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Kenya: Women Leaders Must Do More Than Talk About Gender Equality
OPINION
9 May 2007
Posted to the web 8 May 2007
Cabral Pinto
Nairobi
The women's movement in Kenya and, indeed, in East Africa, has made tremendous contributions to the war for gender equality. The civil society leadership has been most consistent in the struggle.
One hopes that women leaders in civil society who are now prospective candidates for political office will carry on the campaign in Parliament and in local authorities.
One can say that the achievements of the women's movement have also given birth to the embryonic men for gender equality movement in Kenya.
This movement holds certain truths: that women are human beings just as men are; and that women's issues are also men's issues because men are the principal violators of women's rights.
They also acknowledge that men are at the centre of gender-based violence, women's oppression and exploitation; that masculinity is not a model women should aspire to when they agitate for equality because their cause will ultimately become masculinised; and that men have a role to play in the struggle for gender equality as it is in their interest to do so.
THE MOVEMENT ALSO REQUIRES men to internalise and emotionalise what they put women through if they are to transform themselves into positive human beings.
Finally, the movement links exploitation and oppression of women with the oppressive, sexist and patriarchal world disorder that has been baptised globalisation.
The Rev Timothy Njoya is one of the movement's leaders. So is a young man known as Kennedy Otina. Other men are beginning to listen to their views.
While from the civil society leadership of the women's movement one gets a clear vision of gender equality, the political wing has not shown the same consistency. A few examples will suffice.
Take Health minister Charity Ngilu, for example. She shows a lot of motherly passion, emotion and commitment when faced with instances of gender inequality, but that is as far as it goes politically. Her agenda on gender equality has not been clearly reflected in her role as minister.
Ms Njoki Ndung'u spearheaded the enactment of the Sexual Offences Act. That is her legacy as a heroine in the struggle for gender equality. However, her ideological and political positions on this issue are not clear. Episodic struggles may win battles, but not the war.
Ms Esther Passaris is running for office. Her posters are up. Sources say she wants to run for a seat in Nairobi. But she will have to gun for a council seat first.
Sources say she is a great businessperson, hard-working, ambitious and a good leader in the private sector. What is not clear is where she stands on gender equality. Coming as she does from the South Asian background, people who are rarely heard talking about the oppression of women, this lack of a clear standpoint on the issue of gender equality is a serious political shortcoming.
Bishop Margaret Wanjiru is a religious leader who has a following in Nairobi. Her story is one of a courageous woman. She now wants to be a political leader. From what some of her followers say, her views on gender equality are Victorian. Her vision of a woman is that of nurturer, child-bearer and comforter of husband as decreed by her conservative interpretation of the Bible.
Justice minister Martha Karua has had a positive history in feminism and leadership in civil society. She served courageously as a council member of the Law Society of Kenya. She served as chair of the League of Women Voters. Male chauvinists in and out of Parliament have faced her wrath.
However, her track record on the struggle for gender equality is not manifested in her ministerial duties. Has that powerful ministry masculinised this gender rights warrior?
THESE FIVE LADIES HAVE BECOME famous in part because they do not fit into men's stereotypes about women. It is, however, time that women political leaders realised that on the issue of gender equality, they cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. They must deal with the prejudice women face on the basis of class, clan, race, region and occupation.
Dr Njoya is famous, but not as yet famous for his leadership of men for gender equality movement. With Mr Otina and their followers, they are treading on a terrain whose challenges are legion. They have, however, made the first steps in a just war.
The campaign for gender equality is but one site in the struggle for a democratic, equitable and life-sustaining society. As women and men struggle for gender equality, they should not lose sight of the overall liberation of Kenyan society.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200705081091.html
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