Gladys Wanga: Work-life balance is a struggle

Outspoken and not one to be a wallflower, Gladys Wanga epitomises resilience and grit in the world of politics. CAROLINE OKELLO spent one hour with the politician to get a glimpse of who she is. 

Her laugh alerts me that she is in the room, loud and unabashed, drawing my attention and that of everyone else in Parliament’s guest lounge. Gladys Wanga is sharing a light moment with two companions, and when she is finally free of them and walks up to me, a smile lingers. The laugh will come again when I ask her what questions she hates being asked, and again when she thinks back to her favourite childhood memories. It will come during the photo session when the photographer tells her to put a serious face on. It’s infectious every time.

When she told me to meet her in Parliament at 10am, I brought a book with me, a tome that would preoccupy me for hours should she be late. But my phone rang at the appointed time, Wanga on the other end telling me she had arrived.  

What if they had shot her?

If you don’t know Gladys Wanga as the Homabay County Women Representative, then you probably know her as the ODM politician who dared the police to shoot her when she was denied access to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, in 2017, to receive Raila Odinga who was coming back from the US. This was during the early days of NASA’s resistance movement.

Even though she was not afraid, her family, friends and concerned constituents were judging by the number of calls that blew up her phone after the video aired. They were all saying the same thing: “Please slow down, we can’t lose you.”

What if they would have shot her? “I think there comes a point when you’re ready to die for what you believe in,” she now tells me. And what does she believe in? “I believe in justice and at the time there was a lot of injustice meted on Kenyans who supported NASA and that was what I was championing for at that particular moment. I’m a social justice advocate. I believe that the right thing should be done, and people should not be mistreated or undermined.”

Her social justice activism started when she was a prefect at Kisumu Girls’ High School. One time she felt that the teachers were disrespectful to prefects and they all agreed on a go-slow. That day there were no prefects at the gate to nab latecomers, and no prefects supervising daily school activities, which meant that chores were either not being done or not being perfectly executed. The prefects also stopped wearing the blue blouses that set them apart from the other students. The go-slow was a collective agreement but when it came to questioning, she was pointed out as the ringleader and was suspended for one year. She spent her entire Third Form at home, studying with the help of tutors her father hired.

And perhaps it is from dealings like this that lead people to assume that she is a rough, even violent, person, what she calls a serious misconception because “I’m very laidback, reflective and humble person. What people see on TV is part of the work, and politics is the work.”

She describes herself as very religious and during this interview, she quotes bible verses often to pass a point. When we talk about the things she’s missing out on because of her career, for instance, she says she has no regrets because she believes everything has a purpose. “I don’t have regrets because I am a believer. Like the bible says, ‘And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose’. I feel like every step that comes is moulding me for something else.”

Missed out on youth

Wanga turns 38 this year, having gotten into national politics when she was 32. Before that she held managerial positions at Trust for Rock Art and LVCT Health. She missed out, she feels, on being young, carefree and “out there”. The responsibilities of the job don’t allow her to be those things. She says, “You have a lot more hanging on your shoulders, every decision you make is likely to impact a lot more people. Right now if I make a decision, 1.4 million people in Homabay are affected or even the over 40 million Kenyans. You have to act like the leader you are.”

One could say she is following in her father’s footsteps. Her father, John Nyasuna, was a councillor and chairperson of Kisumu County Council. A distinct childhood memory was when in 1992 he was running for the Muhoroni parliamentary seat and Gladys was upset when she found out that he’d stepped aside for another candidate. The 11-year-old Gladys cried all the way home from the polling station.

My love, my number one supporter

At Kenyatta University, she became the Secretary General of the Student’s Union. She met her husband, George Wanga, when she was a student at Kenyatta university. “We got married after two years of dating. He is smart and humble, and our similar backgrounds also brought us closer. We had both lost our parents and we had responsibilities. I lost my father when I was a Fourth Former and my mother when I was in Fourth Year in university and I had to take care of my siblings from that point on,” she says.

Gladys describes her husband as her number one supporter who holds the fort at home when she travels for work.

“It does get overwhelming and sometimes you feel that you’re not doing enough at home, or if you’re doing enough at home you feel that you’re not doing enough at work. It’s a delicate balance. Sometimes you feel the pressure to be with your constituents every weekend. Every time they have a function, they invite you and you have to be with them. You then end up losing time that you would have spent with your family, and because family is more accepting of the situation, at the end of the day they end up losing,” Gladys says.

Her strong religious belief keeps her sane and grounded. She also has a strong support system made up of her husband, siblings, in-laws and friends. She spends Sundays with family in church. When there’s time they’ll go on holiday within or outside the country. She also takes her children (Gabriel, 11 and Essie, 9) to work sometimes. “I emphasise a lot of community work for them because I believe no person is an island and I want to instil the spirit of service in them.”

It’s tough being a female politician. Oftentimes, she says, one has to work twice as hard to get half of the recognition. “There is usually the belief that when women get into politics, they ride on other things other than their own capabilities. Many people don’t believe you can work out politics like I did from high school. I was always a justice crusader. In university, I was the secretary general of the student’s union. And even when I got into national politics there is always the belief that I didn’t get there because of my capabilities. So for you to overcome that belief and after overcoming that belief you have to constantly prove that you can be a leader like men. All that takes a lot more effort.”

There are rumours that she is eyeing the Homabay governor post in the next general elections. Is it true? “I am in conversation with the people of Homabay, but I know for sure I will not be running for the Women Representative seat.”

She is sure to withstand what comes next and do her best. “Throughout my life I have learnt that I am hardy,” she says. “If I were a seed, I would be resistant to weeds. I’ve passed through a lot, but they don’t hinder me. I always knew politics was my place, although you always mould your next step as you move along.”