Gender Politics: Is This The Way To Emancipate Women?

The idea of "Justice for Women" as argued about by proponents of gender-sensitive politics is not new. History is replete with many examples of women who moved to the extremes to make the collective voice of their fellows known, and acted upon. In this regard, the work of the late Nobel laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai sticks out.

While boosting women's numbers in decision-making bodies may embolden their advocacy, I am of the view that obsession with filling quotas has obscured the fundamental challenge facing women. Partly as a result of this quota-syndrome, women agenda has been reduced to how they (women) can be represented by their fellow womenfolk. Nothing less, nothing more.

I think this reasoning is faulty. A few nominations at top level positions will not lift all women up Kenya’s socio-econo-political ladder.

The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 clearly catapults the need to institutionalize gender balance. Beneath this undertaking lie two questions: Is justice (for women) just about raw representation? Is there any possibility of moving beyond this form of justice to a (more) robust, non-elitist justice?

Whereas I do not seek to negate this constitutional dictate, I think Kenyan women can do better if we borrow a leaf from the many initiatives the likes of Prof. Wangari Maathai left behind.

Resource scarcity is the biggest hurdle on the way of women empowerment. Forget about those who talk about cultural and/or religious -isms. Those -isms gain popularity where material - and perhaps immaterial - scarcity is chief. Folks out there are ready to pick any deep-pocketed chap as their leader - women included.  

Redraw Kenya's 2013 electoral map and get the drift. Money was/is everything.

Many reasons have conspired to aggravate this condition. One, we have paid lip service to issues that matter to women. Two, we falsely think all women are homogeneous hence deserve one and the same solution, namely, more nominations. Three, those spearheading women empowerment programs have - most of the time - resorted to paternalism as their philosophy of choice when interacting with women from lesser attractive backgrounds.

Women agenda is akin to a business growth plan; complete with an elaborate system founded on hierarchical strength. For the case of women, this hierarchical strength stems from access to information which in turn determines the heaviness of a person's pockets and more principally the capacity of this person to capture elective positions.

At the bottom of this chain rests a group of women whose  raison d'être is one thing: Existence. Their moves can be summarized thus: So long as they get their daily bread, they have nothing else to worry about... The Mama Mbogas you see dotting our markets and villages are life members of this club. Mark you; they have numbers and can tilt political scales – if they are well informed. But someone is to blame for this unexploited force.

Atop this Mama Mboga club rests a "survival-brigade". Its members are, to a larger extent, aware of what pertains of them but choose to play safe. They are pragmatists par excellence. They may choose to politic but not for the general good of their womenfolk. Their individual interests reign supreme. At times they choose to be noisy. But wait, a closer examination of the contents of their noises is what you need to uncover their sinister motives. 

Then comes a "success group". Those populating this squad are your usual "cool, objective, measured, schooled" friends. Though they collectively have a game-changing effect, they have chosen to maintain silence in order to "guard" their successes. Their unwritten creed reads something like this: Advocacy or anything connected to it must strictly be interpreted as a threat to individual successes (read jobs) hence the need to keep off (lest one attracts unwarranted attacks).

The "go-for-it group" is more assertive but lacks coordinative power and deep connections to materialize their sweet intentions. Those vocal Maendeleo ya Wanawake chairpersons and their ilk will definitely find their place here.

Finally, we have the "resourced sisters". These are go-getters who fear no one. They know the inner workings of the econo-political system. Their voice is presumed to be the voice of all - women, so to say. The lower level Wanjikus bank on them to access government largess. The obstacle here is that they are few and far apart thus diminishing their collective bargain.

Back to the top: Will raw representation emancipate Kenyan women? My answer: I don’t know. Should the lower level Wanjiku be brought on board? Yes, yes, yes!

My conclusion: The way to full women empowerment is through resource redistribution. Gender politics devoid of a resource-component is doomed to be fruitless. Money, not empty rhetoric, matters down there.

Lemukol Ng’asike is an architect. Twitter:  @mlemukol.