The role of men in advancing women’s political rights

Matia Mandela, ICT Expert- Computer for Schools Kenya.

I hold strongly that women in Kenya should be empowered. I believe it is important to put women in leadership positions. For so long, women in Kenya have been marginalized in very many respects and I think it is time Kenya started walking into the direction that the rest of the world is headed. The world is making great steps in terms of gender equality, governance and including women into leadership positions. Look at Uganda for instance, Rwanda and many other countries around Africa which have made Affirmative Action an issue of national importance much that Affirmative Action is law. Kenya can not afford to walk alone. Neither can Kenya afford to walk in the opposite direction.

Kenya I believe requires an outright shift from what it is presently – a patriarchal society. Kenya yearns for change. We need a situation where men and women govern together. Another thing: women are none discriminative, like the saying goes, if you educate a boy; you educate an individual, whereas if you educate a girl, it is the whole community you have educated. Benefits tend to spill all over. I believe we men are just egocentric. I strongly believe in affirmative action. I believe that the Affirmative Action Bill should be passed by Parliament and made law as a matter of urgency. This believe in my humble opinion is long overdue. It should have happened decades ago. Kenya I believe also is fertile for a woman president. The Kenyan people if you ask me are ready to be led by a woman, no doubt about it. What intrigues me is the complacency of a few misguided persons who propagate a skewed mentality that we can’t be led by a woman. Who says we can’t?