I've received a few emails, and a couple of comments about this and so far the women I've heard from where all in support of the Kenyan women's action. You'd think that other people in Kenya would take notice, they'd say something along the lines of: "Hmmmm maybe we should listen to these women..." Apparently that's not the kind of thing that happens in Kenya... According to a few articles and posts I've read from there today, people have completely missed the boat, for them it's all about the fact that sex is in the bedroom and not in parliament.
Here's some quotes with the links to the original sources:
"Insecurity, inflation and poverty only affect the ordinary mwananchi and now the hapless guy has been told that the only source of solace shall be denied. It’s highly unlikely that your average male politician can go for two days’ leave alone a week, without intimacy. Their wives won’t deny them and even if they did, these guys have a retinue of young girls waiting to unleash just for a song. Will they now accuse the men of viewing the women as nothing but sex objects?" (source)
Muslim Women in Kenya "said denying men sex would encourage them to be promiscuous, leading to rise in sexually transmitted diseases."
and
"The decisions we make could affect us for the rest of our lives and we don’t want to leave our children in orphanages or streets"
(source)
Click HERE for more.
After the last Kenyan elections "hundreds of Kenyan women have reported being raped during ethnic clashes that left more than 1300 people dead over the course of two months. The actual number of rapes committed likely totals over 3000..." So is it really surprising that women's bodies are once again at the center of a political battle? The difference is that this time the women aren't going to be victims...
Muchacho Enfermo
2 comments:
These Kenyan women; arent all the women in their country in this together? If so, men cannot afford to be promiscuous, there is no one to fall back on!
Maybe i shouldn't be saying this but their elections sound damn hilarious.
Its like the parliament is either gonna hold talks about women and their recent principles, deviating from the elections or they may really concentrate on the proper elections thanx to these brave ladies.
A very interesting post..glad you followed up :)
As with most African countries, democracy does not come easily. Her the losers concede defeat and plan for another election. There there's always accusations of rigging and corruption (which often turn out to be true) and violence often ensues.
I've had the privilege over the last few years to exchange emails with a few political reporters from Africa and it's been most enlightening.
And to answer your question: no, it's not all the women only about 40% of them are said to have participated. the "G10" is said to have paid prostitutes to stay home, but who knows how well that worked. And I also saw a couple reports of women being flogged and beaten over trying to withhold sex from, their husbands. More to come I guess.
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