Women with disability defy odds in Kenyan political scene

Women with disability in political leadership

Previously Kenya and Africa were a patriarchal societies and this narrative is soon changing with the number of women occupying National political leadership positions this is a journey that is still a work in progress with Kenya yet to realize 2/3rd gender rule.

WOMEN WITHOUT DISABILITY IN POLITICAL ELECTIVE POSTS-2022

JOURNEY TO TWO-THIRDS-THE MILESTONES

THE NUMBERS (ELECTED)

Sources: IEBC, NATIONAL WOMEN STEERING COMMITTEE, CRAWN TRUST

If it is hard for a woman without a disability to vie, campaign and get elected to political leadership position it is twice as hard for a woman with a disability.

1. Number of PWDs elected and nominated to various positions.

1. County Assemblies nominated and elected

Total Nominations 26 out of 47 counties

• 14 women
• 12 men
• Pending 21

2. Total Elected MCAs 4

0 Women

4 Men

3. National Assembly elected and nominated

Total Elected and nominated 11

• Women
• Men

4. Senate Assembly Nominated

           Total Nominated 2

     1 Woman

     1 Man

Speaking to Michael Ashura, a public policy, gender and human rights advocate who vied for the Nairobi senate seat in the just concluded Kenyan election, Ashura was driven into leadership because of her personal experience of being excluded.

Ms Ashura who is deaf believes that the future of women with disabilities in political leadership is impressive and bright and this can only happen when they are allowed to lead without sympathy.

‘’I will tell women with disabilities to come out and prove their worth. I believe that I can make a change by being at the front especially when we want to initiate new bills that touch our challenges and becomes a solution, as they say, it’s only you who know the pains of your shoes,’’ says Ashura

The lawyer asserts that she had several challenges with communication during campaigns because of a lack of sufficient communication devices.

‘’I pray that Kenyans can just take a moment and learn Kenyan sign language trust me this is the coolest language than those foreign ones,’’ she says.

The ever-jovial, social and interactive gender and human rights advocate, commanded political space and a good presence with the Kenyan citizens and it was until the last minute that she stepped down a decision which augured well with her supporters hoping to see her end up as a nominated senator in Parliament, a dream that is yet to be realised.

Ms Ashura says that she doesn’t know why she appealed to her supporters but all in all, she is a social person who is always ready to listen and interact with anyone that comes across her and is always available to assist people either through messages and emails. She dismisses the notion that has painted women with a disability as being angry and bitter saying that it is a myth.

‘’Discrimination is there every day in our society and it comes because of negative attitudes among the majority in the community, I believe this can end by ignoring all these obstacles and instead use them as an opportunity to change such negativity,’’ she says

Ms Ashura encourages women and girls with disability saying that, the road to success does not come out with magic but through working on your confidence, sweat and determination hoping for the best to reach high ladders because opportunities won’t come when they sit back.

She calls upon the government and private sectors to give women with disabilities the opportunity to have positions in leadership.

‘’There is no way we can achieve our goals and agendas if one of us especially women with disabilities are left behind’’ says the lawyer.

Immediately after I finish with Ashura, I decide to call Lucy Mulombi, who is based in Kakamega and upon asking her to introduce herself she immediately talks with full of confidence.

‘’My name is Lucy Mulombi. I am identified as a woman with a physical disability. I am a grassroots advocate for women and girls with disabilities from Kakamega County. Yes, I am in leadership positions, although I have not yet acquired a position in the political spaces’’.

This is how I knew that in as much as I haven’t met Lucy, her introduction qualifies her and she continues.

‘’I believe leadership is not about the titles, but it’s about the passion to serve. I know the Constitution has given us the right to vote and be voted. It is just a matter of when. So among the barriers that we experience as women and girls with disabilities in political spaces, you can imagine, whatever the other women go through, for women with disabilities, it’s even worse,’’ says Ms Mulombi.

A teacher by profession says that attitudinal bias is one of the barriers experienced by women with disability in political leadership whereby society does not believe that a woman with a disability can represent them well.

‘’We experience a lot of stigma and discrimination, during the election period, rules and laws tend to be at times discriminatory as we have a clause that says, a person is disqualified from being elected as a member of parliament if he/she is of unsound mind. Such a clause takes away the right of persons with disabilities, especially those with psychosocial disabilities’’. Says Mulombi

‘’When it comes to the actual voting, you will find that the polling stations are not friendly for persons with disabilities on accessibility which makes women with physical disability give up on making their way to polling stations. Violence is another barrier that has been experienced during campaign periods’’

‘’When women experience violence, women with disabilities experience double that violence. I have seen how women have been attacked, assaulted during politics and this has dragged the participation of women and girls with disabilities in political spaces,’’ she says.

‘’In 2022, I was prepared to vie, unfortunately, myths and misconceptions from the community I am married in which is Luhya, hindered my efforts’’ she says

‘’I am a mother and I lost my husband many years back. The men in the community I was vying for termed me unfit until I remarry and I was dismissed based on that, they went on to ask how will a woman in a wheelchair, on crutches, be able to move around and represent our issues.’’

‘’Yet, I recall when I was at the university, I was able to serve as an executive senate, a position that assisted me to advocate for issues of all students and not just persons with disabilities. Later on, I vied to represent teachers as a non-woman representative, a position that won overwhelmingly. Not because of my disability but because I proved to the teachers that, I was worth the position and I could represent them. As we speak today, I am still a representative of teachers in Kenya, at the Kenya National Union of Teachers,’’ says Ms Mulombi.

Ms Mulombi says that there is an imagination that persons with disabilities have their slots for nomination and they should sit and wait to be nominated a good example is during campaigns where they use derogatory terms.

‘’When you stand to address people in a rally you are told to just sit and talk from where you are seated which denies you that visibility. Some will go to the extent of saying that you cannot stand because you are sick as if having a disability is a sickness which is quite demoralising,’’ says Ms Mulombi

Different disabilities come with different challenges and in a scenario of the nominated Nairobi senator Crystal Asige who is blind, says that women with disability are very few in political leadership spaces and being the only woman in the Senate and as a woman with disability from out of 400 and above women member of parliament there is little representation and no one has made a huge full print on participation which slows down the progress.

The senator says that their voices are not as loud when it comes to issues that face women generally and now women with a disability such as discrimination and dismissal based on their disability which are projected through actions that perceive you as inferior.

‘’It is difficult to find women with disability interact with their constituents, attend political rallies or even stakeholders engagement the way women without a disability would do,’’ she says.

Unlike women without disability in political leadership who will be invited to give their views on certain topics in media stations, this hardly happens to women with disability.

‘’This poses a lack of encouragement in visibility on tv interviews and debates, therefore is it because their opinion is not important or producers and editors perceive them as not grounded on issues or worse at all they are not even remembered and are forgotten in pre-planning stages which is a big issue if our moto is leave no one behind,’’ posits Asige

The soft-spoken and polite senator has faced challenges on resources such as funds that could rally their activities and programmes, but there has been little or no support when it comes to pushing agenda and capacity building for women with disabilities.

Ms Asige is faced with accessibility difficulties which could not accommodate her visual impairment within parliament where there has been only one woman with disability.

‘’According to the 2010 constitution in Article 54 which talks about the rights of persons with disabilities in all areas, we are yet to sort of like reach this to a satisfactory level,’’ says Crystal.

‘’Speaking practically, I have issues like documentation which needs to be given to me in a format that is accessible which hardly happens.’’

‘’For instance, there are usually like 10-15minutes for each senator to table their contributions and when making my contributions in parliament, while other senators get a visual prompt, I think there is some sort of a clock on the screen that gives them an idea of how many minutes they have left it is not the same for me despite several attempts in requesting for an audio prompt, which can make me aware of how much time I am left with to wind up, my mic is just turned off and I get abruptly interrupted and this sometimes throws me off and I end up losing my trail thoughts and notes,’’ says Asige.

‘’The chambers do not have any talk-back, a screen reader so I’m not able to aollow through sometimes and apart from pressing one button, which I’m told is the button that you press if you want to speak, the other buttons, I don’t rnow how to access them, I always have to call somebody over and say, hey, is this thing on? Has the speaker seen my request to speak? Which makes my job a lot harder.’’

Ms Asige says that in committee rooms, the same thing happens whereby if they have iPads which all senators get in a committee meeting with all of the agenda for the day such as documents and supporting evidence that needs perusing as a committee, she has to always request or alert them that the iPad is not activated making her walk everywhere with her assistant in such instances.

‘’I keep trying to advise the clerk’s office and the speaker’s office on the kind of provision they can buy, make or install to aid in multi-congress or other units in the chambers and sometimes they wonder how one person is always asking for the same things which can get into someone’s nerves, that makes me feel like I am becoming a burden and is not a good position to be in,’’ says Ms Asige.

Ms Asige wonders what if a deaf person, a person with multiple disabilities with epilepsy, a person with autism comes, how long will it have to take them to adjust in this kind of environment and how long will it take the Senate or Parliament in general to also make accommodations?

She urges other parliamentarians to support women with disability naturally to make the environment disability friendly cognizant of the fact that, they need to be taught how they can support because the more voices behind whatever agenda you have, the more likely it’ll be not just attended to but expedited.

And I think in my experience so far, when I speak to long-standing MPs, especially those who have been in parliament, governors, senators for almost a decade they can influence these changes because they’re the ones who are listened to quicker and lobbying with them is one thing.

‘’I have quite a lot of bills that I am sponsoring, four have turned up on the order paper and are being processed,’’ she says.

Faith Odidi, programmes coordinator at West Minister Foundation for Democracy (WFD) believes that women with disability are faced with attitudinal barriers, where parties don’t understand disability, and they don’t engage persons with disability in terms of compliance such as having them as members of the governing councils of political parties.

Ms Odidi believes that one way of addressing these barriers is ensuring, that political parties are inclusive through party policies, manifestos the constitution, and nomination rules which are inclusive of women with disabilities. Then they will be able to have that understanding of the need to include women with disabilities.

‘’In terms of, leadership and governance, when political parties have structures in place, then women with disabilities will easily just seamlessly be included. Because they will already be identified as part and parcel of their governance structures,’ she says.

Political parties need to ensure that they comply to national policy and guidelines, especially the constitution that provides for all political rights of all citizens, which include women with disabilities.

‘’This will ensure that the barriers are addressed and capacity technical support to political parties to persons with disabilities addressed. Active participation in political parties, engagements which will bring an understanding of women with disability itocreate a level playing ground for them,”, says Ms Odidi.

Jane Kihungi, the director of Women Challenged to Challenge (WCC), believes that the majority of women with disability are not well educated, and lack financial muscles due to unemployment which hinders their political engagements.

‘’Some of the things that we have done at WCC is to educate women with disabilities, build their capacities, strengthen their self-esteem, so they’re able to front themselves besides that, we have trained the media personnel to be able to tell the stories of women with disabilities for visibility,’’ Ssys Ms Kihungi.

According to Dr Davies Okombo, Human Rights Activist, Kenya is a signatory to different international conventions which prohibit discrimination based on sex, sex, or any other status; this commitment is affirmed by the Constitution of Kenya which provides that any treaty or convention which is ratified shall form part of the Constitution. However, in its concluding remarks, the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, regret that “gender parity has not been achieved for elected or appointed offices. It is concerned about barriers that prevent women from participating in political and public life on an equal basis with men, including threats and violence at all levels of political and public life.”

“Women with disability face challenges in enjoying political rights which are provided for in the Constitution. The political parties’ manifesto, in the first place, is never drafted in a manner that allows women who are blind to read and understand the contents independently. It, therefore, becomes difficult for women to analyse the political parties manifesto and make informed choices. In this regard, women are excluded from participation in influencing political decisions which the political parties make,” he says.

Mr Okombo believes that gender-based violence perennially occurs during political campaigns. Violence, in this case, is a tool which politicians deploy to win support against their opponents. It is used to cause intimidation with a view of weakening an opponent’s resolve to challenge the violent politician. Women with disability are unable to effectively compete against male colleagues who are violent. Violence, therefore, works against the promotion of participation of women with disability in enjoying political rights.

He concludes by calling upon policymakers to develop intersectional approaches when seeking to support women living with disability to enjoy political rights. There is no doubt that gender parity has not been achieved, however, measures should be put in place to understand how disability, sex, and other status, contribute towards the oppression of women with disability in Kenya to achieve an inclusive, sustainable, and democratic county.

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