A community-based organisation, Inuka Community Developers Network, has embarked on collecting views from Homa Bay residents to demystify obstacles that impede women’s success in leadership in a bid to eradicate the obstacles.
Speaking Wednesday during a stakeholders meeting in Kendu Bay, the organisation’s director, Ms. Lydia Hongo, said preliminary findings indicate that negative attitude towards women in leadership is one of the impediments barring women from becoming leaders.
The director said some sections of the community believe that women cannot lead, which deters them from voting for them during elections. She further pointed out that other issues included women fearing for their safety during political campaigns.
Hongo said they started the programme after discovering that many women lacked empowerment. She said the views are going to help them identify problems with the aim of addressing them.
“We realised that women suffer various forms of discrimination that hinder them from occupying elective positions,” Hongo said. She also expressed concerns that women who participate actively in campaigns are sidelined when the politicians they support have won the elections.
“Some women who campaigned for politicians in the last general elections were promised appointment positions, but the promises were in vain. The attitude that women cannot lead must now come to an end,” Hongo reiterated.
The official said their focus is on community leadership, where women need to be encouraged to rise to leadership posts. “Our objective is to enable women to be given equal opportunities in governance to be on par with their male counterparts,” she said.
Homa Bay Deputy Governor Mr. Oyugi Magwanga and the County Executive Committee Member for Gender Ms. Sarah Malit called for inclusion of teenage girls in the empowerment programme.
Magwanga recommended that for the organisation to achieve its objective, it should start mentoring girls from the grassroots. “I urge the programme implementers to cascade it to girls to build their confidence that they are also capable of being leaders,” Magwanga said.
The United Nations (UN) Women Kenya Gender and Governance Programme Analyst, Ms. Hellen Muchunu and Media Focus on Africa Country Director, Mr. Harrison Manga, said they are partnering with Community Developers Network to bring about change in women’s leadership.
Muchunu urged women to be aggressive in their quest for leadership positions. “Women’s political space does not start and end at the ballot; instead, they should rise to other leadership positions,” Muchunu said.
Manga, on his part, urged residents to be receptive to women leaders. “The negative attitude against women must now change to enable more women to be in leadership posts,” Manga said.
By Davis Langat
