Garissa women representative Anab Gure has urged fellow women from Northern Kenya to vie for elective seats in the forthcoming general election.
Gure said women have proven that given a chance they can not only deliver but perform even better than their male counterparts.
In Northern Kenya, women have over the years been sidelined when it comes to nominating candidates to vie for the elective seats. This has largely been blamed on retrogressive cultural practices ‘that women cannot lead’.
Clan elders normally sit down and nominate candidates for various elective seats, where women are not involved in the deliberations. Nominated candidates end up winning their seats.
Speaking to KNA on phone today Gure said that women in the region have a lot to learn from the current Ijara MP Sophia Abdi.
“As women we have a lot to learn from our own sister Sophia who despite facing fierce resistance from male contestant and community elders soldiered on and finally after many years managed to win their hearts,” Gure said.
Sophia, a teacher by profession and who has been described as ‘the iron lady for Northern Kenya politics,’ has contested for the Ijara parliamentary seat 3 times before eventually securing it in 2017.
She became the first ever women to be elected in a constituency since independence.
Before that she was involved various women issues and programmes. She is credited for fighting for the rights of women through Womankind Kenya, an NGO she co-founded with Hubbie Hussein, the current member of the National lands commission.
“Gone are those days when women were viewed as incapable of leading. thanks to the new constitution that has created more leadership space for the women who have in turn proved their capabilities,” she added.
Gure who political pundits in that area say she could be eyeing the Fafi parliamentary seat said women must rally behind their own and fully support them during the elections.
The women rep, a close ally of the deputy president also faulted the ODM leader Raila Odinga saying the BBI he was busy fronting for was only meant to create seats for the elites and has nothing to offer to the common mwananchi.
“I have always maintained that any agenda by the political class should have a component of the common mwananchi. But what we are currently experiencing is a bunch of self-centered politicians busy fronting agendas that are only meant to benefit them alone,” she said.
By Jacob Songok
