Tuesday, May 25, 2010

RWANDA elections Vs female representation

Rwanda goes to the polls sometime in August.Currently,ladies in Rwanda constitute about 56% of all the elected leaders.This is about to change.

If you've been keen enough,you must have heard a few well coordinated bombings in the capital city Kigali in the past few months.

These bombings are an attempt to scare away ladies voters from voting for lady candidates by introducing an 'atmosphere of threat'.The person behind this is hoping that true to type, lady voters will gravitate towards male candidates for "protection"! You think that this is just a conspiracy theory and it wont happen,right? Ask the Americans: it works like a charm,all the time too!

I am not a betting guy(probably because I don't have the money for it!)but if I were, I'd bet my Last pence on the female representation in Rwanda plummeting to below 30% after the August general elections!

Of Kenyan Ladies' representation in the DRAFT constitution

Many ladies in Kenya are all for the draft constitution in the mistaken belief that once it passes, they will laugh all the way to the bank-sorry, to parliament!

I appreciate the fact that from nothing to 47 seats is some milestone,but to me 13.5% is nowhere near enough.In addition, the 2/3rds rule in the draft is just "the spirit of the law" devoid of "the letter of the law".

"The letter of the Law" would have dictated that there be specific steps to ensure the attainment of 33% representation. As things stand now, new constitution or not, I don't see how the legislation to get at least a third of the seats being occupied by the ladies (especially in parliament) will ever happen, especially in the backdrop of previous attempts by some guys to sue the COE for giving "too many seats" to ladies in the draft.

If we leave everything to the new constitution, the best the ladies would get in 2012 would be just that:13.5%! And you can take this to the bank!

The men voters will be hard pressed to vote for a lady candidates after they realize that there are exclusive county seats where they (men) are not even allowed to contest!To me the 47 county seats provision for the ladies in the draft constitution is basically a poison chalice!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Of ladies' suffrage rights

All societies in the world literally depend on the ladies for survival, especially in the raising of the children. Ladies actually reign supreme at the family level (ask any man about the value of his mom!). However, at the larger society level, ladies still allow themselves to be treated as second rate citizens or ‘filler material’- and especially in elections!

Did U know that after much struggle, New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant women the rights to vote (suffrage) in 1893, but women were not allowed to run for office until 1919? Finland became the first country in the world to grant women full suffrage (right to vote and run for office) in 1906.USA gave full suffrage rights to ladies on 1920.

In other words before 1893, ladies were not considered Human enough to have rights. Unfortunately, a century after the ladies fought for, and got the right to vote and run for office, they are still begging for a third (1/3) of the elective positions!

Well, it doesn't help matters that some ladies are like a certain “mama pima” (name withheld), who believes that “leaders” is a Greek word that means “men” or that Lady leader is an oxymoron!