How to become an honorary man.

Published on November 28, 2007

Among the Borana pastoralist community, of Eastern Province, discrimination against women can be traced to the cradle.

For instance, among these people there is always an elaborate fete to mark the birth of a baby boy. Villagers troop in, in their numbers, to congratulate the parents.

However, if the baby is a girl, even its mother will be sad because she knows few will come to wish her and the infant well. Those who turn up will only utter a common nonchalant phrase, "she will also grow up".

And when she indeed grows up, more sexist treatment will face her. She might land in trouble if she wants to be an elected leader.

Mrs Mumina Konso, a politician from this community has an instructive story to tell: "I have always known gender partiality in my community exists, but I chose to ignore its intensity in 2002 when I contested the Isiolo South parliamentary seat. Elders of a clan in which I am married were against my candidature, but I became obstinate and went ahead. I got a paltry 74 votes. Now I know better. Through assistance from my late husband, I successfully sought their blessings this time around. It took 100 elders and five days for me to get a political lease of life. I am now in the race on a Mazingira party ticket."

Elders’ consent

Political leadership, or indeed any kind of leadership role, is the preserve of men among the Borana community. To follow in the traditions of the Borana, the elders who blessed Konso’s candidature came from her husband’s Dambenono clan because a woman is a member of the clan she is married into.

Konso is the only Borana woman in the race for Parliament in the coming elections. She is a Bachelor of Education graduate and gives credit to her late husband Denge Konso, who passed on a month ago, for initiating the process of convincing the elders to consent to her candidature.

The deliberations were facilitated by NGOs working in the area such as Action-Aid Kenya, which enhanced the elders’ conclusive decision through its civic awareness campaigns.

Konso is not alone in this dilemma. Peris Tobiko is the first woman among the Maa-speaking communities to ever aspire to be an MP. She will be running for the Kajiado Central parliamentary seat on an ODM-K ticket come December 27.

But, as in Konso’s case, the shadow of sexism is stalking Tobiko’s every move during the ongoing campaigns.

She says: "Chauvinism is prevalent in my community and any woman seeking elective leadership must ask for permission from men considered to be key in her life. I have fulfilled this requirement."

Paraded husband

Some of the elders who must consent to a woman’s quest for leadership among the Maasai community include the father, husband or his elder brother, explains Tobiko.

Citing her own experience, Tobiko says she had to parade her husband at public rallies to prove to the voter that she has his blessings to contest the seat.

Still, her intentions have left many in her community gaping in wonderment.

"To show that my father was also with me, I paraded him at a few rallies," she says.

And permission alone, says Tobiko, is not enough because the ordinary Maasai believes that women possess no property and that anybody without property does not qualify to lead. To clear this hurdle, Tobiko has conducted many fundraisers for various projects in her Kajiado Central Constituency. More than any male candidate in the race for the seat, she has settled many a hospital bill and paid school fees for numerous needy students as proof that she has resources, and is therefore fit for leadership.

"To convince the electorate that I am equal to the challenge, I went the extra mile, doing twice as much work as many men do during campaigns," she says.

Tobiko says unmarried women stand no chance to be elected as leaders because the community does not accept them.

"They have to endure stereotypes and abuse. People in this community equate women with property. They believe that an unmarried woman potentially belongs to another community. If you are a spinster nobody will elect you because you are likely to abandon your voters on getting married to join whichever community your spouse comes from," she says.

Tobiko and Konso agree that women in their respective communities are restricted to the homestead, where they are supposed to be builders of manyatta, cooks, mothers fetchers of firewood and water. Women exist to be seen, not to be heard, they concur.

Brimming with plumes

This is a tradition that is common among all pastoral communities in this country, they say.

Discrimination against women in these communities goes beyond hindrance to leadership. Among these people, women are not supposed to inherit any wealth from their parents. Few girls are allowed to go to school. If they do, they are literally pulled out of the classroom midstream to be married early, often to men old enough to be their fathers.

Tobiko survived three such attempts during her school life. She is now well educated and became the first woman District Officer from the Maa speakers.

If she wins the race to join the 10th Parliament, she will add yet another feather to a hat already brimming with plumes.