Gallant Kenyan daughters who blurred gender line

These women ventured into elective politics when it was supposed to be an all-male game, re-wrote the rules and the roles, and are not done with the struggle for equal opportunities yet.

They have been beaten up and their cars smashed. They have been accused of infidelity.

Some have had their businesses ruined, but they have been cool under sustained fire, eventually putting their tormentors to shame.

Most importantly, they have proved that, to succeed, you have to be yourself — in a way defying the gender construct.

Constant thorns in the flesh of male dominance, these Kenyan amazons have redefined the rules of the game.

Like the women warriors of Scythia in Greek mythology who burned off their right breasts in order to use a bow and arrow more effectively, they have burned off timidity in order to tear through oppression.

As we mark the World Women Day, let’s keep in mind that the price was never going to be a slap on the back.

This is a tribute to them, to Kenya’s women of steel.

Martha Karua

Gichugu MP Martha Karua earned the accolade “the only man in PNU” during the tallying of the disputed presidential vote at the KICC in 2008, and cemented it during the subsequent protracted negotiations that led to the signing of the National Accord.

The vocal MP, however, would resign her ministerial post in 2009 over what she termed as frustration in discharging her duties. Actually, she had differed with powerful people over the appointment of certain judges of the High Court.

Always shooting from the hip, she declared former British envoy to Kenya Sir Edward Clay a persona non grata during an interview with the BBC’s Hardtalk show in January 2008.

Other people would have pinched themselves and stopped mid-sentence because Britain and the US are the lands where Kenyans of Karua’s social standing take their children to college, hence the necessity to mind the small matter of the Visa and travel bans.

Born in Kirinyaga District 53 years-ago, Karua made a name as a magistrate, a human rights activist, an advocate and an opposition activist before her election to Parliament and subsequent appointment as Minister of Water Resources Management.

Through Martha Karua & Co Advocates, she handled many cases on pro bono basis, among them the treason trial of Koigi Wamwere.

As an opposition MP, she, under the prevailing political culture, did the unthinkable: sauntering off the presidential dais in defiance during a rally addressed by former President Daniel arap Moi at Kerugoya Stadium in Kirinyaga. Such cheek earned you detention those days.

When the Constitutional Review Bill was tabled in Parliament, she stayed put after the entire opposition walked out in protest.

Although the Bill had been rejected by the opposition and the civil society, she argued that she chose to remain in the house to put her objections on record.

In 2003 she was carjacked and robbed while in Fr Dominic Wamugunda’s car. Asked in Parliament to elaborate the circumstances under which the incident occurred, Karua said she was under no obligation to do so.

Such is the unnerving finality of a politician who is gunning for the presidency in 2012.

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Millie Odhiambo

Millie Odhiambo earned her parliamentary slot through nomination by the Orange Democratic Party. But this does not make her any less of a fighter.

Besides being the coordinator of the Western Kenya Presidential Campaign team for Raila Odinga during the 2007 General Elections — where she spearheaded campaigns in more than 50 constituencies — Odhiambo is known for her fiery debates on the floor of the House.

She cut her political teeth in civil society activism as the boss of the children’s rights NGO, Cradle. “I have introduced to the House the Counter Trafficking in Persons Bill, which awaits Presidential assent,” she says.

“I have nine other legislations on women and children, but I wonder whether there will be time for them”.

A lawyer, she is also a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs and Administration, which has been on the limelight lately over recent presidential nominations.

Describing herself as a “social entrepreneur”, Millie, the Vice Chair of the Oversight Committee on Implementation of the New Constitution, says her joy is working with women and children.

“The main hindrance towards the progress of women is tradition... things like female genital mutilation and early marriages.”

In leadership, she explains, “the main problem is the chauvinist mindset that assumes women must always be the minority in every elective body”.

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Charity Ngilu

Since she won the Kitui Central seat in 1992 and vied for the Presidency in 1997, Charity Kaluki Ngilu has cut the image of a tenacious politician.

After ditching the government in 2007 to support Raila Odinga’s presidential bid, Ngilu ruffled feathers when she equated the ODM leader to South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

This comparison evoked reaction from many quarters, among them the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

“With all due respect to those running for presidential election in Kenya, dragging and invoking Nelson Mandela’s name in comparison of the content of character is uncalled for and should stop with immediate effect,” read a statement from the foundation.

Currently, Ngilu is in the eye of a storm. Her ministry is being investigated by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (Kaca) over irregularities in the awarding of tenders.

However, the minister calls these “machinations” by her political enemies. If this is the cross she has to bear for taking water projects to her people, she says, so be it.

An astute politician, she survived an ODM-K wave and supported Raila Odinga’s presidential bid against Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, emphasising her ability to go against the ethnic grain and still disappoint those who had started writing her political obituary.

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Orie Rogo Manduli

Orie Rogo Manduli burst into the limelight in the ‘60s when she won the Miss Kenya beauty contest while still in high school. Highly shrewd and sometimes unconventional, few dare cross her path.

In 1974, she became the first black woman to compete in the Safari Rally, and later became the first woman to head the National Council of NGOs. However, her last days at the helm the NGO Council were marred by a protracted leadership wrangle.

Manduli’s outspoken nature has driven her to fight battles that many would run away from. During the 2007 elections, for instance, she was assaulted during a political function after some heated argument with an opponent.

She once told the Nation that she parted ways with her first husband because he wanted boys. In those days, women took such treatment without as much as lifting a finger.

Politics aside, Manduli’s sheer presence hoists her above the crowd. Her headgear, for one, has been the subject of numerous national debates.

“I am a proud and beautiful African woman. My headgear is a reflection of how an African woman should dress,” she says.

With her dress code inspired by budding or blooming flowers and the contrasts of nature, Manduli says that, in a good day, her headgear could be as long as two feet above her head!

Although she admits Kenyan women have made great strides in their struggle for emancipation from the chains of a paternal society, more, she cautions, needs to be done.

“After spending valuable time in conferences and meetings in exclusive hotels, it’s time Kenyan women walked the talk,” she says.

“If women were to rise to positions of authority and influence in this society, things would be better since, unlike men, vices like corruption, tribalism and violence are not entrenched in their nature.”

The female spirit, she says, is born of humility, mercy, kindness and compassion, which make women the most ideal leaders. Debatable, but that’s Manduli for you.

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Wangari Maathai

Born in 1940 in Tetu, Nyeri, Prof Wangari Maathai is among the most respected women in the world.

Apart from being the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, she made history in 2004 when she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Through her Greenbelt Movement, Maathai became a symbol of environmental conservation, the fight for women’s rights and democracy throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Besides assisting women across Africa to plant more than 30 million trees on their farms, schools, and church compounds, the Nobel Laureate is also well known for her campaign against land grabbing and rapacious allocation of forest lands.

One of her most memorable efforts is the one-woman-campaign against former president Moi’s plan to build a skyscraper at Uhuru Park, which was to be owned by The Kenya Times Media Trust in a joint venture with media Moghul Robert Maxwell.

Maxwell would later commit suicide after misappropriating his workers’ pension funds.

Although Moi called her a “mad woman” and a “threat to the order and security of the country”, Maathai didn’t give in. In a memorable exchange of brickbats, she reminded the president that “what mattered was the anatomy above the shoulders”.

Previously, Maathai had led a group of women in stripping naked at Uhuru Park to demand for the release of their detained sons. Talking to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! during the 2005 Women’s Day, she explained that:

“When women are confronted, punished, threatened by men who are old enough to be their sons, that is extremely humiliating, because whatever you do as a man, you must not touch your mother. You cannot beat your mother.”

Maathai has addressed the UN General Assembly for several occasions, served in various bodies and received numerous awards for her efforts in environmental conservation and human rights.
Last month the University of Nairobi launched the Wangari Maathai Institute of Environmental Studies, which will incorporate the society in the development of environment-friendly solutions.

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Margaret Wanjiru

Starehe Member of Parliament Bishop Margaret Wanjiru has weathered many storms. Born to a humble family 51 years ago, Wanjiru had to claw her way out of poverty by working as a hawker, toilet cleaner and house-help before founding the Jesus Is Alive Ministries, where she is the presiding bishop.

After she declared her intentions to marry South African preacher Samuel Matjeke, a hitherto unknown man going by the name James Kamangu Ndimu jumped onto the stage, claiming the televangelist was his customary wife.

A protracted court case ensued during which Kamangu became an instant celebrity, but the diminutive man from Gachie died before the judge could make a ruling. Many people of the cloth would have gone down with frayed nerves, but not Bishop Wanjiru.

From the pulpit, the husky-voiced orator talked of wringing a neck and doing a funeral. Not very ecclesiastical, but who doesn’t lose their cool?

Even after clinching the Starehe parliamentary seat through a nose-bruising race in 2007, the vocal preacher had little time to celebrate since her rival immediately filed a petition.

The High Court ruled against her, but Wanjiru dramatically reclaimed the seat by trouncing archrival Maina Kamanda, a seasoned city politician who had the right connections in the corridors of power.

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Esther Passaris

Many Kenyans first heard of Esther Passaris during her highly publicised court case against local tycoon Pius Ngugi, during which she demanded huge sums of money for the upkeep of their two children.

The courts granted her part of her demands. But, according to her website, they have since ironed out their differences.

“Although I say I am a single parent, my relationship with the father of my children is amicable and we share responsibility,” she writes in www.estherpassaris.com.

A go-getter, Passaris has sued the City Council of Nairobi for cancelling an advertising deal with her company, Adopt-A-Light.

During the 2007 presidential elections, Passaris declared her interest in politics, and, several months later, unsuccessfully vied for the Embakasi parliamentary seat.

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Editor's Note

This list is by no means exhaustive. Dr Maria Nzomo, Dr Julia Ojiambo, Dr Wanjiku Kabira, Dr Eddah Gachukia, Grace Ogot, Muthoni Wanyeki, Njoki Ndung’u, Koki Muli, Njeri Kabeberi and many more women have demonstrated as, as Prof Wangari Maathati would put it, that what matters is the anatomy above the neck.