Women’s Participation in Constitution-Making Process in Kenya (S.3, Part 12)

Abstract

This 1hour 52minutes 57seconds–long video was recorded in June 2017. Ochola was the ninth child in her family. Her father was a teacher and the mother used to teach women about agriculture, food security and making money by growing crops for sale. From her mother, she developed an interest in agriculture. All her older siblings were educated and she followed in their footsteps. Upon completing secondary school, Ochola was one of two students selected to join an integrated school in Nairobi. She joined Loreto Girls High School for her A-Levels where she got the first division and joined the University of Dar es Salaam for her undergraduate studies. At the university, students were engaged politically in the liberation struggle sweeping the continent during the time of Mwalimu Nyerere in Tanzania. She was also exposed to the women’s movement in Tanzania. She studied literature and was exposed to African Literature by the likes of Ngugi wa Thiong’o. After her undergraduate studies, she went to Harvard University for her postgraduate studies. Her doctorate studies focused on the position of African Women in rural areas and the issues of agriculture, and control of the land. She realized that land was the most important asset women needed in order to succeed. Another important aspect was the position of authority that women held in the traditional society which helped to balance the relationship between men and women. For example, in Africa, there was no concept of land ownership as each one used to land and left it for others to use. This is similar to what happened with women as upon marriage each woman was given a piece of land to grow food. Ochola feels this was a better concept than the western concept of individual land ownership. Her experience and studies made her critical of the western perception of African women. Based on existing literature, she realized that the condition of any society could be measured by the status of women. She therefore joined other African Women from Zambia, Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, a journalist from Malawi, Sarah Longwe and they formed AWWORD to carry out research and collect realistic data on the African Women.