
Especially for the mainstream parties where one would gain more political visibility, I would say that affirmative action should be strongly advocated for. This would ensure that women get at least a third of seats to enhance the proportion of women especially in decision making.

I also think that passing of the parties bill will go a long way to ensuring that parties actually honour the 30% recommendation.

Most people want to clamor to power and be the chairperson or the secretary general, this would of course enhance your grassroots but I would say that working from your grassroots is the best way up. Especially as a woman, I would say that working your grassroots will give you something to put on the table and actually gain you credibility than just waiting to be positioned without anything to show for what you have done and what you can do.

One also needs to be actively involved in the many initiatives of political parties. Political parties do not get funding and most of them actually hold fundraising events and even have membership strategies. Helping to fundraise for political parties will also give you a good platform to be on the negotiating table and decision making of the party.

On Challenges that face women aspirants
Under funding – Nobody wants to be where things are not really happening and this especially in politics is determined by the amount of money you have, what you can do and how well you can coordinate for your events.  All this proves to be a challenge for women especially being honest people who have not been involved in corruption scandals and may jnjot have otherwise stashed any money away to conduct their campaigns.

On what it would take for a woman to be elected president
I would say consistency in her struggle and history. People want to see what you have done and what you want to do. They want to relate to you and with you down from their grassroots. You don’t just come up and say you want: what do you want, why...? They need to have felt and seen your pushing, your struggle and history. There is the time for birth and maturity and when time comes for maturity Kenyans will definitely say this is the woman and will vote for her.

On other issues  that should be addressed
Yes, first I believe that if the affirmative action is honored, it would help to see a proportion of women to parliament and then we would move to other initiatives.

I would also like to see the issue of funding for political parties be addressed. This is being looked into by the reform agenda and I believe that it would make political parties less corrupt. I believe that this will also strengthen the position of a woman who will not feel shortchanged when it comes to funding