a family visit and women in politics

My parents will be arriving tonight! I’m really looking forward to seeing them again, and to taking a couple of weeks off work. First they’re going to spend a week in Nairobi, where they’ll be introduced to the beautiful madness of this city. Then we’ll be heading to Tanzania at the beginning of October and embarking on an 11-day safari, before traveling to Zanzibar, where we’ll remain for about 4 days. After that I’ll be returning to work, but mom and dad are staying on the coast for a few more days before rejoining me in Nairobi. I’m so excited about the trip, and the opportunity to finally get some travel in! It will be really nice to spend some quality time with the parents after nine months or so. The only unfortunate part about it is that we’ll be missing the Canadian election – on the day of the 14th, we’re scheduled to be in the Serengeti. It will be the first time since I’ve been able to really follow the election that I won’t be following it obsessively so that’s a bit weird. Especially since this is such an important election, and we probably won’t know the results until a couple of days later. I faxed my form in to receive my ballot by mail, but I fear that it may not arrive before I leave the country.

Otherwise, things have been insanely busy. I’m trying to balance work, school applications and social life, which has been tough At least the preparations for my applications are nearly finished – I’m moving on to scholarships soon (the bad news I recently discovered on that front is that Commonwealth Scholarships are not being offered to Canadian students this year – sigh). The applications themselves will mostly be submitted in October, when the majority open online.

At work, I’m working on a couple of publications (one magazine and one report), training my co-workers on the various programs I usually work with, plus organizing for the women’s movements conference coming up in Cape Town in November. I still don’t know whether I’ll be going myself, but at least some of our partners from the communities are! That’s really the most important thing, since they can make great contacts and bring what they’ve learned back to the village.

On Thursday I attended the monthly gender forum which is hosted by the Heinrich Boll Foundation, usually in collaboration with another organization. This time it was with the Centre for Multiparty Democracy. The subject of the forum this month was the Political Parties Act, which is designed to regulate the formulation, registration, qualifications and dissolution of political parties in Kenya. The Act was passed in 2007, and will come into effect in December 2008. Up to present, the regulation of political parties has been lax, at best. Parties are constantly springing up, dissolving, forming alliances and making shady deals. It’s interesting how much of Kenyan politics has relied on coalitions in the past decade. Not only is the current administration a so-called “Grand” Coalition, but PNU is also a coalition party, various segments of which are constantly threatening to break off. Kenyan politics right now is all about coalitions upon coalitions.

Two of the most notable aspects of the act were the emphasis on nationalizing parties (which means restricting parties that cater to a particular region, ethnic group or “minority interest”), and the attempt to force politicians to stick to one party, instead of joining whichever party would guarantee a seat and jumping ship once in parliament, by making it difficult to cross the floor. Of course, as it was a gender forum, we also discussed the gender aspects of the act. Really, the only gender provision was that, in all political parties, one-third of national officials must be of either gender. Meaning, if two-third of officials are men, the other third must be women, and vise-versa. The interesting thing is that the act does not discuss how this should be accomplished, nor does it address specific penalties if this provision, or any other, is ignored (aside from stating that it is “an offense”).

Involving such a large number of women in politics in Kenya will be very tricky. Many women, particularly in rural areas where literacy rates are abysmal, do not vote, or even speak up at public gatherings of any kind, let alone become politicians. There are so many barriers for women who want to become involved in politics: lack of education, very heavy domestic workloads, and deeply patriarchal social structures which prevent women from participating in the development of their own communities. Not least of all, women aspiring to take on what is seen as a “man’s job” are simply not taken seriously. This is not just the case in Kenya; in North America, we’re constantly belittling women in politics, discussing their wardrobes more than their policies and referring to them by their first names. In “progressive” Nairobi, just the discussion of women in politics got some people at the gender forum giggling away.

I fear that unless the popular perception of women as baby-makers, cooks and housewives change, any kind of affirmative action meant to encourage women to become politicians will be incredibly ineffective. I believe that education is crucial – people must see what girls and women are capable of achieving when they have the opportunity to develop their skills and improve their self-confidence. And it is also up to women and girls to dare to dream and stand up for their rights (of course, this can be pretty difficult if you’re stuck in an abusive marriage or face other threats to your physical safety and social standing for being outspoken). In every community, there are amazing women who are pushing boundaries and doing great things; unfortunately, they are frequently the exception.

Recently, Rwanda set a world record for being the first nation in which the majority of parliamentary seats are held by women. This was accomplished not only through affirmative action policies, but also through the hard work of women who campaigned hard, mobilized communities, and who came out in large numbers to vote. It didn’t happen by accident; a lot of people put a lot of through and effort into making it happen. It would be amazing to see a similar movement in Kenya.

Of course, a person’s policies are always more important than their gender. I think what many have learned from the ascent of Sarah Palin is that having prominent women politicians is less important than having prominent feminist politicians.

But maybe that’s just me. I am a raging leftie, after all :)