•There is no singular strong voice that is heard nationally in defence of these women being killed, violated and demeaned.
•Truth be told, the women’s movement is lacklustre and devoid of commitment and spirit. The roll back on women’s rights is real and ongoing.
As we usher in the year 2020, the women of the world celebrate 25 years since their representatives convened in Beijing and adopted the Beijing Platform for Action, a landmark set of goals and objectives to ensure that women and men have equal quality of life in terms of rights, representation and participation.
The end of the year always brings with it a period of reflection, an assessment of events, successes, failures and achievements and it is imperative for the women of Kenya to evaluate ourselves.
Twenty-five years is a lifetime ago. Most young women in this country were not born or they were toddlers. The world they find themselves in as young women was not the one they are presently living in.
That was a time when there was a belief that women were to be seen and not heard. Where women who voiced their thoughts were subjected to ridicule, labeled upstarts and considered unwelcome.
The stories of trailblazers in the women’s movement at that time such as Wangari Maathai, Chelagat Mutai, and Agnes Ndetei attest to the derision, disrespect and abuse. Former President Presidents Daniel arap Moi's Cabinet of 51 had one female minister.
There were no women heads of the parastatals. The language of politics was sexualised and verbal exchanges between politicians resembled bar talk and bedroom jokes where demeaning women where the opposing male candidates were referred to as behaving like ‘women’ in an attempt to connote weakness, or to portray.
Yet in this hostile environment grew a powerful and invincible women’s movement. Starting from the pioneers who held the Nairobi Conference, the precursor to Beijing, to the team that led Kenya’s delegation to China and Back.
Accolades also go to the strong and courageous women that led the first gender friendly amendments to the Constitution in 1990 and walked the talk for 20 years until the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.
As a result of these women’s efforts, the appraisal for Kenya against the goals set by the Beijing Platform for Action. In terms of law and policy, legislative action has set us way ahead of many countries in Africa and in Asia.
The Constitution 2010 itself is a canvas resplendent with the rights, safeguards, prospects and gender friendly structures that ought to afford women the same opportunities and protections afforded to men.
Indeed, the current Constitution is often referred to as the women’s bible. Parliament has enacted sufficient laws addressing issues of gender quality including maternity and paternity rights and the Marriage Act; it has moved on affirmative action through amendments to the Political Parties Act and gender related conditions to the access of the Political Parties Fund.
As a result, women now hold senior positions in political parties. We have laws against gender-based violence through the Sexual Offences Act, the Domestic Violence Act and the FGM Act.
The government has zero-rated sanitary towels, making them more affordable for poorer women particularly in the rural and peri-urban areas.
So much has been done in changing the laws and policies and yet so little has been achieved in terms of changing the genesis of discrimination against women.
Sexual violence continues unabated, femicide statistics are at an all-time high, young women call themselves slay queens and selling bottom power and not brain power appear to be creeping back in the use of sexualised language in politics.
The sexualisation of advertisements (hands up those who have seen the BMW advert?), and demeaning of women in public office is the order of the day where social media has become a tool for the expression of misogyny and the unapologetic labelling of women.
What has happened? Or more correctly what did not happen? We changed the laws but we didn’t change the attitudes and belief system that objectifies women.
We also presumed that the law would be our voice and the women’s movement slowly disintegrated, its champions absorbed into the National and County Governments. Other women remain in NGOs that are donor driven and weak at best, certainly they are no longer visible in any meaningful way.
The mantle has remained with the women who work in public office who can speak only within the confines of that space tethered by political party lines but struggle to move forward without a powerful women’s lobby to protect and defend them.
Every country where women are respected and treated as equal citizens have a strong national women’s movement. In the USA it is the National Organisation of Women and in South Africa it is the ANC Women’s League. In Post-Beijing Kenya - 25 years later - there is no women’s movement to speak of in this country. At least not one that is non-partisan and is inter-generational bringing in the young women into its ranks.
There is no singular strong voice that is heard nationally in defence of these women being killed, violated and demeaned. Truth be told, the women’s movement is lacklustre and devoid of commitment and spirit. The roll back on women’s rights is real and ongoing.
We are almost exactly back where we started 25 years ago. But who will stand up to stop it? The baton has now been handed to the younger generation of women. They need to step up and speak out.