KANYADUDI: Phoebe Asiyo: Icon and ideologue of women’s empowerment

Today, August 8, we lay to rest one of the pioneers of women empowerment in Kenya and arguably the movement’s poster girl. Mama Phoebe Asiyo straddled the women’s movement like a colossus. She encapsulated the objectives of the movement and represented women with amazing grace and ease, not only in Kenya but also in Africa and the globe.

Born in September 1932, Phoebe Nyagoro Asiyo went to Gendia Primary School before joining what was then the only, and the prestigious Seventh-day Adventist intermediate school, Kamagambo. She proceeded to Kangaru Teachers College and was raised in devote Christian family set up. She always defied the odds and so left the teaching profession to join the Prisons Department where she rose to become the first woman superintendent and senior superintendent. Her footprints in the correctional service are still celebrated, especially her successful push to separate male and women inmates. On the sidelines of her official responsibilities, she devoted time and personal resources to champion the education of girls at a time when this was not considered especially necessary.

Asiyo shared in one of her many public lectures that the Prisons Department restricted her efforts to promote women’s empowerment, and therefore she teamed up with other women to found the giant Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation in 1953. Though Europeans first headed it, Asiyo became its first African woman president in 1958. The organisation has been credited with supporting women’s enterprise by providing grants for start-ups and training for entrepreneurial skills. The organisation is also renowned for encouraging women to join political leadership through training and mentorship. This experience would later be instrumental in her establishing and chairing the Caucus for Women’s Leadership in 1997. The lobby actively sought financial support for women seeking political leadership. It was the first women’s organisation to openly agitate for and encourage women’s active participation in politics.

It confronted discrimination against women and campaigned against retrogressive cultural practices that limited women in social spheres. Women, therefore, found in Mama Asiyo a matriarch on whose shoulders they would lean and climb to greater heights of leadership. In dealing with authorities, she was diplomatic but very firm. This was a stark difference from the approach and strategies taken by her counterparts at the helm of the National Council of Women of Kenya, which was formed 10 years later in 1964. This streak of assertiveness would eventually elevate her to become the ambassador to the United Nations Development Fund for Women, Unifem.

As the foremost women leaders in the country members of Unifem were critical in mobilising popular support for the release of political prisoners held at Kapenguria. They visited them in 1960 and began in earnest to lobby for the guarantee of political representation and protection of women in leadership. When Jaramogi Oginga Odinga parted ways with his erstwhile friend Jomo Kenyatta, Mama Asiyo maintained a close relationship with the doyen of opposition politics. In the 1979 general election soon after the demise of Kenyatta, Asiyo dived into mainstream competitive politics, vying for the Karachuonyo parliamentary seat. The support from Jaramogi and Luo Council of Elders led by Paul Mbuya propelled her to victory. But these were supplementary to her exceptional organisational and mobilisation skills and abilities.

Coincidentally, Mbuya was closely related to her. She staved off a fierce challenge from the oratorically gifted David Okiki Amayo. It should be remembered that Okiki was originally in Kadu with then-President Daniel Moi. She repeated the feat in 1983 but opted out during the infamous mlolongo elections of 1988. At the reintroduction of multiparty democracy in 1992, Asiyo clinched the seat once again with great ease. Dr Adhi Awiti will always be remembered as her most trusted confidant and would later succeed her in 1997 when she voluntarily exited politics.

In her illustrious parliamentary career, Asiyo was instrumental in initiating and pushing for affirmative motion that was the key milestone in the gender reform movement. It also addressed electoral violence against women, child marriage and widow inheritance and disinheritance, female genital mutilation and inadequate access to quality healthcare for women and girls. Most importantly, it provided the framework for the two-thirds gender rule that was anchored in the 2010 Constitution. Due to her advocacy and soft power, Asiyo was unanimously endorsed as a commissioner in the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, chaired by the venerable Prof Yash Pal Ghai. Together they delivered the Bomas Draft of the Constitution, which was later promulgated in 2010. The commission undertook its mandate during the immediate post Narc victory.

The political environment was toxic and poisoned by the incessant tussles among the ministers of the Mwai Kibaki Cabinet. The divisions arose from both the sense of betrayal by the coalition partners and the incompatibility of ideological orientation of key political players. Mama Asiyo’s experience and vast diplomatic skills always came in handy. She was the natural arbiter and the calming hands during stormy debates. In a rare show of appreciation of her unique leadership talents and skills, the Luo Council of Elders recognised her as an elder. The ceremony presided over by Ker Riaga Ogallo was a first for the patriarchal community and so far, the only one.

In her career, women and leaders of all walks can learn that collaboration and persuasion are the most effective tools of transformation and progress. They enable a leader to carry along every stakeholder, and the beneficiaries enjoy the benefits fulfilling their most felt needs. This was as opposed to confrontation and antagonism, which are usually exclusivist and divisive. They create results that are not mutually beneficial to stakeholders and often lead to rejection by groups of society.

Asiyo also demonstrated that one could successfully aspire to and achieve political leadership goals while successfully building a distinguished family. The offspring with her cherished husband, Richard Asiyo, are trailblazers in their own right. Mama understood so well that the woman was the pillar of society and sought to demonstrate that the family was the best focal point for community peace and social development. She is associated with numerous projects in Karachuonyo constituency in South Nyanza and the world at large. Phoebe Asiyo has shown that women’s empowerment promotes their independence but not exclusivity. She has shown that the success on this front is better assured through the partnership of both genders and the collaboration of all stakeholders. May Mama continue to shine our paths.