Women’s Participation in Constitution-Making Process in Kenya (S.3, Part 7)

Abstract

This 2hours-long video was recorded in June 2017. Mrs. Odinga is the wife of Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, Kenya’s former Prime Minister. She was the sole provider of her family when her husband was in detention for more than ten years. She was born in Kabarnet, Baringo where both of her parents were working. Her father is a Luo while her mother is a Luhya. Her mother was the first African nurse in Kenya and she was the 27th person, and the only African at the time, to open a bank account in Kakamega in 1937. The mother stopped working to take care of the children. She started schooling at Migori where her father was working. While in Standard Three, her father passed away. She built a home for the family in Migori where Idah grew up in Ukhuyu village which was cosmopolitan with different ethnic groups. Her mother, a staunch Christian, worked very hard and supported the family alone. She educated all her children and she was her role model. She held leadership positions in both primary and secondary school where she was a Library and a House Prefect. She pursued her A-Levels at Highland School. After completing high school, she went to the University of Nairobi (UoN). She married Hon. Raila Odinga when she was in her third year at the UoN after which she joined the teaching career. At the time, there were very few African women teaching in high schools. The students were initially not receptive but later bonded and they came to enjoy the course. Later, she went on to teach at Kenya High School until her husband was arrested during the political unrest following accusations of treason which were later withdrawn after years in detention. By then, she had three children and did not know how long her husband would be detained. She prepared to raise her children since she had a salary and an education just like her male colleagues. However, she felt discriminated against because with her salary, she could not give the same education to her children as those children she was teaching. She feels that the gap between the haves and the poor should be reduced. During her husband’s detention, she experienced a lot of harassment by the ‘system’ which monitored her every move and anyone with whom she associated. This scared everyone away leaving her to live a solitary life. She was put in a police cell many times without justification. During this time, there was nobody to take care of her children. At times, she was even denied the right to see her husband. When her husband was arrested and detained the second time, she went to court to seek his release or be charged in court. This cost her the teaching job at Kenya High School. She had to leave the school compound by 4.00pm having received the letter at 10:30am. She was accused of associating with the wrong people one of them being her husband. Three years later, she was reinstated but was taken to work at Jogoo House where she was sacked again in 1992 for consoling with mothers of political prisoners. Her children were also discriminated against by other children who were socialized not to associate with them. Given the political situation at the time, she did not have the freedom of speech or association; nobody could talk on her behalf, neither KNUT nor MYWO which at the time was linked to KANU. The church was the only one that was openly supportive of her but even so by those labelled as dissidents such as Reverend Njoya. She and other wives of political prisoners had formed an association where they gave each other moral support and brought their children together to play. The majority of them were young couples and the detention destroyed their marriages since they did not know how long their husbands were gone. To Idah, Winnie Mandela whose husband was detained for 27 years and, her own mother who brought up six children as a widow, were her role models. Her experience motivated her to start the League of Kenya Women Voters which she wanted to be a Political Party, to be a voice for women. She shared the draft with Martha Koome who shared it with Martha Karua and other like-minded women who started it as an organization and opened up membership. The league was actively involved in training women to run for political office and also prepared them for participation in the constitutional review process. She is concerned about the plight of girls in Kenya and underscores the importance of sex education in schools to address the issues of early pregnancies. She is concerned that some nominated women MCAs come in through shortcuts and have no independence and thus cannot and do not add value to women’s representation as their loyalty is to their nominators. They do not work together for women’s interests. She calls upon the women leaders to make a deliberate effort to work together and support their fellow women. She calls upon Kenyans to practice mature politics based on ideologies rather than personalities.