Women, politics, and the constitution – An interview with Jael MbogoCathy Majtenyi
What does the Constitutional Review mean to Kenyan women, more especially to women who have been involved in politics? To find out about the changes that women would like to see in a new constitution, WAJIBU talked to Jael Mbogo. Jael is the national organizing secretary for FORD-Kenya. She has been on the political scene since 1958, when she was a member of the Nairobi City Council. She was a candidate in the general elections of 1974 and 1997and was one of five women who were among the founding members of FORD-Kenya. From 1996 until March 2002 Jael was with the Educational Centre for Women and Democracy. Currently she is throwing her efforts behind the development of the National Alliance for Change, a group of seven opposition political parties that have come together to plan for one presidential candidate in the upcoming elections. Jael uses her wealth of experience and knowledge to encourage more women to enter politics. In this interview she shares with WAJIBU some of the enormous hurdles that women candidates and voters face during elections, and the various constitutional changes that need to take place to overcome the impediments that keep women from fully participating in the elections as candidates and as informed voters. WAJIBU. What are some of the constitutional changes that need to be made to be able to address the situation of women? Jael. Women are not in a strong position economically: that is one major drawback. Campaigning in Kenya involves a lot of money, and there's a lot of corruption. Any party or government that wants to address women's issues politically must assist women candidates to overcome that one factor, namely, economic deprivation. There is also the violence during the campaign period and even during voting. A constitution must be put in place that makes violence criminal, so that if anybody is propagating violence during the campaign against his or her opponent he/she should be penalized for it. The third obstacle is culture, which is very difficult to address even within a constitutional set-up. More civic education programmes must be mounted, both within the [political] parties and outside [of them]. It should be a continuous process of enlightening people as to their democratic, constitutional, and human rights and respect for all. There is also the whole question of the system of government. What I mean here is that [we need] a system which will help the women start off with proportionate representation, where women have set up constituencies which are for them and they fight it out among themselves … so that they access power in a democratic and systematic way … That would be a good step in trying to put the women of Kenya on the map when it comes to leadership. Another area is to demystify constitutionalism. In Kenya, the constitution has been taken as a very secret document. It is not easy to access it: you can't buy it in the bookshops; you cannot just simply talk about it. That needs to be demystified by translating the constitution into as many languages as possible, starting with Swahili, and into as many local languages as possible, so that it is available even in bookshops and school libraries, so that children start to read it very early. That is another way of helping women to overcome fear, because now when you talk about the constitution, they say, that is something for the government; we don't have anything to do with that. How do you make people–especially women–feel that the constitution is theirs? Through education. They must be able to claim it, they must make it their own, and that can only be done through civic education: what the constitution is all about; what benefits you derive from it; how it protects you; how it does not protect you; and the whole question of rights, freedoms, the economy, the infrastructure, how the government runs, what the three arms of government stand for, and we benefit from them. They should be able to identify themselves with the constitution. When their rights are abrogated, they should even know which section has been encroached upon. You mentioned that culture is one of the major impediments of women's advancement. Could you tell us more about that? In Kenya, we have 42 ethnic communities. Each one of these communities, through many years and generations of societal practices, has handed down certain traditions. I'll take one example. In the Masaai community, a woman cannot stand in front of a group of men or even in front of one man and say anything. It is not a written law, but it is just understood that women are not to address meetings like chief's barazas (councils). They cannot go there and complain about anything or ask any questions. They are there to take orders. In other words, such traditions tend to minimize the possibility of these women coming forward to claim leadership within the society. In western Kenya, we have traditions such as wife inheritance, which is very abominable. When your husband dies, as a widow you have no voice. Many times, you cannot even defend yourself in the eyes of the community and the immediate relatives or clans. You are left there at the will of the society. These attitudes have gone so deep into the minds of the people that when a woman contests, they say: “There must be something wrong with this woman. How can she go against the society? She's a strange person, she's not really one of us, because if she was, she should have known that she cannot get up and address a public rally in front of men.” What kind of constitutional changes need to be made in order for women to be heard, especially in societies in which they are not supposed to be heard? The constitution should recognize that there is no real difference between man and woman and people should act in accordance with this. So if there are jobs and people have applied… it has to go according to qualifications and experience. They should not look at you and say, “You are wearing a skirt and therefore this job should not go to you.” …The constitution should protect us against sexual discrimination and harassment. If you can be denied your right because of your gender, then there is something wrong. The current constitution does not offer us adequate protection in that area. We are asking that those charged with the responsibility of writing the new constitution must ensure they put into place such modalities, regulations, or laws that will address the whole issue of discrimination based on gender. How can women candidates be protected by the constitution from the violence and harassment that you referred to? The electoral laws must be reviewed with a view to making election violence a crime … Women do not organize thugs to fight for them [as many male politicians do] so they always end up as victims. There is also the threat of being raped, which is dreadful. If somebody threatens you with rape if you are a candidate, imagine where you will be. And what about your husband, your family? We need a level playing ground for all …. The use of money to influence voters should also be limited: how much money one can use during a campaign period should be regulated … because the rich will never leave leadership to the poor. Women suffer here. Economically, they are very weak…. The culture of violence, the culture of money, corruption during elections, and vote rigging, all those should be stamped out. Legislation should be drafted and incorporated in the constitution to take care of all that. That will open up a whole new chapter for women, and many more women who otherwise wouldn't attempt contesting will come forward this time. Can you give me an indication of roughly how many women have been forced to drop out because of violence or the threat of rape, or who have encountered these during campaigning in the past? In the last general elections, altogether we had 47 women candidates. Of those whom I was working with very closely, I remember that there were three who had to drop out. One we rescued from near death. One was kidnapped. For the whole nomination period, we did not know where she was. When she came back, all of her vehicles had been vandalized; they poured salt in all her vehicles so that the engines wouldn't work. She was completely traumatized. There's one whom they threatened and blocked her from presenting her papers. To one they gave money, saying that after this we are going to give you a good job and your husband will be promoted; she never saw that. Two died because of shock after having been terrorized and losing the elections…. Those were the ones whom we were working with directly. We quickly decided to organize a get-together [after the election] so that we could cry on each other's shoulders as a healing process…. When we recovered, they [the women] were all right. They said, “What do we do? Get up and walk!” We got up and we started moving. We are still going strong. What were your personal experiences when you were campaigning during the last general elections? There is a lot of ethnicity. That affected me directly. This was the time that the NDP (National Development Party) came into the limelight. The expectation of the majority of my voters who happened to be from western Kenya was that I should cross over to join the NDP so as to be in what they called the 'proper' party. I refused. I'm not a person who joins a party because my ethnic community is there…. Also, the money culture came in. Most of my supporters were bought; a lot of money was spent. Thirdly, I saw pre-election rigging during the registration exercise. There was a lot of transportation of ethnic communities coming to Embakasi to support a particular candidate. Lastly was what we call the 'wind of change' two or three days before the elections…. There was overwhelming change in the area that came with DP (Democratic Party), that DP was now the party that was going to win the elections, therefore everybody changed [their vote]. Of course, I encountered a bit of intimidation, violence, and at one time, even a threat. There was a time I was kind of ambushed. When I went to campaign in the area, he [the current sitting member] sent thugs to block my vehicle. I had six people in it and we were going to be messed up, but I managed to get out and drove off. You've been through so much suffering and so many difficulties. What gives you the strength to go on? [When I first entered politics in the late 1950s] I felt the time had come for women to take our rightful position in the leadership of this country, since women also had participated very effectively in the liberation struggle. I took up that challenge [of politics] as a pioneer. I was one of four women ... who were the first to contest elected offices, went through the nominations, and were declared candidates. I am a pioneer. Pioneers never reap the fruits. They lead and hand over. If I gave up, it would be a failure on my part because I want to pull many women forward and see the need to take up leadership roles and claim their rights in the running and management of the affairs in their country. That is why I'm not giving up. More and more women have come forth. That is good.
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