Can EA’s fortunes change with more women at the top?

At the just concluded Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) for Eastern Africa region summit in Nairobi, female politicians from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Seychelles and Rwanda resolved to push their governments to create favourable conditions that will increase the number of women in leadership in the different countries.

The first move is to compel their respective parties to opt for women leadership. The move, though, is constricted by historical and structural bottlenecks in the different political structures of these countries.

“We need to examine what is the structure of our parties, what positions do women have in those parties,” says Ms Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda and Chairperson of CWP Eastern Region.

Currently three Countries; Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, have women as Speakers in their respective Legislative Assemblies. The East African Legislative Assembly is also headed by a woman- Ms Margaret Zziwa - as the regional Speaker.

The unanswered question is; Are East African women now looking at clinching the presidency just like their West Africa colleagues? It is clear that women in the region are making their way slowly but surely into the power houses of the countries.

“We need to learn from you [Uganda and countries with high female representation] so that more women can be elected in Kenya and we should continue with the tradition of drumming up women support towards elections in all member countries,” Dr Jebil Kilimo the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association chairperson said at a Nairobi meeting.

Long road to gender freedom
Across the region, the struggle for women freedoms started over two decades ago with the fight for girl-child education. In Uganda, that fight, led by women such as Ms Kadaga, Ms Miria Matembe and Ms Winnie Byanyima, among others, climaxed with the affirmative action to give girls 1.5 points while joining any public university.

Currently, girls across the region have the opportunity to get educated, just like the boys. And in some courses at universities like Makerere, girls outnumber boys.

It is basing on such strides that Ms Ismail Ranny the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association desk chairperson, says women have proved that they can ably lead in East Africa.

“There has been a strong fight for maternal health across the region to improve the health of the regional mothers and right now parliaments are being asked to ensure that all ministry budgets have a maternal health component,” she says. “It is women who are championing the end to Female Genital Mutilation and this will soon end. All these struggles show that women are good leaders and should be given chance and we should have many female leaders in the region.”

To achieve their goal, the women want to compel governments to ensure that all the national constitutions and other laws, as well as party structures are in line with internationally recognised conventions such as the Convention for Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Beijing platform of Action that stipulates that at least 30 per cent of women in decision making bodies at all levels.

Ms Ranny says that whether the argument that greater women’s political representation will bring more successful democracies is true or not, it is important for women to be an integral part of the political system in any country.

“We will push for a review of curricular for primary and secondary schools in all the member countries so as to ingrain the learners with the importance of women leadership and participation in the society for sustainable development,” she says.

Current status
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union data on women in parliaments, Rwanda has the highest percentage representation of women MPs in the region. Out of the 80 seats in the Lower House, 45 seats are being held by women representing a 56.3 per cent female representation.

Unlike Uganda, where women are assured of 135 seats out of 386, thanks to the affirmative action that created district women MPs, Kenya only has 22 female MPs in a parliament of over 224 legislators.

Seychelles has 14 out of 32 seats representing a 43.8 percentage. Tanzania has 126 (36 per cent) in a House of 350 legislators.
In East Africa, some of the women considered to be at the helm of political leadership in their respective countries have been around for a while and are lauded for different roles.

Kenya
Martha Karua
Born September 22, 1957, Ms Karua is a Kenyan politician and Member of Parliament for Gichugu Constituency.

An Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and former Minister of Justice, a position she resigned in April 2009, Ms Karua was a member of the opposition political movements that successfully agitated for the reintroduction of multi-party democracy in Kenya in the early 1990s when the authoritarian Kenya African National Union was still at the helm of politics.

Referred to as the ‘iron lady of Kenya’ and once called the ‘the only man’ in the PNU cabinet, Ms Karua is now the chairperson of Narc-Kenya and she is reported to have repeatedly said that she is going to contest for the Kenya President.

Charity Ngilu
Ms Ngilu was the first woman to win a parliamentary seat in 1992 during the first ever multi-party elections to be held in Kenya.

Born in 1952, Ms Ngilu was Minister of Health from 2003 until 2007 and was appointed Minister of Water and Irrigation in April 2008.

In the December 1997, she ran for the presidency, and along with the late Wangari Maathai, became the first ever female presidential candidates in Kenya.

Although her bid never went through, the former secretary of the Central Bank of Kenya is still a formidable force in Kenya politics representing the people of Kitui Central since 1992.

Dr Jebil Kilimo
Born 1963, Dr Kilimo is the MP for Marakwet East constituency.

She is also the chairperson of the Kenya Parliamentary Women Association. Dr Kilimo has also been successful in developing the Marakwet East constituency, through providing funding to local schools by way of books, more teachers, food programmes and even clothing. She has worked with the government to enhance access to the constituency by construction of an all-weather road, with the intention to make the same a tarmac road in the short term future.

Uganda
Rebecca Kadaga
Born in 1956, the Kamuli Woman MP is the first female Speaker of Uganda. A lawyer by profession, Ms Kadaga has been at the forefront in the fight for women emancipation in the country. She, from 1986 to 1989 served as the president of FIDA an association of women lawyers. Ms Kadaga has served as a Minister of State for Regional Cooperation (Africa and Middle East), Minister of State for Communication and Aviation, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, and Deputy Speaker.

Winnie Byanyima
The former Mbarara Municipality MP is currently the Director of the Gender Team, in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme.

Wife to opposition Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye, Ms Byanyima participated in the 1981-86 NRA guerrilla war before joining politics as a member of the Constituent Assembly which drafted the 1995 Constitution. She has been at the forefront of fighting for women rights and her name has surfaced as a possible candidate for the presidency.

Janet Kataaha Museveni
She was born June 24, 1948. She has been a first lady since 1986. She is the current Minister of Karamoja Affairs and the Member of Parliament representing Ruhama County in Ntungamo District.

Janet has been in the fight for women emancipation for a long time ever since her husband took power.

She founded the Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans, an NGO which did great in helping the orphans at a time when Aids was on rampage. Her name has on several occasions come up among the women considered front runners for the country’s top seat.

Rwanda
Victoire Ingabire
Born in 1968, Ms Ingabire is the Chairperson of the United Democratic Forces, a coalition of Rwandan opposition parties.

Currently under arrest on charges of terrorism and threatening national security, Ms Ingabire has been involved in the struggle of the Rwandan Political Opposition since 1997.

Her political activities are centred on the idea of a state of justice where individuals choose their associations based on their shared political aspirations rather than their ethnic or regional background and she has been vocal in calling for more women’s empowerment in Rwanda.

Rose Mukantabana
She is the Rwandan Speaker of Parliament having come to office in 2008 after garnering 70 of the 80 votes. She made history being the first woman in the Great Lakes Region to become parliamentary Speaker, the sixth in Africa and 31st in the whole world, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Louise Mushikiwabo
Born in 1957, Ms Mushikwabo is the current minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, a post she has held since 2009. A Public Relations Officer by profession, Ms Mushikiwabo is a member of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front.

Tanzania
Anne Makinda
She is the current and first female Speaker of the National Assembly of Tanzania. Born on July 15, 1949, in Njombe, Iringa region, she started practicing politics in primary school where she was an active member of the youth wing of Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), the party that brought independence to Mainland Tanzania. According to The Citizen, a Tanzanian newspaper, Ms Makinda joined active politics at a prime age of 23 in 1975 when she was nominated MP through the TANU youth wing, becoming the youngest female legislator of her generation.

Anne Malecela Kilango
Born in 1956, Ms Kilango is the MP for East Same on Chama Cha Mapenduzi ticket. In 2009, she received the honour of the Tanzania Woman of Courage Award, bestowed by the United States Embassy.

The annual award recognised her courage and leadership in the struggle to improve the lives of Tanzanians when she challenged party leadership to confront the question of corruption, despite the threat this posed to her personal safety.

Halima Mdee
Born in 1978, Ms Mdee is the Kawe Constituency MP on Chadema ticket. The youthful MP is outspoken when it comes to matters of corruption and government accountability.

Burundi
Beatrice Nyamoya
Born in 1956, Ms Nyamoya has long been an activist fighting for human rights in general and those of women in particular. Lawyer by training, Ms Nyamoya, in 1983, became the first female Chief of Staff of the National Assembly of Burundi. Before taking up the post of State Inspector General, Ms Nyamoya served as a Minister in Charge of Public Relations, a diplomat at the Embassy of Burundi in Bonn, Germany.

In each of the positions she has held, her attention was on addressing the concerns and issues related to women and thus never missing an opportunity to speak out publicly about the injustices to which women are subjected.

Consolata Ndayishimye
The chairperson of the East African Business Council and chair of the Burundi Federal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ms Ndayishimye is a dynamic and energetic promoter of women’s entrepreneurship. In March 2007, she organised trips for Burundian business women to travel to Rwanda in search of projects and to learn best practices a project that empowered a host of women.