Kenya's female politicians are harassed, mistreated and compete to be elected

Omar is native to Lamu, a conservative region near the Somali border, best known for its preserved Swahili culture and as a UNESCO heritage site.

“If we want to address the challenges we face as women, youth and indigenous communities, we must also engage in political struggle,” she told DailyExpertNews.

The 39-year-old is the coastal province’s first female candidate for the top position. She is among a record number of women to run for office in Kenya’s August 9 general election.

She says she goes to the office as a natural progression after seven years of providing ‘patch solutions’ for poor health care.

“Being able to really dig our teeth into the root causes of rural problems is what has definitely propelled us into politics,” says Omar.

But she faces an uphill battle.

Although nearly half of registered voters are women, Kenya still has the fewest elected female leaders in East Africa.

A constitutionally mandated gender quota to break the male supermajority into power has consistently failed in the 12 years since its adoption.

But this election could be different.

‘Kenya is ready for women at all levels’

If opposition leader Raila Odinga wins, Kenya could get its first female vice president in 64-year-old Martha Karua.

When she single-handedly became president in 2013, Karua received less than 1% of the vote, a distant sixth behind five men.

In the 25 years since a woman first ran for Kenya’s presidency, this is the closest we’ve come to the highest seat.

Karua gasps when asked if Kenya is ready for a female president like neighboring Tanzania.

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“That question suggests that women shouldn’t be on the ballot, because I’ve never been asked if Kenyans are ready for another man. So that question is discriminatory in itself,” the former Kenyan justice minister told cnn.

“I think Kenya is ready for women at all levels.”

Her nomination boosted the Odinga campaign and excited many women, some of whom liken her to US Vice President Kamala Harris.

In her three decades in Kenyan politics, Karua has built a reputation as a principled politician and has been nicknamed ‘the Iron Lady’ – a nickname she hates.

“That name speaks to the misogyny in society. Strength is not seen as feminine, strength is seen as masculine,” Karua told DailyExpertNews, noting that it was first used to describe former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who came to power in 1979.

“It speaks to the misogyny and patriarchy that rules the world,” she says.

‘A systematic exclusion of women’

Although the number of women entering Kenya’s political sphere has increased over the years, only 23% of the seats in the last parliament were held by women. That includes the positions of female representatives reserved exclusively for them — 47 of the 349 seats are currently reserved for women for this position.

“We’re seeing more and more women running, which tells us it’s never been a problem for women to want to participate in politics,” said Marilyn Kamuru, a lawyer and writer on women in politics. “It remains a problem about the systematic exclusion of women.”

That exclusion includes financial barriers to competing in notoriously expensive campaigns that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and regular violence against women who run and even those who are already in office. In 2019, for example, a Kenyan MP was arrested for beating and berating a female colleague.

Kenyan MP arrested, charged with beating female colleague

“It cools the environment for women, it makes women think, to hold back,” and consider running for lower positions or giving up their campaigns altogether, Kamuru says.

The latest election cycle has followed the familiar pattern, with many women reporting violence or threats of physical harm and misogyny used to intimidate them from the race.

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“We’ve had some big, mind-blowing character assassinations that have discredited the work we’ve been doing with Safari Doctors, but we try not to let that distract us,” says Omar.

She deplores the propaganda used against her during the race, including taboo accusations such as being an LGBT recruiter or a drug dealer to derail her campaign.

It is more difficult for women in rural parts of Kenya to become politically involved due to socio-cultural barriers, Daisy Amdany, women’s rights advocate and executive director at the Nairobi-based Community Advocacy and Awareness Trust, told DailyExpertNews affiliate NTV.

“There are certain cultures that don’t even give women the right to keep their voter card, so you need a man’s permission,” Amdany said. She added that negotiated situations in which elders determine who to run for office also disadvantage women and that they are “more often than you might think.”

Despite the roadblocks to political office, Kenyan women persist. “As long as we remain non-negotiable players, the system has to accommodate us,” Kamuru said.

A long shot campaign

Omar’s powerful governorship is seen as an opportunity, as only three of Kenya’s 47 provinces are headed by a woman. A recent poll placed her third of the four candidates but she is not discouraged.

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While everyone DailyExpertNews spoke to in Lamu knew she was running, some men felt she was above her weight and should have competed for the less powerful female representative of the entire country.

But 24-year-old Constance Kadzo, who owns a small grocery store, told DailyExpertNews she was inspired to see a native Swahili woman run for a top spot.

“I’m voting for her because she’s the only woman brave enough to take on the men and I know she’ll fight for us.”