Mark ole Karbolo,  Ilkerin Integral Development Programme

On the current representation of women in politics and public offices

I think the current representation of women in national politics, parliament, local authorities; grassroot leadership is to me very disappointing. Women are too few compared to their numbers in the electorate and even in the grassroots. I’d like to see a dramatic change in terms of increase in of their numbers in seats and positions in parliament, in local authorities, in NGO leadership and in all areas of leadership. Women form a substantive number of voters and in the population in the rural areas at large. Why don’t they translate this into leadership positions and representation positions in the society?

Women must drive this process

I want to blame the women for that. I think they are the ones that don’t believe in themselves. I think at a certain level women are their worst enemies because they always elect men instead of their kind, why not?  We all know that women are the best managers at home. My wife is managing my children, my home, my property and even manages me. We need a mindset change in their attitude, starting with them. Women must be a part of the solution for their own problems.

Empowering women at the grassroot

I am a firm believer in women empowerment and in their abilities. For example in the Maasai community if we want to make any changes we have to target on the women. We have to give them more resources, more positions, we have to train them and expose them and then they go and change their own culture because they are the people who perpetuate some of the negative aspects of culture like the FGM. If you want to tackle FGM among the Maasai don’t target men, target women they hold the key to it.

The Maasai word for women translated, actually means ‘boss’ or ‘Mkubwa’ and when I look at the life of my own mother she is as powerful if not more powerful than my father because of the influence she has among the children, on this man and the others. So what I can say is that this same culture that is perceived as oppressing the women is the same culture that we will use to loosen the bonds, regulations and strict rules that bind them together.

Among the Maasai, we have an elders council which constitutes of men. Equally women have a women’s delegation which is equivalent to the elders council, in Loita we have used the same women council to assume new roles so that instead of the traditional roles, we gave them power to address the abuse of women in the society. And because culture gives them power to punish men we encouraged them to even punish men who don’t to take girls to school, those who try to force girls through early marriages or even those who force FGM on girls. So use the same culture what I call ‘harness the power of culture’ and change the position of women. I believe in Kenya we can do that but we have to start with the women.

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