Star reporter Luke Awich caught up with Maendeleo Ya Wanawake national chairperson Rahab Muiu for an interview about the performance of elected women leaders.
Muiu gives a peer review on the success stories, the setbacks and why the girl has been left on her own, as elected women leaders get more vocal in politics. They forget the women who elected them.
The MYWO boss also gives her opinion on the clamour for the two-thirds gender rule and whether the performance of the over 85 women in leadership is justification enough for the push.
THE STAR: As a major women organistion in the country, what is your take on the increasing numbers of women in leadership?
RAHAB MUIU: I appreciate our women leaders elected in 2017. We are grateful that 87 of my sisters were elected into Parliament, 47 as woman representatives and three governors. It was a good thing the numbers increased.
Has the increasing number of women leaders had a positive impact on issues affecting women and girls at the highest decision-making platforms?
From the desk of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, and as we celebrate Maendeleo at 70 years, we have only one question: What is this one thing we can do together?
Yes, the numbers have increased, we have done work with affirmative action funds and with girls. That is great. But the outcry of the girl giving birth at nine years and being a grandmother at 20 years remains.
Now we are asking, if you are a mother at 16 years, will we now introduce you to family planning?
That is the conversation we are not hearing. What is this one thing we can do together when we are elected?
I haven't heard enough voices of teenage mothers, I haven't heard enough voices of a mother who is 10 years old, getting pregnant at nine.
How is she getting pregnant? Where are we, where are the parents, aunties, uncles? Where are the women leaders?
I'm afraid to say this, and with a lot of humility, our elected leaders are very vocal on politics but not as vocal in advocating family values.
Despite our business in these legislative positions, we must take care of the girl. If we are not worried about all these girls in the slums, how do we get them out of the slums?
If we start getting comfortable that girls can give birth at 10 years, then we are not doing well as leaders.
It is very well to increase the numbers but what I am saying is that let's get to a roundtable once elected and ask ourselves; in the next five years what is this one thing we must do?
When women get widowed in this country, you are either supposed to be inherited or frustrated by the in-laws in a way that you never knew when the husband lived. I have not seen legislators shout about this.
The women we have in leadership must by now start thinking about the other woman they left at home, the concentration on politics has been high. We can do better and I wish them well.
The issue of the two-thirds gender rule has become a mirage in the last two parliaments. Do you think it is holding the secret card as far as addressing women's issues is concerned?
We support the two-thirds rule but let women voices not concentrate only on politics. We seem to really have gone that way.
Let Maendeleo not be shouting alone. The Minister [Cabinet Secretary] for Public Service and the First Lady, we have seen them working for the girl.
Let us have the two-thirds representation but let us see what is there for the common girl, who is electing us at the grassroots. That is my plea.
What do you think is the main problem of the current crop of elected leaders in addressing the plight of the girl?
Once elected, we want to have a roundtable conference so that we see what is this one thing Kenyan women are doing together to alleviate poverty at the grassroots.
Second, our girls must stop getting pregnant at 10 years and being grandmothers at 20 years in the 21st Century. This contraceptive thing, reproductive health, let's come round on the table and let's agree on how we handle this.
Does it concern Maendeleo Ya Wanawake that no woman leader has come out to contest for the presidency in the August 9 elections?
We haven’t seen a woman going for the presidential post, neither have we seen one going for the deputy president position.
We are also asking Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga that if he finds it fit, he can give us a deputy president slot and he has Charity Ngilu right there.
On the other side, we are asking Deputy President William Ruto —, he also has women there including Alice Wahome and Anne Waiguru— he can also consider a woman leader as a running mate.
Fortunately, both sides have not named their running mates and that is why we are challenging them to consider a woman as a running mate.
All the women in the parties belong to Maendeleo Ya Wanawake.
Is MYWO supporting any particular candidate or side in this coming presidential election?
In this particular election we are supporting Azimio La Umoja and Raila Odinga though we are wishing everybody well.
We have politicked a lot. We only hear the voices when a woman is sexually assaulted on Forest Road.
We want to hear that voice from every county. We have women representatives. We have 23 members in the constituencies, we have governors, Can we intensify our voices?
(Edited by V. Graham)
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