Bunge la Wanawake launched in Mombasa

It is 3pm on Wednesday and Amina Hamisi Bambaulo marches into the ‘room’ where ‘members’ rise up in respect.

In tow, are four orderlies, one carrying a big wooden spoon, which is symbolic.

Once she gets to her seat, she reads a prayer and then asks the members to sit down.

The big wooden spoon is carefully placed on an empty chair two rows in front of Bambaulo.

One of the two ‘clerks’ then reads the order of the day. ‘Parliament’ is in session.

There will be five ‘motions’ to be discussed that day.

They all involve the suffering of women in Shanzu and Mwakirunge, for which they are seeking solutions from both the county and national governments.

This is a replica of the National Assembly and the county assembly.

Only this time, the session is in an open space under a tree in Shanzu, Kisauni constituency.

The wooden spoon is the mace, a symbol of authority, and Bambaulo is the speaker.

This is Bunge la Wanawake, whose founder, former nominated Senator Emma Mbura, is part of the session.

“Today is the launch of the Mombasa chapter of Bunge la Wanawake. We want to give a voice to the women at the grassroots who cannot get their voice heard in higher places,” Mbura explains.

The Bunge la Wanawake sessions will be held at the grassroots across the country to give women an opportunity to air their grievances and needs.

The Mombasa Chapter of Bunge la Wanawake is the second following a similar session in Bungoma.

“Madam Speaker, Kenya has never heard or taken seriously the voice of women at the bottom of the pyramid,” she said.

The problems discussed at the Bunge la Wanawake will be the starting point of the search for long lasting solutions, which will be culminating in policy formulation of change of laws.

The points noted at the sessions will be carefully crafted into petitions by a selected team of women who will then be tasking the area MCAs with the responsibility of raising the same issues in county assemblies.

“And when we take these issues to the MCAs, we will be following up on them in every county assembly session to see whether they will be raising the same in the county assemblies,” Mbura said.

If not, the women will be using their numbers to either recall the MCAs or vote them out in the next general election.

“This means we will be filling the galleries at all the county assembly sessions to listen keenly to the ongoings,” Mbura said.

The former senator said the men passed a law that allows them to marry more than one wife.

“We will also come up with a bill that will protect the first wife and compel the husband to first buy her a piece of land, build a house and set up a business for her before marrying the second wife. This way, if anything happens after that, the first wife will be safe,” Mbura said.

Millicent Odhiambo, a close ally of Mbura, said the Bunge la Wanawake sessions are meant to empower the woman to fight for her right.

She said most of the laws and policies in the country favour men and women remain on the periphery of even issues that directly affect them.

“And without having things captured in policies or law, they will remain empty talk for women,” Odhiambo noted.

From Shanzu ward, the Bunge la Wanawake sessions will be held in all the other 29 wards of Mombasa county to give all grassroots women in all the 30 wards a chance to make their voice heard.

The sessions will then be escalated into constituency sessions so that area MPs are then tasked with the tabling of the matters discussed at the National Assembly.

The dream is to get to a level where there will be an East African Bunge la Wanawake, Odhiambo said.

“These sessions are meant to change the lives of women for the better in the long term. If we work this out well, we want a situation where for something like bursary, we do not have to run to an MP’s office and queue. There will be a systematic way of you getting bursaries wherever you are,” Odhiambo said.

Joyce Mwende, a Community Health Volunteer and a member of the Bunge la Wanawake from Shanzu, said women volunteers should be given first priority when job opportunities arise.

“For instance, a Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital branch has been opened in Utange here. Why can’t we as CHVs be considered for jobs in that hospital when the work of our hands has been seen?” posed Mwende.

Christine Ochieng, a member of the Bunge la Wanawake, said young women are qualified for certain jobs but they are not considered because they do not have godfathers.

“We want a way this Bunge can help with such so that we can be considered for jobs based on merit and not any other thing,” she said.

Lilian Olela said young girls who are impregnated get double punishment.

Apart from the emotional torture they undergo, most schools do not accept them back and they end up dropping out of school, Olela said.

“We would like these girls to be given the opportunity to go back to school after giving birth,” she said.

She said single mothers should be recognised by both the county and national governments and be helped one way or the other.

Priscilah Adero, the Keroport village elder, said such sessions empower women to speak up.

“Many women here suffer in silence because they cannot speak up or do not know where to speak up. This is an opportunity for them to speak up,” she said.

The session, like the National and county assembly, was adjourned to next month by speaker Bambaulo.