Dear Friend of the SRHR Alliance.
I'm tempted to say happy new month, but we are coming to the end of quite a chaotic few months so I’ll just close my eyes tight, cross my fingers and hope that you have kept safe and well. I'm pulled to a recent show of solidarity amongst our leaders, allow me tell you more about it.
On Tuesday March 2025, the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association(KEWOPA) firmly stood ground in defence of their colleague the Governor of Nakuru County Hon.Susan Kihika in a press briefing. As shared by the women parliamentarians the Governor has been in the US for her Maternity Leave, something that Kenyans especially from Nakuru have not taken lightly stating a leader should be able to use the services their constituents also use instead of travelling abroad for ‘quality’ services.
The press briefing from KEWOPA and the insights by citizens on the governor’s alleged departure to a 1st world country for delivery and maternity leave opens up the social, political and structural barriers and gaps that still exist in our community. What do I mean? Follow me as I try to break down the ‘solidarity show’.
According to the 2022 Kenya Demographic Health survey findings, adolescent girls continue to face poor reproductive health outcomes and are unfortunately suffering a triple threat burden of teenage pregnancies, gender based violence and increased rates of HIV infections as reported by the National Council of Population and Development (NCPD) in their advisory paper 3 in 2023. In fact, data indicates that Kenya ranks 3rd globally with teenage pregnancies with 1-5 girls aged 15-19 years already mothers or pregnant with their 1st child. Gender based violence continues to be a huge challenge in Kenya, recording a significant rise of deaths in women in recent years. In 2023, Kenya recorded 152 femicides based on cases reported in the media. Africa Uncensored, an investigative journalism media house estimates that about 500 women were killed between 2017 and 2024. Kenya law enforcement agencies recorded 97 cases of femicide between September and November 2024.There are still many cases of femicide which go unreported. Maternal mortality still remains high in Kenya despite fervent efforts in prenatal and maternal care. UNFPA Kenya reports that, the mortality ratio, the number of women dying of pregnancy-related causes stands at 355 deaths at 100,000 live births. I hope I have not lost you with my display of challenges faced by women. This leads somewhere, walk with me.
While I admire and applaud the unity and solidarity amongst the women leaders, I wish that their passionate efforts of defending women actually touched on all women in the country and not just reserved for the privileged political class. All the challenges mentioned above significantly and disproportionately affect women. Yet we have not seen such a wonderful show of defence for the teenage girls getting defiled, having to go through unsafe abortion and/or dropping out of school because of teenage pregnancies, or for the pregnant woman who swam across a crocodile infested river to get to a health facility to deliver her baby in Tana River or for the hundreds of women who have been killed for just being women.
Angela Davis a Marxist and feminist political activist, spoke during the UN world conference on women held in Nairobi in 1985, calling for accountability for women political leaders, stating that Women in the political class do not represent all women and therefore it is not automatically feminist to have women in power. Unfortunately, women leaders across the political spectrum also uphold patriarchal and capitalist structures rather than questioning them and dismantling them for the benefit of women and all in their various constituencies. Women should qualify to be leaders, but we need to have strong accountability frameworks for all who are in power to ensure the needs of the people are met without disaggregation based on economic or political status
What now? Women should not be harassed for the sake of seeking to improve their reproductive health. However, there’s a lot of opportunity from such a caucus as KEWOPA to lead in internal accountability amongst the policymakers and to demand for action on behalf of women across the country. I’m sure there is so much more that can be done. What are your thoughts on this?
Leading with Heart and Purpose, Judy Amina
