• There is a crazy notion women believe that other women are their biggest contenders
Image: PEXELS
It’s ironic how just last week, I wrote about how powerful men are being held accountable even for their past actions, and this week, there was a public outcry about women who need to be held accountable.
It all started on the 19th, when Mandi Sarro, a former 1 FM presenter, tweeted about accountability. The tweet read, “I truly dislike people who aren’t big on accountability. You can’t go around doing things that hurt people then are afraid to be held accountable to your actions. You’re stunting your own growth.”
Well, what Miss Mandi assumed was a thoughtful, woke tweet blew up in her face when a former colleague exposed her as a bully who never took accountability of her own actions towards him. Koome Gitobu, a former colleague of Mandi’s at 1 FM, proceeded to inform the public of his experience with Mandi. Koome referred to Mandi in his tweets as “this woman” before detailing his horrifying encounters with her.
One tweet read, “This woman. Made up such hurtful nicknames for me behind my back and would laugh in my face because I couldn’t afford to order fancy food for lunch, so I would cook my own food and carry.”
Koome’s Twitter thread opened the floodgates as Kenyans on Twitter took to the social media site to share their own encounters or rumours they heard about Mandi. By the following morning, Mandi was still trending but the discussion had become bigger. People shared their bad experiences with other women in the media that they considered toxic. Amina Abdi of The Trend was also among the accused.
Amina, also a former 1 FM presenter, hosts a TV Talk show about trending issues on NTV. On Friday, during her segment, Amina addressed the issue by referring to it as unfortunate for her name to be dragged into such a topic. She proceeded to offer a vague apology, stating, “If there is anyone who I've ever given the kind of reception they didn't expect, I apologise but I'm not toxic."
I read a number of tweets from other women, especially, sharing that it was mostly older women in their workplaces who made their lives miserable. Before the hashtag #womensupportingwomen became a thing, women did not always support women. In fact, the biggest threat to a professional woman was her colleague. For some reason, women feared losing their jobs to their female counterparts even if the said female was not in the same line of the job.
There is a crazy notion women believe that other women are their biggest contenders and as such, we turn them into the enemy. Perhaps it is the limited positions, competition or simple jealousy, but the fact remains we have always made it hard for each other to flourish. Until accountability became a trend, influential women would pretty much ruin the lives of aspiring young women.
This crazy idea that women mistreat each other exceeds the boundaries of professional rivalry. Any customer service task can be made a hundred times worse if it is a woman dealing with another woman. At government offices, I often pray to get a male officer instead of the females. Through experience, I have seen that more often than not, female customer service agents would make my task more difficult by explaining less and demanding more. They would also take their sweet time when dealing with my case, often driving me to a point of frustration.
As I mentioned in last week’s article, we live in an unforgiving era now. From presidents to princes, CEOs to superstars, anyone and everyone is held to the same standard. Accountability is not just a trend; it is the newest code of conduct we live by.