The silent women revolution sweeping across the nation

By Trevor Makona

A quiet revolution is sweeping across Kenya. Women are saying enough – enough of being used and dumped; to hell with male domination.

Like all revolutions, this one began silently, without a blip. First, those of keen mind noticed that Sylvester Bifwoli Wakoli, whose presidential ambitions were causing jitters across the land, silently went mute.

His silence was quickly followed by an announcement that Rev Mutava Musyimi, a fiery Baptist Minister and MP, would no longer be running for president yet his chances were high up there with the rest of the gang. Henceforth, he was throwing his considerable might behind TNA leader Uhuru Kenyatta.

Before they could blink, Garsen MP and political big hitter, Danson Mungatana, quietly slipped away from the flower party and joined TNA. What was going on?

But it was when Cyrus Jirongo, Eugene Wamalwa, Moses Wetangula, Kalonzo Musyoka and William Ruto shelved their presidential ambitions, which were running with the force of an ancient steam engine, and flung their weight behind fellow men that the reality dawned on them: Men were ganging up with the sole intention of pulverizing Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua, the invincible Iron Lady of Gichugu.

These men had reason to be scared stiff of Karua. With the election billed as a referendum between reformists and non reformists, she stood head and shoulders above the rest.

Her fight in the trenches for the second liberation was well documented. Her efforts to set up a local tribunal to try the Ocampo Six were not in question. Her performance and contributions on the floor of the House were peerless. And since her resignation from Cabinet on principle — rare among Kenyan politicians — she had virtually become the Official Leader of Opposition.

Incredibly, barring her militant support for President Kibaki after the botched 2007 poll, for which she was rewarded with a slap in the face, there wasn’t a whiff of scandal around her. No land cases pending in court. No corruption cases. Even her children and close relatives hadn’t once been mentioned in a scam, quite shocking for a senior political leader.

Each day she stood either on a political podium, she spoke always about issues — Justice for IDPs, zero tolerance against corruption and peace — while her rivals spewed insults and hate speech. Kenyans, who all along have been yearning for a tough leader – incorruptible, focused, intelligent, and non tribal — slowly began taking note. They compared Karua to the men. None measured up.

“This woman,” word started spreading from pub to pub, “is Kenya’s Margaret Thatcher: A fierce defender of the Constitution, a fearless fighter for justice, the long awaited broom against corruption, ethnicity and incompetence in government.”

Opinion polls did not lie. Kenyans had arisen. They had cast the cancer of ethnicity, of male chauvinism and official corruption, behind them. They were ready to cast that nonsense of voting as a block in the dustbin, to vote a leader who best espoused the ideals they had yearned for all along — one who wasn’t a millionaire despite her many years in Government, who hadn’t stuffed the ministries she headed with cronies, village mates and relatives, one Kenyans could depend upon to make difficult decisions without fear or favour.

The men were frightened to bits, reason even those with formidable chances of making it to State House chose to abandon their ambitions and gang up against the Iron Lady. How? Women were reacting to Karua’s bid in a strange way. Long used to dance for rotund male politicians at political rallies, being rewarded with token appointments to meaningless posts, they were rising as one, uniting.

In Karua, finally, they had one of their own who could take on the male pretenders head-on. She had the smarts, the balls — everything. And to prove it, as unprincipled men defected from one briefcase political party to another, she stood firm, the last man standing, pundits gushed.

And when the Supreme Court decided that the one third gender rule couldn’t wash and that, at least for this election, women had to punch it out with men, which everyone knew was impossible, it was clear a conspiracy was afoot. Women knew that they neither had the money nor the guile to hire drug addicts to stone and knife opponents on their behalf.

Enraged, Warembo na Raila, Warembo na Uhuru, Warembo na Mudavadi and feminist groups began falling over themselves to support Karua. Of what use was one third when they had the opportunity to vote as a block and hoist Karua to State House on the strength of their superior female vote?

The women of Kenya can scent Canaan. They have never been more united. That is why when a four-year-old girl was raped and strangled in Mombasa, they caused nationwide protests that brought the country to a standstill.