Leader of the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Peter Mutharika (c), was released on bail on Mar. 14 after being arrested with 11 other top Malawian government officials on charges of treason. Credit: Mabvuto Banda/IPS

Malawi’s first-ever tripartite elections in May 2014 will be a litmus test for President Joyce Banda, who is faced with an opposition majority in parliament, soaring food prices, and a potential treason trial.

The charging of 12 top Malawian government officials with treason may be a catalyst for more unrest and a recipe for disaster for Banda as soaring food prices are set to impact over 65 percent of Malawians this year.

“Those who blame Joyce Banda for the food shortages and the high (food) prices will easily join in and use the arrests to ferment their anger towards her government leading to the elections next year,” independent political commentator John Phiri told IPS.

Banda, the country’s first female president, will seek re-election next year. She took over the role after her predecessor, President Bingu wa Mutharika, collapsed and died on Apr. 5, 2012. She heads the governing People’s Party (PP).

However, on Mar. 11 she ordered the arrests of 12 government officials, including Peter Mutharika, the late president’s younger brother, and Minister of Economy and Planning Goodall Gondwe, a former vice president of the International Monetary Fund. Gondwe has since resigned from his post as minister.

The accused, who were released on bail on Mar. 14, have been charged with seven counts of treason, inciting mutiny, conspiracy to commit a felony, breach of trust, and giving false evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into President Mutharika’s death.

The Commission of Inquiry report found the accused guilty of conspiring to prevent Banda’s ascendance to the presidency. The inquiry also found that they allegedly tried to convince the Army Commander of the Malawi Defence Forces, General Henry Odillo, to take over the country. Odillo had refused as the request was against the country’s constitution, which calls for the vice president to assume power in the event of the death of a sitting president.

However, the arrests of the government officials sparked protests in Lilongwe and Blantyre, and the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is headed by Peter Mutharika, is already using this to pressure the government to drop the treason case.

“President Banda should focus on the suffering of many Malawians who cannot get food or medicines in hospital, and not on arresting Peter to stop him at all costs from contesting the 2014 tripartite elections,” DPP spokesman Nicolaus Dausi told IPS.

“Such actions breed violence and she will be blamed if things get worse,” Dausi said. The latest data from the Centre for Social Concern, a local research institution focusing on the cost of living in urban Malawi, showed that since Banda took over, a family of six now needs an average of 200 dollars per month to meet basic food demands. In a country where the minimum monthly wage is about 20 dollars, it has left many unhappy with Banda’s austerity policies.

Charles Mlombwa, a vendor and DPP supporter, warned of more protests if Peter Mutharika was prevented from participating in the next election.

“I support late President Bingu wa Mutharika’s party … because I know that many things are wrong and this government has failed,” Mlombwa told IPS.

The government estimates that over two million people need food aid this year. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, cereal production for 2011/2012 was seven percent below the previous season’s harvest. In addition, “significantly high maize prices in the southern region are negatively affecting access to food, especially for vulnerable people.”

In urban centres women have been sleeping outside Admarcs, government grain markets, waiting to buy cheap maize. Reports of women fainting from hunger in queues have become the story of the day here. Many here blame Banda for the maize shortage.

On Mar. 13 the Consumer Association of Malawi accused her of emptying the country’s silos of maize and distributing it to the poor for free. The association claimed that much of the maize Banda was distributing was meant for sale at the Admarc markets.

Elizabeth Gama, a mother of seven, has been travelling over 70 kilometres every day from her home on the outskirts of Lilongwe to the nearest Admarc.

“There is no maize in the Admarc markets and when I find it, I am only allowed to buy 15 kilogrammes per person, and yet the president is busy distributing maize for free across the country,” Gama told IPS.

Mphatso Katuli, a mother of four who said she had been sleeping outside an Admarc depot for the last three days waiting for maize, was also unhappy with Banda’s regime. “During President Bingu wa Mutharika’s time all of this (did not happen) because we had enough maize and Admarc markets were well stocked then,” she told IPS.

Meanwhile, Augustine Magolowondo, the Africa regional programme coordinator for the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy, feared that the treason arrests were likely to fuel unrest in the country.

“It is apparent that these arrests have created an environment of tension in the country and the reaction of the supporters when their leaders were arrested cannot simply be wished away…under such circumstances, conflicts are bound to arise,” he told IPS.

Ophamally Makande, the spokesman for the PP, defended the arrests.

“This government is only trying to promote a culture of accountability and the arrests, therefore, are justifiable because people need to know what happened to their president (Bingu wa Mutharika) and why they wanted to stop President Banda from taking over,” Makande told IPS.

Five million registered voters in Zimbabawe have an opportunity to change the lives of this country’s women. Women represent the majority, some 53 percent of the Zimbabwe's 12.6 million people. Credit: Trevor Davies/IPS

“Ten reasons why women must vote ‘Yes’ for the draft constitution…” says the Constitution Select Committee’s campaign radio jingle that plays over the airwaves in a grocer’s store at Mukumbura border post business centre on Zimbabwe’s northeastern border with Mozambique.

Zimbabwe is holding a referendum on Mar. 16 to decide on whether to adopt the draft constitution that has taken almost four years to draft and gobbled 50 million dollars of donor funds from the impoverished country’s economy.

The Constitution Select Committee (Copac) is the constitutional parliamentary committee tasked with writing the draft constitution, and ahead of the referendum has been tasked with informing Zimbabweans about the draft and encouraging them to vote.

But the radio jingle is almost drowned by noise from a neighbouring beer hall’s jukebox.

Ironically the jingle’s message is seemingly aimed at women at the border post business centre, but they appear to be busy going about their daily chores – vending fruits and vegetables, almost indifferent to a process that local politicians have described as a game changer in this southern African nation’s political history.

A disinterested Maria Nyamasoka, 48, tells IPS that she does not care about the draft constitution.

“Nothing will change for me. Maybe for you people from Harare it will. Maybe that’s why you have travelled all this way to come down here to talk about this draft. In the last election my homestead was burnt and I narrowly missed rape from some party youths. I really do not want to talk about this…I don’t want to have anything to do with politics,” she says.

Despite attempts by Copac and political parties to push supporters for a “Yes” vote this weekend, some say they are unaware of the referendum or the draft constitution that they have been asked to vote on. Sithembile Mpofu, a Bulawayo housewife, is one of them.

“Maybe it is because I do not watch ZTV,” Mpofu tells IPS, referring to the national television station where programming has, in recent weeks, been dominated by campaigns asking registered voters to tick “Yes” on the referendum ballots.

“I cannot go and vote for something I do not know, even if I vote ‘No’ I will be dishonest,” she says.

But despite the lack of interest by some, five million registered voters here have an opportunity to change the lives of this country’s women. Women represent the majority, some 53 percent of the country’s 12.6 million people. The Women’s Coalition, a grouping of women’s rights NGO, has been campaigning for the acceptance of the draft constitution.

“Women have fought hard to get almost 75 percent of our demands adopted in the draft. Definitely life for women will never be the same again under this new constitution, if it’s adopted,” says Slyvia Chirawu, a national coordinator at the Women and Law in Southern Africa, and a member of the Women’s Coalition.

Chirawu says that women suffered particularly from Section 23 of the current constitution, which denies them equal rights as men with regards to custody and guardianship of their minor children.

“Under Section 23, a woman could not apply for a passport for her child without the consent of the father…(a woman) could not get her child’s birth certificate in the absence of the father of the child. But men could do all these things in the absence of the mother of the child,” says Chirawu. In the draft constitution women are now able to apply both for passports and birth certificates for their children without the consent of their child’s father.

Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Deputy Minister Jessie Majome, a member of Copac, tells IPS that according to the current constitution girls can marry at 16, while boys can legally do the same at 18.

“What this meant is girls had to drop out of school to be married off, while boys continued with their education. The boys had to wait to reach the legal age of majority, creating an unfair advantage against women. But according to this new draft, both boys and girls will be allowed to marry when they reach the legal age of majority,” says Majome.

The draft constitution will also ensure women relief from some harmful cultural practices that have been considered permissible.

Under-age girls have been married off to older men, while widows have been forced to become the “wives” of their late husbands’ male relatives.

“Although the (current) constitution had been amended recently to forbid some harmful cultural practices, this draft actually forbids and makes it unconstitutional for customary law to take precedence over common law. Women had been disadvantaged when it comes to inheritance, as they could not inherit family property. Widows also lost their property upon the deaths of their spouses,” says Majome.

Jane Chiriga, a gender researcher, says the draft is “a triumph for women.”

“There is a deliberate effort to address the flaws and gaps of the current constitution. What remains, I think, is to align this with the country’s laws,” Chiriga says.

In the past, the participation of women in politics has largely been left to the discretion of political parties to create quotas for women. But the draft constitution proposes to set aside 60 seats for women in the 210-seat parliament. In addition, women will constitute at least half the membership of all commissions and other elective and appointed governmental bodies.

“What takes the cake for me is the half membership for women in all commissions and other elective or appointed governmental bodies,” says Chirawu.

A legislator from the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T), Tabitha Khumalo, says “it is a big step for women to be given prominence in the supreme law.”

“(In the past), women’s issues in this country have been addressed in token terms as if to appease us. But we have rights as equal citizens and this draft, if read with other laws, is something that will change both our public and private lives,” she tells IPS.

Constitutional law expert Alex Magaisa also believes that the draft could help stop the “politicisation of the security forces,” who have not hidden their support for President Robert Mugabe and in the process aimed their baton sticks at men and women alike.

The current constitution is silent about the key issue of political neutrality of institutions such as the army, police, and civil service.

“The draft has clear and extensive provisions that require these bodies (security forces) to be politically neutral and not to interfere with electoral processes,” he tells IPS.

*Additional reporting by Ignatius Banda in Bulawayo.

Steve Bonuke, chair of Trans Youth Group, a youth group in the Rift Valley Province that promotes peace, political tolerance and youth empowerment, says polling companies withhold important information about how they reach their conclusions. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

When Kenya’s only female presidential candidate, Martha Karua, dismissed electoral opinion pollsters who claimed that she stood a mere one percent chance of being elected to office, many said she did so because the results had not favoured her. 

Karua’s misgivings were, however, not without merit. The issue of sampling methodology and procedures used by opinion polling companies to arrive at their conclusions have raised serious concerns in this East African nation ahead of its Mar. 4 elections.

“Pollsters use registered mobile phone users as their sampling frame, as opposed to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) list of registered voters,” statistician Charles Onyango told IPS.

“Recent opinion polls have shown that, while 95 percent of their respondents claim to be registered voters, only two-thirds are registered voters according to IEBC records,” he told IPS.

There are three main electoral opinion-polling companies in Kenya — Infotrack, Ipsos Synovate and Strategic Research — and their research results have received extensive media coverage, often becoming big headline news.

But political analysts continue to claim that these polls are commissioned by biased sources and rather than reflect the opinion of the public, their controversial results are more likely to influence voter behaviour and possibly result in violence.

According to political analysts, in 2007 current Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s supporters refused to concede defeat because the opinion polls had predicted that he would win the presidency.

“And the danger is that there are many who don’t understand that an opinion poll is not an electoral poll,” Paul Muigai, a political analyst in Nairobi, told IPS.

“It is this misconception that largely contributed to the much-disputed 2007-08 general election violence provoking a near civil war,” he added.

After Kenya’s first presidential debate held on Feb. 11, pollsters claimed that presidential candidate and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta look the lead in the polls.

But Wilson Ugangu, a media analyst and lecturer at Multimedia University College of Kenya, told IPS that the results of such a poll could not be useful in providing a picture of likely voting trends, winners or losers in the coming elections.

“Further, the pollsters did not take into account the dynamics of two different mediums — radio and television — and their impact on people’s perceptions of the candidates’ performance in the debate.”

Ugangu added that those who listened through the radio, and those who watched the debate, certainly formed two very different perceptions of the candidates.

Such concerns affect the general credibility of polls.

“This country has not reached the point of having reliable and trusted pollsters because they withhold vital information. For instance, we don’t know who funds them and whose interests they serve,” Steve Bonuke, chair of Trans Youth Group, a youth group in the Rift Valley Province that promotes peace, political tolerance and youth empowerment, told IPS.

“Their results will only fan tension, conflict and violence as they did in 2007-08 when losers believed in pollsters more than they did in the electoral body,” he said.

Bonuke pointed to a recent series of opinion polls carried out by two major polling companies within the same period, targeting similar counties and which arrived at significantly differnet results.

“It has confirmed what we have always believed: the polls are neither scientific, nor objective.”

According to political analysts, electoral polling will have a significant impact when Kenyans cast their ballots.

“If they do not (predict) trends carefully, they could raise the public expectations and cause euphoria around perceived winning candidates, and result in a disputed election.

“Many Kenyans don’t know that electoral opinion polls are sample polls and not election polls….When the outcome of the elections goes against what the pollsters are saying, we might have a repeat of the 2007-08 violence where losers might refuse to concede defeat,” Onyango says.

It is a concern shared by the chair of the IEBC, Isaack Hassan, who has previously called for opinion polling to be barred for three months prior to the general elections.

But there has been little political support to regulate the process.

When former member of parliament, Bonny Khalwale, introduced the Publication of Electoral Opinion Polls Bill to parliament in 2011, it faced stiff opposition from those who have been consistently favoured by the polls. The bill was meant to regulate electoral opinion polling according to international standards.

“Odinga opposed the bill vehemently because opinion polls always favoured him,” Muigai said.

Although the Publication of Electoral Opinion Polls Act 2012 demands that pollsters reveal information on the methodology used, like, for instance, who was sampled and from which region, this is yet to happen.

“The issue of sample spread is key. If you are collecting data in Nairobi County, and have a lazy data collector who only samples people in Kibera, the results cannot be representative,” Onyango said.

This, he said, was because Kibera is one of Odinga’s strongholds.

“You cannot sample one sub-ethnic group and claim that the results are representative of the communities’ voting patterns. Each community tends to gravitate towards certain politicians,” Onyango added.

Immaculate Musya, a politician formerly with the Orange Democratic Movement Secretariat and who is no longer contesting the elections, also questioned who pollsters used as samples. “I have never been sampled — neither do I know anyone who has. I live in Nairobi and am constantly in the streets,” she told IPS.

Jennifer Massis, who is vying for a seat in parliament in Rift Valley Province, sees no harm in polling.

“Let us not politicise a purely scientific exercise. Electoral opinion polls are really done for the benefit of politicians,” she told IPS. “They inform us on likely voting patterns and facilitate strategic thinking.”

Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission chair Mzalendo Kibunjia, (right) flanked by constitutional expert Paddy Onyango (left) says that the country should opt for power sharing in the next government. Credit: Brian Ngugi/IPS

Days ahead of Kenya’s general elections, the country’s former deputy Minister of Information Koigi Wamwere has slammed calls for power-sharing among minority ethnic groups in the next government, calling it a “dangerous concept”.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), a government agency set up to address inter-ethnic conflict, and a section of Kenyan civil society have called for this East African nation to adopt negotiated democracy as a way to stem the deep-seated differences between various ethnic groups here.

Ethnic violence followed Kenya’s disputed December 2007 poll, claiming around 1,200 lives and displacing 600,000 people.

But Wamwere told IPS that a sharing of power could threaten the country’s young, multiparty democracy.

“It is pure nonsense to imagine that Kenyans are not ready to live with democracy. Democracy is not easy to implement, but we should not opt for short cuts, but go by its principles for the long-term good of the country,” he said.

All eyes are on Kenya to see whether it will avoid a repetition of the 2007 violence when it goes to the polls on Mar. 4. Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group (ICG), have warned that this year’s elections could be ethnically divisive if rising tensions are not curbed.

According to HRW, inter-communal clashes related to pre-electioneering have claimed more than 477 lives and displaced some 118,000 people since the beginning of 2012.

But according to the chair of the NCIC, Mzalendo Kibunjia, negotiated democracy – a system in which political power is shared evenly among various ethnic and interest groups – would enhance inclusion among Kenya’s 42 ethnic groups by doing away with Kenya’s current political model where “the winners take all and the losers lose all until the next elections.”

“Kenyan politics is about numbers and you get those numbers, not by selling ideas, but by retreating into your tribal cocoons. This means that small tribes continually feel neglected once the dominant ones win power, and this feeling of seclusion is being replicated in the run-up to this election,” Kibunjia told IPS.

But Wamwere, who is author of the book “Negative Ethnicity: From Bias to Genocide”, which looks at the ways ethnic rivalries in Africa undermine democracy, pours cold water on claims that power-sharing enhances inclusion and cohesion among various ethnic communities.

“If people are clear about whom they want to be led by, that person can come from the smallest ethnic community or grouping in the country,” he said.

Retired President Daniel Arap Moi, whose regime spanned 24 years from 1978 to 2002 and was widely seen as dictatorial, had embraced a similar mode of politics by insisting that Kenya was not ready for democracy, according to Wamwere.

“Moi kept telling Kenyans that they were not ready for multiparty politics and democracy,” he said, “And that is partly how he maintained his grip on power for more than two decades. Kenyans should be wary of those advocating for negotiated democracy.”

Cedric Barnes, Horn of Africa project director at the ICG, agreed that Kenya was ripe for democracy in its original sense and a repetition of the 2007 post-election violence was unlikely.

“If (in 2007) Kenya had strong and independent institutions such as a strong judiciary and electoral body that could have instilled confidence among Kenyans, this would have seen people confide in its institutions, reducing the risk of people taking to the streets and against each other to protest election results,” Barnes told IPS. He added that since the country’s new constitution was adopted in 2010, it had strengthened government and institutional frameworks.

But Cyprian Nyamwamu, the executive director of the National Convention Executive Council, which lobbies for good governance and reform, told IPS that there was needed for the inclusion of minority groups and communities in the government.

“Negotiated democracy is a platform to end suspicion and mistrust among antagonistic groups,” said Nyamwamu. “Whereas the new constitution has brought checks and balances of executive power and devolution promises to promote equal distribution of resources, we need negotiated democracy to ensure that all ethnic groups are brought to the table.”

According to Rose Waruhiu, a Democratic Party of Kenya politician and former member of the East African Legislative Assembly, the idea is a practical one for Kenya.

“Any party that wants to lead in today’s Kenya must reach out to all the various ethnic groups in the country. All ethnic groups want to see parties and politicians reach out to them in a special manner and, as such, negotiated democracy is a plus for both politician and voter,” Waruhiu told IPS.

Most say that it will take more than the negotiated sharing of elective positions to heal the country and enhance ethnic cohesion.

The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya, which was set up to investigate past injustices and lead reconciliation efforts, has yet to file a report three years after its formation.

Leadership wrangles and financial problems have rocked the commission, whose mandate covers alleged violations between December 1963 and February 2008, and has delayed its work by over six months.

It remains unknown when the commission will file its report after parliament refused to grant it an extension.

Hamisa Zaja dropped out of the Mombasa County gubernatorial race for lack of resources. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

Few women in Kenya harbour illusions of entering politics. Blatant discrimination, threats and intimidations, an uneven playing field and a largely unsympathetic public have turned electoral politics into a veritable minefield for women hoping to secure top government posts.

Despite adopting a more gender sensitive constitution back in 2010, in which Article 81(b) stipulates that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender, male-dominated parties continue to make a farce of the little political space offered to women.

Whereas previously women were only allowed to contest three seats – namely for the posts of president, Member of Parliament (MP) and councilor of a ward (a subdivision of a municipality) – an additional three seats are up for grabs in elections scheduled for Mar. 4 this year.

But “the environment is still not enabling”, Hamisa Zaja, a politician in Kenya’s Coastal region, told IPS.

“Women remain under attack from male opponents and even society,” she added.

When Vesca Kangongo presented her bid to vie for the gubernatorial seat in Uasin Gishu, a county in Kenya’s Rift Valley region located about 313 kilometres from the capital, Nairobi, her rivals swore that the governor of the region “would be anything but a woman”.

This statement has been echoed across the country and consequently only a handful of women are running for tickets of top seats.

Zaja explained that besides society’s negative attitude towards women’s leadership, the financial resources required to launch a competitive campaign automatically exclude many women from the running.

“I pulled out of the race for the governor of Mombasa County under the Wiper Democratic Movement because I don’t have the economic muscle required,” she said.

To qualify for the party nominations, Zaja was required to pay the equivalent of 1,700 dollars, a huge sum in a country where, according to government statistics, the average monthly wage is about 250 dollars.

“This is besides the money required to oil an effective campaign such as getting vehicles, fueling them to facilitate mobility, branding and so on,” noted Jacky Mwaura, a campaign agent.

When the presidential candidate Martha Karua, running on the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC)-Kenya ticket, announced that she only has about 640,000 dollars to her name, it was not clear how she would finance her campaign when her most serious rivals are talking about a 91.4-million-dollar budget.

“Campaign money in Kenya largely comes from personal wealth,” political analyst Peter Otondo told IPS. “Although top politicians hold dinners to raise money, this is often to hoodwink voters that they are being transparent and accountable.”

But even for those women able to pay the prohibitive nomination fee, a host of other hurdles present themselves.

“Women aspirants across the country face many challenges, only to lose the nomination ticket in the end,” a returning officer from Mombasa County, located in the Coast region about 440 kilometres away from Nairobi City, told IPS on condition of anonymity.

She added, “Most people here know Alice Maitha, the wife of the late former MP Kharisa Maitha, who has won the ticket to battle it out for the Senate (the future upper house of parliament) position under The National Alliance Party (TNA).”

As a returning officer, the anonymous source has insider information and revealed that Maitha was initially a staunch member of the Wiper Democratic Movement, and even paid the 1,700-dollar fee in order to fight for the Senate ticket.

“But at the very last minute, the party informed her that she was not financially fit and that “the Senate isn’t for women”, the officer told IPS.

But Maitha refused to be discouraged. She quickly joined the TNA, where she paid another 2,000 dollars to be allowed to vie for the same ticket, and successfully made it onto the ballot.

But her woes did not end there. According to the officer, Maitha has since been under pressure to “sell” her seat to a male rival.

The widespread use of violence, which has become part and parcel of Kenyan politics, is another serious deterrent to women’s participation.

A few days ago, a returning officer tasked with overseeing the elections succumbed to stab wounds sustained during skirmishes between rival groups in the recently concluded nominations.

“Women tend to shy away from violence,” John Ndeta, media coordinator of a project dubbed Peace Initiative Kenya, told IPS.

Since a great deal of the election outcome is determined by bribery, intimidation and outright hostilities, women invariably fail to secure the kind of support that is won through violence and coercion.

According to Ndeta, although the constitution requires a third of elected officers – at least 117 out of 290 members of the upcoming national assembly – to be women, “it will be an uphill task for women to get there”.

Furthermore, “Men campaign and lobby at night. A woman isn’t expected to do so. You find that a woman aspirant goes to bed thinking that her position in the party is secure, only to wake up to new realities in the morning after men have kept their night vigils,” Zaja explained.

Women who defy these political traditions face threats of rape, and other forms of bodily harm.

Education, or the lack thereof, also continues to be a thorn in the side of aspiring female politicians.

One of the strongest politicians in Nairobi County, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, found herself locked out of party nominations at the very last minute for lack of a university degree.

Wanjiru, who is assistant minister for housing, has always been open about her struggle as a single mother of three.

“Before she was disqualified, Wanjiru was the only female candidate in the race for governor, and she has a massive following,” Otondo noted.

With no hope of a sea change on the horizon, it seems that the constitutional space allotted to women is Kenya still far out of reach.

(END)

Hosea Nailel (5039), Julius Muriuki, (5103) and Peter Chesang (5106) joined over 2,000 participants in Nakuru Town in a race that aimed to bridge ethnic divisions ahead of this country’s March 2013 elections. Credit: Peter Wahwai/IPS

Runners Hosea Nailel and Julius Muriuki, who are from Kenya’s rival ethnic Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities respectively, met during a half marathon when they broke away from the pack and remained in the leading group. 

They shared water during the race and tried to outdo each other at various sections of the last stretch. They did not talk; they only tried to outrun each other.

Having met for the first time at the newly-inaugurated Menengai Half Marathon in Nakuru Town, Rift Valley Province in November, Nailel and Muriuki have become friends and want to become training partners.

It is particularly poignant in a country where the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities from the Rift Valley Province have been involved in deadly ethnic clashes almost every election year since 1992. The worst of it was in the 2007-2008 post-election violence, in which over 1,300 people were killed, 3,000 women were raped and more than 600,000 people were displaced, according to a report by the government-appointed Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence.

Nakuru County in Rift Valley Province was considered a political hotbed during the 2007-2008 election violence. And tensions are flaring in the country again ahead of the 2013 polls. This month the investment group Old Mutual Kenya said that ethnicity would also play a role in the upcoming elections.Recently inter-ethnic violence has flared in this East African nation over competition for resources.

On Sep. 9, 38 people were killed in revenge attacks in the Tana River Delta district of Kenya’s Coast Province. The deceased include eight children, five women, 16 men, and nine police officers.

In August four people were killed in a separate incident in Muradellow village in Mandera North, in North Eastern Province. Police said that the conflict occurred at a water point where herders had taken their animals.

In March, 22 people were killed in Mandera, in North Eastern Province. More than 1,500 people fled their homes as a result of the violence, which occurred in El Golicha village, close to Kenya’s border with Somalia.

But ethnic differences mean little to the two talented runners.

“I met Muriuki and several other athletes from Central Kenya at the marathon. I did not know him before, but since then we have been in communication, and we shall meet soon. We plan to train together and compete in a forthcoming half marathon. As athletes we shall use our talent to demonstrate unity,” Nailel, who comes from Eldoret town in North Rift Valley, which also experienced ethnic violence after the country’s 2007 election, told IPS.

Nailel, who placed sixth in the Paris Half Marathon in October, led a squad of runners from North Rift Valley to join over 2,000 participants in Nakuru Town in a race that aimed to bridge ethnic divisions ahead of this country’s March 2013 elections.

“Such races will definitely unite different communities and eventually the nation; Kenyans are known for uniting behind their sportsmen and women,” Nailel said.

Muriuki lives in Nyahururu, a town in Central Province, and is an up-and-coming runner.

“They are great runners,” Muriuki said of Nailel’s team. “They helped me improve my speed, it was a united race and we raced together to the finish line. I am in communication with Nailel and some of the other runners and I look forward to meeting them at the next race,” Muriuki told IPS.

Muriuki had appeared strong throughout the race but Nailel broke away at the finish and clocked 61:02 to win the half marathon with Muriuki coming in fourth. Muriuki was the only runner from Central Province who finished in one of the top 10 positions in the race, while Nailel’s team registered a convincing victory by scooping all the other positions.

Nailel and Muriuki hope that running will help melt the differences of their respective ethnic groups.

“It was very encouraging to see residents of Nakuru Town line up by the sides of the roads to cheer us on as we passed through the streets. We felt encouraged and part of Nakuru despite it being our first time participating in a race in the town,” said Nailel of the majority Kikuyu community in Nakuru Town.

Muriuki agreed: “It was the first time we met with many of these athletes in such large numbers and it would be a great thing that such events continue uniting young people from opposing communities.”

Both he and Nailel talk about finding a suitable place to train together. They think that Nakuru Town, where they met, could be a possible training ground because of its strategic location between their home towns. They also discuss visiting each other regularly.

Their show of unity is encouraging to others.

Athletics Kenya secretary general David Okeyo said that athletics was one of the most practical ways to build unity among communities ahead of the country’s March 2013 elections.

“There are hundreds of upcoming (runners) from different communities who can do more than just run, they can unite communities, if we bring them together like we did in Nakuru,” he told IPS.

Okeyo said that races like these were very important in areas like Nakuru County and the entire Rift Valley Province where the 2007-2008 clashes occurred.

Nakuru North District Commissioner Michael Kagika said that participating in races was a rare opportunity for athletes to use their sporting talents to unite, and to mend their differences.

“The marathon is a major step towards building and sustaining peace among communities living in Nakuru County and Rift Valley Province. It brought different cultures and communities together and it came at a time when Kenya is poised to hold the general election,” Kagika told IPS.

Zipporah Kittony (l) former chair of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation, Justin Muturi (c) chair of the Centre For Multiparty Democracy, and Alice Wahome, vice-chair of the CMD (r) addressing journalists in Nairobi on Dec. 13. Credit: Brian Ngugi/IPS

Kenya’s rights activists are furious that the country’s highest court “violated” women’s constitutional rights by ruling against the implementation of a gender quota in parliament ahead of the 2013 general elections.

Activists here are threatening to boycott the Mar. 4, 2013 elections and bring the government to a standstill unless the gender parity law, which states that no more than two-thirds of one gender should hold elected office, is enforced in the senate and national assembly in the upcoming elections.

Rukia Subow, chair of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation, the largest women’s rights NGO in Kenya, told IPS that this East African nation was headed for a constitutional crisis if it failed to heed the provisions of the 2010 constitution.

The Kenya Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, Dec. 11 that the constitutional provision calling for a mandatory one-third gender representation would not apply to next year’s general election and instead should be implemented progressively by August 2015.

“We respect the Supreme Court, but still we have to fight its ruling even if it means going to higher courts in the region. We will ensure that there will be no parliament next year as it will be unconstitutional should we fail to implement the gender principle,” she said, adding that the organisation would see to it that the principle was implemented by “any means necessary.”

As the Supreme Court is the highest court in the country, the next court of appeal would be the East African Court of Justice.

Article 81 (b) of the constitution provides that “not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.”

Further, Article 27(8) of the constitution states that there shall be legislation to provide for the above principle. But the failure of parliament to pass this legislation prompted the attorney general Githu Muigai to petition the Supreme Court for an interpretation on how the country should attain the gender equity principle.

In the landmark decision by four of the five judges hearing the case, Jackton Boma Ojwang, Njoki Ndung’u, Philip Tunoi and Smoking Wanjala ruled that the one-third gender requirement for the national assembly and senate could not be enforced in the 2013 elections.

They said that the historical marginalisation of women in elective politics could not be resolved by quotas but would only be realised over time and in stages.

The fifth judge on the bench, the country’s chief justice Willy Mutunga, ruled in favour of the principle being implemented ahead of the upcoming elections.

According to Rose Waruhiu, a prominent Kenyan women’s rights activist and former member of the East African Legislative Assembly, the ruling is a blow to the empowerment of women.

“The women of Kenya are seeing this as a blatant and direct violation of women’s constitutional rights of equality and non-discrimination based on sex. The ruling makes a charade of the whole idea of constitutionalism and is the ultimate insult to Kenyan women, women around the world, and in essence the Kenyan people,” Waruhiu told IPS.

The Centre for Multiparty Democracy Kenya has consequently advised political parties to immediately file a case with the East African Court of Justice, to force Kenya to observe gender equality in elective and appointive public positions.

According to the lobby’s chair, Justin Muturi, Kenya “is the only country within the East African community which has not (achieved) this.”

“We have resolved to sensitise Kenyans around the theme ‘no women, no elections on March 2013’, unless and until women are included in public office as stipulated in the constitution,” Muturi told IPS during a press conference in Nairobi on Thursday Dec. 13.

“The Supreme Court ruling effectively denied women their constitutional right to fair representation. We hold the view that the Supreme Court itself has failed to uphold the constitution and it is time the people who hold sovereign authority acted to stop further erosion of constitutional provisions,” added Muturi.

Meanwhile, Waruhiu said the court ruling was a fraudulent act.

“It has set women back in a big way. More importantly, however, it’s not a women’s issue, but an issue at the heart of our constitution. It’s about the affront to the sovereign will of the people,” said Waruhiu, who is also the vice chair of the Democratic Party of Kenya.

“Women of Kenya do not, and will not, accept a zero or minimalist approach in terms of the fulfilment of their constitutional rights. They are entitled to them as a matter of course, they fought for independence, and they continue to carry the greatest burden in building this nation,” she said.

Her comments were echoed by Winnie Lichuma, the chair of the National Gender and Equality Commission, the body charged with women’s empowerment in Kenya. She told IPS that women must demand that the principle be implemented immediately and not in stages.

“The gender equity principle on representation must be implemented now and can’t wait,” she said. Political representation for women in the current Kenyan parliament is considered low at only 9.8 percent, according to Lichuma.

Prior to the controversial ruling, the country was awash with heated debate about how the principle could be achieved.

Some legislators had said that it should not be implemented in the 2013 general elections. However, the attorney general and other observers had said that if the gender rule was not implemented, Kenya would head towards a constitutional crisis.

“This action by the highest court in the land of Kenya, if left uncorrected, would widen the inequality gap between men and women in leadership positions,” said Waruhiu.

Somalia's first female Foreign Minister Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan has a tough road ahead. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

As little-known politician Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan was sworn in as Somalia’s first female foreign minister and deputy prime minister on Monday Nov. 19, the stateswoman who hails from the unrecognised, self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland is tipped to become the country’s “Iron Lady”.

This is according to Adan´s political ally Mohamed Daahir Omar, who used to work closely with her in local Somaliland politics, in which he is currently active.

“We know Fauzia as a person with strong determination and as an approachable individual who likes to form consensus. But when she has to make a decision, she just goes for it and works to convince others of her way. She was mostly successful, and for that she can be considered Somalia’s Iron Lady,” Omar told IPS from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, referring to Adan’s strong will.

Adan, who returned from her first state visit to neighbouring Djibouti on Nov. 18 and missed the official swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet on Nov. 15, takes on the mantle of leadership in a country with a number of tough foreign policy challenges.

While details of Adan and her background are sketchy, and she has been reluctant to grant interviews to the press, Omar said that because of her skill as a consensus-builder, the new foreign minister could play a role in bridging the divide between this Horn of Africa nation and Somaliland.

One of her first tasks will be to advance tentative and delicate talks between the Somali government and politicians in the northern state. Somaliland unilaterally declared independence from the rest of Somalia following the collapse of the country’s government in 1991.

“The talks between Somalia and Somaliland will be an acid test for Adan because as a northerner she will have to show her people that she does not want to force them into a union (with Somalia) that they don’t want.

“But at the same time as a key minister in the federal government she has to represent the views of the government – the sanctity of national unity and sovereignty,” Garaad Jama, an analyst from the Centre for Policy Development, a think tank in Somalia, told IPS.

Adan, who is only one of two women in the 10-member cabinet appointed by Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, will also have to deal with the growing friction between Kenya and Somalia over the formation of local administration areas in southern Somalia.

The Kenyan military captured the Al-Shabaab-controlled southern Somali port city of Kismayo in late September. The port was one of the key strongholds of the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist radical group.

But Kenya has reportedly been pushing for the region in southern Somalia known as Azania or Jubaland – where Kismayo is the main city – to be given the status of an autonomous state, to serve as a buffer zone between Kenya and the chaos in Somalia.

The Somali government has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the creation of such a state, which it fears would become a Kenyan satellite rather than a local administration that would fall under its control.

Although Kenya vehemently denied the charges, its soldiers in control of Kismayo’s airport prevented a Somali government delegation from entering the city on Nov. 7, after a local militia leader objected to their arrival.

“The signs are already not good, with deteriorating relations between Kenya and the new Somali government and other tough and pressing challenges,” Maryan Muumin, a women’s rights activist from the Somalia National Women’s Organisation (SNWO) in Mogadishu, told IPS.

“It seems that the daunting task for the new foreign minister is clear cut and it’s for Adan to deal with the challenges facing her, not only as Somalia’s foreign minister, but as the first woman to hold that post,” she said.

Adan will also have to deal with Al-Shabaab, which still poses a threat to the government in many parts of southern and central Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, which is opposed to women taking up roles outside the home and has imposed strict Sharia law in parts of the country that it controls, has threatened to target Somalia’s United Nations-backed government leaders. The militant group led a failed attempt to assassinate the country’s new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Sep. 12, his second day in office.

“Although Al-Shabaab is now on the back foot, the group is the greatest threat to any government in Somalia,” Jama said “How this new government deals with the militant group, which has assassinated several ministers and other top government officials, will be a major test for the ministers, including the first female foreign minister.”

Adan described her appointment as a precedent that will open doors for Somali women.

“This is a historic day not only for Somali women but for all Somalia,” Adan said after the announcement of her appointment on Nov. 4.

Haliam Elmi from SNWO told IPS that Adan’s appointment was “a gift not only for Somali women but also for Africa and the world at large because women’s situations are similar in many parts of the world.”

She said she hoped that it would result in the acceptance of women’s participation in politics in this conservative Muslim country.

“This is a step in the right direction and we hope that society will finally accept women’s ascent on the political ladder,” she told IPS.

But Adan will have a tough road ahead of her. Not everyone has welcomed her appointment. Somalia’s Islamic clergy, for example, said that Adan’s appointment was against the teachings of Islam.

“In Muslim society women are given the highest role a human being can take, which is rearing children and being head of a Muslim home. What we hear from the government is in contradiction to our way of life as a Muslim society, and nothing but calamity will come from giving such political leadership roles to Fauzia, not only for her, but for her family and society in general,” said Sheikh Ali Mohamoud, a Muslim cleric in Mogadishu.

Cultural practices in Cameroon’s patriarchal society could prevent women from registering to vote in the country’s February 2013 elections. Courtesy: Ngala Killian Chimtom

Cameroon’s new biometric registration of voters may end up disenfranchising many potential voters, especially women in the country’s predominantly Muslim north where cultural practices may prevent them from having their photos taken.

“This is a sticky issue,” Adji Massao, the Far North regional representative of the country’s elections management body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), told IPS.

Biometric voter registration, which involves the use of fingerprint scanners and digital cameras to capture the bio-data of applicants, began in this west Central African nation on Oct. 1 in the country’s capital Yaounde and will be introduced to all 360 council areas across Cameroon.

In order to register to vote in the February 2013 parliamentary and local council elections, citizens are required to have or obtain a national identity card, which requires a photograph. In addition, passport-sized photographs must be taken of people registering to vote and people are not allowed to wear caps, lenses, veils or anything that could distort their facial identity.

In this part of the country, women are hardly allowed to go out, let alone remove their head-concealing veils as their husbands do not allow them to, even if the women themselves are willing.

Aisha Ibrahim, a housewife in Mora, a small locality in Cameroon’s Far North Region, in all probability will not be able to register to vote in February 2013.

Her husband, Alhadj Moustapha, told IPS that he was not comfortable with his wife removing her veil in the presence of another man.

“It’s risky,” he said.

“A true Muslim lady must cover her hair and her face,” he said with an air of finality, sending a clear message that he would never allow his wife to unveil in public.

Cultural practices in this patriarchal society tend to confine women to the home, preventing them from fully participating in society. Allowing women to get national identity cards could also be potentially upsetting for men who want absolute control over their wives.

Moustapha puts the situation rather brusquely: “Women with a national identity card could be difficult to control. Remember this is a key document required for anyone to travel … and your wife may just escape from home and go elsewhere … I can’t take such a risk.”

Ibrahim, however, has voted a couple of times in Cameroon’s various elections without an identity card.

“When it came to voting, the law at the time provided that any voter without a national identity card could present themselves with at least two witnesses,” Massao said.

Ibrahim was able to vote in accordance with these procedures.

“My husband and his friend flanked me as we went to the voting centre,” Ibrahim told IPS in a whisper. And casting a furtive glance around, as if she was about to betray a prized secret, she said, before moving quickly away: “They instructed me to vote for the ruling party.”

And she was not the only one. According to Massao, 40 percent of people who registered for the 2011 presidential election in the region did so without an identity card. Most of them, he said, were women.

It is no wonder that John Fru Ndi, the leader of the country’s main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), called that registration process a “gigantic fraud”.

“The method did not have the inbuilt mechanism for detecting multiple registrations and therefore there were several instances where some unscrupulous individuals registered more than once,” he told IPS.

“That is why the SDF fought relentlessly for the introduction of a biometric system in voter registration.”

Meanwhile, the elections governing body is already taking measures to ensure that cultural practices do not infringe on women’s right to vote.

“We are definitely worried by the situation,” Thaddeus Minnang, chief of operations at ELECAM, told IPS.

“As for women who would not take off their veils in the presence of men and do not even leave their homes, we plan to get female ELECAM officials to go to those homes and do the registration. This way, we will ensure the full participation of women in the process,” Minnang said.

But his optimism is tempered by the fact that many women in this part of the country also do not have a national identity card and would need to apply for that first in order to register.

“Women should register to vote. For that, they first need to get their official documents. Yet, there are still among us women without proper identification,” Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family Cathérine Abena told IPS.

Minnang said the electoral commission planned to work with political parties, civil society and the government to encourage all Cameroonians of voting age to acquire national identity cards. A special focus would be given to the northern parts of Cameroon, where ELECAM plans to sensitise husbands on the need to allow their wives to have a national identity card.

“We are ready to accept receipts testifying that someone is in the process of acquiring a national identity card,” Minnang said.

That women in the north of the country could find it hard to register on the voter rolls could worsen an already bad situation of electoral apathy in Cameroon, according to Owona Nguini, a professor of political science at the University of Yaounde.

Of the roughly 7.5 million people who registered for the 2011 presidential election, only 4.9 million voted. Observers have said that in a country where close to 11 million people have already reached voting age, such a turnout gives elected officials very little legitimacy.

Navo Kai-Kai from the Sierra Leone People’s Party told IPS that there were other pressing reasons for the decreased number of women contesting high political positions this election. Credit: Mohamed Fofanah/IPS

Only 38 women – of a total of 586 candidates – will contest parliamentary seats in Sierra Leone’s November elections, and the blame for this can be laid squarely on the shoulders of the current group of female lawmakers, according to Barbara Bangura, the director of the women’s organisation Grassroots Empowerment for Self Reliance.

The Nov. 17 elections will only be this West African nation’s third election since the civil war ended here in 2002.

And while the country will see its first female vice presidential candidate, Kadi Sesay from the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), run for office, there are not many women joining her in the race for parliament. There is no female presidential candidate. But in addition to the dismal number of candidates running for seats in the legislature, there are only 337 women out of 1,283 candidates for local council elections.

Bangura points an accusing finger at the current crop of female parliamentarians who, she says, are to blame for the failure of parliament to pass the Gender Equality Bill that would have provided for a 30 percent representation of women in the legislature.

Bangura, one of the leading women’s activists pushing for the enactment of the bill, has squarely laid the blame on the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus. Women from the caucus were meant to champion and table the bill and lobby their colleagues for its enactment. But they did not succeed, because of what the activist calls a lack of interest on their part.

“We had to be hard on their heels, they did not show enough interest in pushing the bill forward and also getting their parties to support it. Now many of them are not going back to parliament, as they have not retained their seats. I hope they have learned their lesson,” Bangura told IPS.

Banging away on her laptop in the Women’s Situation Room – a room in the country’s capital Freetown where non-partisan women sit, receive and analyse information before the elections – Bangura explained to IPS that there was controversy among the female parliamentarians over which institution would monitor the implementation of the bill when it was enacted into law.

The chairwoman of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus and member of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC), Marie Yansaneh, told IPS that there was indeed confusion about which institution would monitor the implementation of the bill, resulting in the bill not being finalised before the five-year parliamentary session ended on Sep. 25.

One school of thought said it should be a Gender Equality Commission, while another was calling for the creation of a specific Women’s Commission to monitor implementation.

“None of these proposed institutions had even been set up, so we lost time. And then these female parliamentarians had to go into their various constituencies to campaign, so there was no time for the bill. So that was the end of the matter. As far as we know the bill is still sitting in the Office of the Attorney General and was never tabled in parliament,” said Bangura.

Effective political participation by women remains abysmally low in this country of 5.9 million people.

Before parliament closed, just 17 out of the 124 parliamentarians were women. Women make up 18.9 percent of female councillors in the local government – none at the level of chairwoman – and they comprise less than 10 percent of top civil service positions.

The public information officer of the Human Rights Commission (HRCSL), Henry Sheku, told IPS that the enactment of the Gender Equality Bill would have affected the development of the country.

“There is a whole raft of women with the appropriate skills and experience to take on leadership roles, and the confidence to do so. But because of a bad system these women have been deliberately marginalised,” he said.

However, Navo Kai-Kai from the SLPP told IPS that there were other pressing reasons for the decreased number of women contesting high political positions this election. Kai-Kai has claimed that her male opponent from the SLPP, who was also contesting the post of chair of the Kailahun District Council, had intimidated her after he lost the party primaries to her.

“There was serious intimidation; my male opponent came out with his secret societies during our party primaries so I had to leave my district in Kailahun, east of the country, escorted by the police to Kenema district, for fear of my life. As a result I was unable to contest for the party symbols and lost to my male opponent,” Kai-Kai said.

The endorsement of candidates by political parties to contest elections in Sierra Leone is called “getting the party symbol”.

A number of women also dropped out of contesting the elections when the country’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) increased nomination fees.

“I withdrew from nominations immediately when the NEC announced increased nomination fees. I know it will be difficult for me to get that kind of money and my party will not help, so I lost my opportunity because of money and the lack of support,” Memuna Sapateh, a candidate representing the Peoples Liberation Party, told IPS.

The nomination fees were increased from one million Leones (250 dollars) to one hundred million (about 250,000 dollars) for presidential candidates, and from 100,000 Leones (25 dollars) to one million Leones (250 dollars) for parliamentary and city councillor positions. The dramatic increase in fees met with stiff opposition from civil society groups and the majority of the nine registered political parties.

Parliament approved the NEC’s decision to raise the nomination fees, and the new fees came into effect on Sept. 10. Only after political parties threatened to boycott the elections did the government allow candidates to revert to the fee rate from the 2007 elections. Instead, the government announced that it would pay the difference in the fees to the NEC.

But Bangura’s accusing finger still points to the female parliamentarians.

“Yes there were challenges for the women, the finances to run elections, the patriarchal political system, the sudden increase in the nomination fees,” she agreed.

“But I still blame the women in the political parties. I always say that women do not know the power they have; we always say to them you are a woman first before you belong to a political party. Not all of them with party symbols will win.  So whilst we are looking at the women that actually have symbols we have to look at the ones that will go through, that will win seats in parliament and council, we will definitely see decreased figures.”

Sheku said that the HRCSL would be focusing on pushing strongly for the passage of the Gender Equality Bill as soon as a new government took office.

Bangura was also upbeat. “After the elections we will re-organise and continue to push for the Gender Equality Bill so it becomes law.”