By Caroline Mutoko
We live in a world where the recession has been kindly referred to as the he-cession, because it’s men who are hardest hit by loss of income and jobs. Yet women seem to be soldiering on and in some instance reviving failing economies around the world. I am horrified to note that Kenyan women are a long way away from embracing themselves and each other in a bid to be at the front of making a marked difference in the way this country is governed.
Women for the first time this year, became the majority of the American workforce and they’re starting to dominate lots of white collar professions. Over 50 percent of managers are women these days. So the global economy is becoming a place where women are more successful than men. If you look around you and open your eyes to what’s happening, you can start to connect the dots and stop sabotaging your fellow women as they open the door to a new world for all of us. Yes I’m speaking to the women. Men who are small-minded enough to still play the woman bashing game should not be spoken to at all.
A few months ago, when Martha Karua announced her bid for the presidency, the usual numb-skulls were heard blogging and commenting about several non-issues. There was the usual crap about – where’s her husband, where are her children. Apparently somehow, she’s meant to strap her adult children to her back, find something with a beard (I’m told by those who subscribe to this theory that anything will do), find her sufuria and mwiko and then head to the press conference and declare her wishes to be president. If she does that, maybe we’ll take her seriously.Without these very un-necessary accessories, then we simply can’t listen to her. Sadly most of these shallow, numb-skull comments are made by women and by men who are clearly neutered.
Last week, Kingwa Kamencu declared her wish to run for the Presidency of this great nation. Yes she shed a tear or two – sometimes I’m moved to tears by this nation- but really is the best we could do, is sink below zero? What was our first reaction? The nonsense with Maternity leave. Incidentally pregnancy is a temporary condition, not permanent. It’s not an illness and certainly not a handicap. Just for thinking and talking like that I wish your mother had never had you.
The equally dumb issue about taking a honeymoon break also presumes that she is planning to get married in the near future and that she will be going on honeymoon alone (I think a man is part of the package). Oh, please spare me the bull-crap about relationship issues – the current crop of male politicians married and otherwise have enough relationship issues to run 10 years worth of soap operas. Infact those relationship (sic) is you can call them that – dominate 95% of their time. To hell with you.
Once again, the nasty comments about Kamencu came from women and neutered men. Like I said, I don’t speak to those men, they are already dead ,I will however speak to the women. Stop it. Stop it immediately. The only reason you won’t see the value in what it means for a woman such as yourself or greater than yourself to seek a position in leadership is because you think so little of yourself. Admit it. You define yourself as inept, unaccomplished, unable, and worse still ill-equipped to be anything more than tits and ass.
And because this is how you see yourself, you don’t believe in the ability, power or success of another woman and the mere fact that a woman could be so different from you scares the hell out of you. Here’s what you need to know ,Kamencu is going places. She might not make it to Statehouse, but unlike you my dear, she will be forging on while you’re still clucking away in your small mind about honeymoons, relationship drama (who told you we all have that) and maternity leave.
The reason a lot of the women vying for top jobs have such a hard time is because the majority of women have yet to learn that we are not only entitled to it but we can darn well do it. Here’s the thing, we can talk all we want about the allocated seats and harp on about more opportunities for women until our lipstick comes off; but unless we begin to see ourselves in that space and embrace the idea that we are good enough; then another woman will lose out on a chance to make a difference. Some inept man will get the job and we’ll all start bitching about him but when given the option of a great woman, we’ll shoot her down and the mad cycle continues. Stop it. Stop it this instance.
I don’t consider myself a journalist, far, far from it. I write because it’s something I habitually I do.
I keep a diary and a journal and I have for a very long time.
Writing is something I do for life for sanity for peace of mind.
I write to begin a conversation, alittle controversy always helps that along.
I write myself out of my nightmares and into my dreams- it’s why I keep a journal.
I write to soothe the voices shouting inside me and the anger and despair I feel
when I see the things going on around us.
I write because I believe in words -I write because I cannot sing???.?
Source: Nairobi star
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