29/08/2023
At the tail end of her address as the chief guest during the 4th YLTS Youth Climate Change Summit and Festival, the Nairobi County Women Representive at the National Assembly/Kenyan Parliament, Esther M Passaris, OGW , shared the below anecdote which brings to fore some of the intricacies, and issues we grapple with, within the and spaces in Kenya..
Just to list a few;
☑️ Inheritance of ancestral land, (given the sentimental value of ancestral lands, and the general socio-politico-economic value of land in Kenya), which has been for a long time the preserve of son or male heirs at the expense of daughters/women.
☑️ Cultural practices especially in regards to burial ceremonies, rights and obligations.
Where to be buried in ancestral land, for example, is considered superior, and worth literally dying for, as compared to being buried in others places such as (public or private) cemetery.
As a result making women endure bad marriages or outrageous expectations/demands by their husbands or the society just to secure an ancestral land for (their) burial.
☑️ SubmissiveProvider phenomena. Where husbands literally piggy ride on the backs of their wives.. making absolutely no effort to bring the bacon home, and not lifting a finger to do house chores while at it. Leaving both home keeping and providing roles to their wives/women. And with it, unfairly overburdening the wives/women at the home front
☑️ Sexual Health Reproductive Rights. The question of how many is too many children for one woman, and what is the right spacing between children for optimum mental and physical wellbeing of not only the mother but also the children.
And lastly,
☑️ The hot-topic issue of polygamy as practiced in Kenya.
That is polygyny.
And how it mostly disadvantage women, especially women who get into it less empowered, and/or with little to no tools on how to navigate polygyny or look out for self in such an arrangement.
4YLTS was courtesy of YALI RLC EA - Alumni Chapter of Kenya YALI Regional Leadership Center East Africa USAID Kenya USAID - US Agency for International Development Kenyatta University Kippra Kenya Acopphe - Africa Community of Planetary Partners for Health and Environment Acopphe Law & Policy Department KCB Group ticketsasa.com
Amondi Oyugi Advocates