For the umpteenth time, the leaders of the fairer sex in our country are getting it wrong! Wrong in such a pathetic way that they will soon become objects of national ridicule if they do not change their course and tact. Women leaders inKenya, through the caucus of gender equality (no one knows why they call it equality instead of equity), have since time not so recent, gagged themselves in a voluptuous war against a yet to be identified enemy.
This melodrama about affirmative action, especially in politics and legal issues, throws one into an introspection and retrospection mood. Introspectively, it is difficult to understand what inspires the leaders. It is in the same breadth impossible to decipher if they are really bothered by their thoughts and intentions. We would rather, in retrospection, the caucus leaders take a long and hard look at their counterparts elsewhere and get some invaluable lessons.
The women who have made it without the scale being tilted to their side are as many as the digits of my legs and the fingers of my hands. Gold Meir, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel is a case in point. Were she alive today, she could teach our leaders how she rose from a teacher, to one of the pioneers of American Zionism and finally to the prime ministerial post where she caused strong men like Henry Kissinger, El Sadat and Gamel Nasser lots of sleepless nights. The past is still awash with such cases including the Iron Lady Margret Thatcher of UK, the first woman prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka,Cleopatra the Macedonian, Nancy Pelosi the former Congress speaker for US, Dr Kazibwe the Ugandan Vice President and others.
But looking back in time and beyond the borders is a daunting task that taunts the minds of some of the leaders. We can move closer, make their thinking comfortable and point out at Chelagat Chemutai of the infamous Seven Bearded Sisters, Prof Miriam Were(need I say she is my village mate?), Prof Oniango, Prof Maathai,Ngilu,Mekatilili wa Menza, Kinjekitile Ngwale of the Maji Maji and the plethora of names whose contents cant fit here.
My ire gets drawn from the recent tumult about reservation of women posts in the judiciary, legislature and executive. Much as I have respect for the ladies who take charge of their lives, compete men favorably, beat us in class and place of work, I have an outpouring of scorn to a certain caliber of professionals who conspire against themselves into failure. The women law leaders, the political class and the media class have taken it upon themselves to launch an endless and purposeless war against the male society. This diabolic troika thinks it is fashionable to mourn louder than the bereaved. Sizeable groups of our women folk know as much as we know that in the society of freedom, equity cannot be achieved.
The demand by our women leaders for gender mainstreaming policies and programs in order to achieve equality is rather absurd. We do not have to walk in their moccasins for ten miles to criticize their actions. Seeing the leaders wobble while wearing the moccasins is enough to advise them to remove them and try the sandals or better still, walk barefooted. The female science academicians and professionals do not share in this logic advanced by the troika. One would wonder how the interviewing panel for the judges was expected to canvass for a certain number of women to be judges. Why wouldn’t the rag tag FIDA look at the appointments in order of merit and let the gender issue be a coincidence? Ones sex does not elevate her or his moral rights in the society to an extent of demanding preferential treatment. The judiciary demands of a man or woman of high intellect and high moral standing. Whether such twenty men can come from the same village and the same gender should not bother any person, considering that the interviews were done in open.
The issue of rushing to court to demand positions is fit for comical theatre. Merit is achieved through hard work, determination, commitment, being open minded and avoiding unnecessary sideshows. If one makes it a sing song that the girl child has being alienated, then he should do so from the village where we have a blinding clarity of gender imbalance. Sadly, this group does not talk on behalf of our left out sisters in the proletariat class. The group is riddled with fellows who were born and bred in town. Gender mainstreaming activities should be shifted to the villages where one can make meaningful contribution to uplifting our girl child. Any other form of hullabaloo is misconceived and should be treated with the contempt it deserves. Most of the lawyers, the politicians and the media ladies have had almost equal chances with men. They engage in a mental reservation exercise to claim that they have been discriminated against. It will be interesting to know what else the male society was supposed to do to a lady who is a product of Alliance Girls, Moi High School Eldoret, Kenya High, Lugulu and the entire academic powerhouses for them to match with men in legal, political and other disciplines.
And as if it’s not too much to cause a headache, we have special sits for women in our legislature. Legislative issues are mostly to do with elections and women in this field have the demographic dividends. If the female gender wasn’t at war with themselves, then the issue of special constituencies could not arise. The female society should sort out personality and attitude issues among themselves first before engaging the male society in a race to the bottom. This race will not lead them anywhere better than where they began from. This race is analogical to competing among our women on who should push the doomsday button to end their relevance.
Our political, media and legal class of ladies should realize that moving up does not necessarily entail moving someone else down. The male and female gender can both move up in a perfect coexistence similar to ivory and ebony living in harmony.
The war of attrition involving class, gender, age, tribe, academia, race and all the imaginary cocoons is a waste of intellectual, emotional, spatial, chronometrical and monetary resources. Meanwhile, FIDA can soldier on, like Her Majesties soldiers, marching into war with a yet to be identified enemy. They may get all the sits in judiciary and legislature. It isn’t surprising for a maimed tigress to die while clawing on the soil.
Fen Tshombe 