A formidable voice of change

Rongai Leakwara, 42, fighting for women and children rights in her community. [Yvonne Chepkwony, Standard]

In a community where women are expected to be silent, Rongai Leakwara has decided to be the echo of justice.

Her smile radiated energy; her Ilchamus traditional regalia resonated with the event as she stood out from the crowd when her name was called.

Leakwara, 42, from the Ilchamus community in Baringo South, received an award during the World International Women’s Day celebrations held at Nakuru.

To her, the award is not only recognition of her hard work in advocating for and fighting for women and girls who have been constantly suffering under a regressive culture, but also a story of resilience.

 “The award category was for women in leadership and decision-making, for courageously advocating for women’s empowerment within the Ilchamus community in Baringo County,” Leakwara said.

Her family and community initially saw her as a nuisance for being vocal, addressing societal norms, saying no to victimisation, harassment, and defending the rights of women and girls.

She grew up just like any other child. At four, she suffered from a disease and ended up having a disability in her left leg, but that didn’t stop her from fighting and wanting to make a change in her community.

 Her journey, she says, started a long time ago when she was in Standard One, when she saw her elder sister being abused by her husband.

“She was grazing her goats, the husband found her in the grazing field and started beating her mercilessly. She was rescued by my brother and brought home. I would see how she groans in pain,” she added.

She vowed to stand against oppression and help in fighting vice that the community had deemed normal, yet an insult to humanity.

“Men used to beat women, and called it culture. When a woman got married, beating was unavoidable; it was a norm, it didn’t matter the level of education, so I used to feel their pain and vowed never to allow myself to experience the same,” he said.

Leakwara said that after completing her Kenya Certificate Primary Education, she was unable to proceed with her education, following the death of his father.

Even with that, Leakwara has continued to be the voice of the voiceless in her patriarchal community, where women's position is in the kitchen, and they have no voice.

With capacity-building support from civil society, Leakwara continued to learn more about her rights and budget advocacy.

She understood her rights and learned that women need a seat at the table and that their voices matter.

“What has been troubling me is how my community gagged women during barazas; they would only be allowed to pray and sit on the periphery and listen, as men passed the agendas," she said.

Since 2018, she has been active on the budget issue and has influenced women in her community to engage actively on budget issues, air their views, and be financially conscious.

She would later learn on paralegal and has been helping in handling cases in her community through mediation with others, such as defilement and sexually related offences, which are highly recorded in the area, and successfully taken to court.

 Coming from a community where men undermine and seclude women, leading to high cases of child neglect in the area, Leakwara used her skills in fighting for the children's welfare.

Leakwara has continued to help women in her community in fighting the injustices perpetrated by weak men deeply rooted in regressive culture, abandoning their responsibility by neglecting their children, and continues with juvenile behaviour of siring children without accountability.

“Child neglect in my community is so high, with women opting to take care of their children, yet the men being the perpetrators watch without addressing the issue,” she said.

In 2022, Leakwara was attacked 100 meters away from her home; the attackers left her hand with a broken bone.

The left hand has now become inactive, but so far, she has never known her attackers, but she believed that the attack might have been coordinated by a powerful force that doesn’t want change.

“I deal with many cases, such as child neglect, family disputes, conflict, among others, serious offences which might have triggered the attack,” she added.

She took it upon herself to educate women to join groups that generate income, about self-love, and self-awareness in addressing challenges they face.

So far, she said, her community has learnt to embrace her decision after discovering that the ideologies Leakwara has been instilling in the women following the initiatives and programs, such as farming, she introduced, were positive.