Healing the trauma of electoral violence: a step towards winning political battles

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One step that society fails to recognise is that trauma healing plays a vital role in women’s participation in public life. But how exactly can stakeholders ensure this works?

Women go through trauma during electioneering period, this story explores the healing process needed to get them back on their feet

In 2013 when May Cecilia Ayot, former Laini Saba Member of the County Assembly (MCA) first attempted to run for a political seat she faced a crazy backlash from her male counterparts.

With little knowledge of what goes on in the political arena, Cecilia was positive that her campaigns would be smooth as long as she fulfilled her voter’s wishes.

“For over 20 years I had been working with women and seeing women sit in the decision-making table is one of the things that motivated me to actively contest,” she says.

However, after giving in to the pressure, everything got ugly and my attackers went to the extent of targeting my family.

“I was still staying in the slums so it was very hard for me to protect my family, my daughters being the most vulnerable on several occasions received rape threats,” she recalls.

In many cases the duty bearers didn’t salvage the situation due to the assumption that Nairobi’s Kibra constituency is a war zone, this made her opponents powerful.

Although Cecilia lost the elections she still decided to participate in the second race.

“Five years after the first attempt I would say I was more mature and aware of what I was getting myself into, I had also moved from the slum to a more secure place around Kibra and was certain that I was safe this time round,” she remembers.

Despite the beefed-up security capacity, she still faced a nasty and violent campaign.

Surprisingly, from her observation, it was only opponents from the same party, during primaries, that tend to fight her.

“This time I won the elections, I was able to walk into the National County Assembly where I would represent my voter’s plights and sit at the decision-making table,” she says with a smile on her face.

Although she was excited to be a leader she faced a different form of discrimination from her colleagues.

To Cecilia, this was the most challenging duty she had ever been assigned but required a lot of energy to execute.

“Have you ever had so many people believe in you but have very little to offer because of the limitations that you are facing? That was me,” she recalls.

Cecilia recalls how she was not a darling to her fellow male counterparts who often hauled gross insults at her.

“It is very difficult for a woman to disagree with the status quo, it was very difficult for me to sit at the decision-making table because of the thought that women belong in the kitchen, such gender-biased violence and gender stereotypes often made me feel like I was failing as a woman,” she explains.

Although she had reasons to not go back to the ballot papers, she put her chin up and decided to attempt elections once again.

“You know, as you grow in politics the less violence you are likely to face because the more popular you become in the political scenes,” she says.

However, this time was different, because this time around she was defending her seat.

“My opponents were so eager to destroy me although I had a beefed up security, they realized I was unbeatable and so they decided to fabricate some lies to damage my honour,” she says.

On her part, Viviane Owino, an aspiring Member of the County Assembly (MCA) in CBD Ward in last year’s elections explains she came across men who give her an ultimatum to step out of the race.

“My male counterparts would often tell me that I was too young to go for a political seat because of my looks which somehow doubled up as harassment,” she says.

She recalls a recent incident where she had to put off a senior politician who constantly kept on telling her that she needed to accept his advances in order to get the guidance she needed to campaign.

“As an aspirant, I need so much support from my seniors or people who have been in that space before, but every time I walk into the office to address my issues and have a discussion with someone in regards to the same it will always end with them requesting for sexual favours and us having an argument of how it is not possible,” she says.

To her, this always torments her and makes her question her decision to run for a political seat.

“I have the zeal to be in the ballot papers but some of the people surrounding me, mostly men, tend to make it hard for me to stand up for myself,” she says.

However, Cecilia and Viviane were able to persevere through the campaign by disregarding the violent acts they encountered.

In addition, Cecilia attributes her strength to continuously participate in politics to her husband’s support.

“Most powerful women are not in a supportive environment and that is why most of the time they might opt out and decide to not participate in politics at all,” she says.

Also, she has a way of blocking whatever negative things she sees on social media by not responding at all.

For Cecilia, although she has been brave enough to fight most battles thrown at her, she admits that sometimes the sexual insults and harassment get to her that at times she gets depressed and decides to isolate herself.

“It is very hard to heal and get over everything we go through, nobody ever talks about the aftermath which is so unfortunate because people assume that everything has to go on as usual and that life would still go on and you will still contest and be in the ballot paper in the next election,” she says.

In numbers.

In Kenya, violence against women in politics is a serious issue, a study by the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) and African Parliamentary Union (APU) showed that sexism, harassment, and violence against women is rampant across African parliaments.

The report indicates that 80 per cent of female MPs have experienced psychological violence in Parliament, 67 per cent have been subjected to sexists’ behaviours and remarks, and 39 per cent of them have faced sexual violence from their male counterparts.

According to the report women parliamentarians under 40, unmarried women and women from minority groups face a higher incidence of violence and women with disabilities are the most seriously affected.

Further, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which conducted a study on violence against women in politics in 2020, 84 per cent of the women in politics in Kenya have experienced some form of violence during their tenure.

The study also showed that women in politics face particular challenges when it comes to online abuse, with 63 per cent of women having experienced some form of online violence.

It is important to note that these statistics are likely to be a conservative estimate, as many incidents of violence may go unreported due to fear of retaliation, stigma, or other barriers.

Although the issue is rampant there are several efforts being made to combat it one of them being the establishment of laws and policies such as the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act and the National Gender and Equality Commission Act.

These provide a legal framework for addressing violence against women in politics and empowering them to further report incidents.

Furthermore, organisations such as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in Kenya and the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) are working to support women in politics and create safe spaces for women to participate in public life.

This involves providing resources such as legal aid, counselling services and security measures.

It is important to know that while there are positive steps being taken, there is still much that needs to be done.

According to Margret Mbiria Team leader, of Women’s Concerns Center Kisumu, one major reason women shy away from participating in elections is the trauma that they go through every time they attempt to be in politics.

“women might want to participate in elections but find it hard to because of the fact that they have to deal with the trauma that accompanies elections”

She adds that although some women might want to participate in elections they find it hard to because of the fact that they have to deal with the trauma that accompanies elections.

“Healing takes a lot of time, especially for female candidates there are so many organisations that are there to help these women because during the electioneering period, they are violated by their supporters, abused online and nothing seems to ever been done and people eventually tend to forget that about her and this warrants to more healing,” she says,

However, the only way to correct this is by starting with political parties, most of our political parties have manifestos that talk about protecting women during the electioneering period but the same parties go to the extent of violating women.

“Political parties should provide female candidates with beefed-up security because anything can happen to a female candidate while in the field,” she says.

Another method of tackling this issue is by ensuring that the civil society organization (CSO)programmes ensure women are protected.

“This can be done by incorporating weekly counselling to help them gain psychosocial support to help women in politics get over the aftermath of violence, and this goes to the extent of getting a good partner,” she explains.

Finally, men play a major role when it comes to women in politics’ therefore incorporating a man in a female campaign helps women in politics have the ins and don’ts as well as expectations in the political space.

In Nigeria where they just concluded their elections the script reads the same as women in politics still get sexually assaulted and harassed as they fight to participate in public life.

Abosede George-Ogan Founder, Women in Leadership Advancement Network (WILAN) explains that one of the issues women in politics are forced to deal with is psychological violence and emotional which is really hard to overcome.

“Violence against women in politics creates obstacles to women’s active and meaningful participation in politics, it threatens democracy and creates an unsafe environment for women to be able to sit at the decision-making table,” she says.

In addition, it is crucial that social and political institutions prioritise the protection of women’s rights and take strong action against those who perpetrate violence.

She adds that to be able to deal with the healing of violence women have to go through in the struggle for inclusion in politics she has an aftercare programme for women in politics to talk about their moments and share some of the things they have been able to go through to help them on the healing journey.

Importance of healing.

On his part, Dr Geoffrey Wango, senior lecturer and counselling psychologist, at the University of Nairobi explains that it is unfortunate that women in politics are often met with violence during campaigns,

He adds that the healing process can be long and difficult but there are various steps that can help in ensuring that they don’t lose their interest in participating in public life.

This story is part of the African Women in Media (AWiM)/Luminate Young Women in Politics Programme