Only a few weeks remain until voters in Kenya elect their new president, and women across the country are doing everything they can to thwart any possible eruption of violence.
There is an unfortunate history of violence surrounding Kenyan elections.
“During election, people become enemies,” Mama Samaka, a community leader in the slums of Kibera in Nairobi, said.
Violent protests broke out after former President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election in 2007. Many took to the streets with machetes; schools were tear gassed; and hunger began to rise. Gangs of youths roamed through slums, torching homes, and in 2008, a church packed with women and children who had fled an attack on their village, was burned to the ground.
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During that time, as many as 1,300 people were killed in a span of 59 days and half a million were displaced.
Samaka, who ran for the community-elected Shofco Urban Network, a women’s empowerment project, to prepare residents for violence, is worried.
“Our children don’t have anything to do. They can be tricked with 100 or 50 shillings (50 cents to one US dollar) to do some damage,” she explained. “I bring people together so they don’t fight.”
She is joined by Alpa, a community organizer who is distributing water, education, and health services to those living in slums through a local organization.
“The men can always fetch food for themselves if riots happen,” Alpa said. “But women worry that they and their children will go hungry if riots erupt and they have to hide in their homes.”
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Eunice Akoth, a 13-year-old poet from the slums of Nairobi who previously performed on stage at the Women in the World New York Summit, has spoken out against the violence and corruption.
"We have lots of male leaders now but they don’t come and visit us. They are all about corruption. But women worry if they don’t have food,” she said. “They care about the people and don’t want to see hunger. You don’t have to change all the women in the country. All you need is to change one and you will make all the difference.”
That’s what the women of the Ukweli Party, a new party founded in response to the rifts between Kenya’s 68 political parties, are trying to accomplish.
Scheaffer Okore, the party’s vice chairperson, is trying to get more women and youth involved in political spaces.
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“Women are afraid to join politics because politics is very violent and patriarchal in our country,” Okore explained as she reflected on her own political journey. A single woman in her early 30s, she recalled a time when one constituent told her, “I hope you are ready for sexual advances because political prostitution is the way of thriving.”
Despite the intimidation, Okore and her team are pushing forward to ensure a more “inclusive” future and a peaceful election this August.
“I am worried,” she said. “But...I see more women organizing, pushing, taking action. Women are waking up. Women are rising. This makes me believe there is still hope in this country.”