These women are fighting discrimination in golf

By Standard

KENYA: Three women have threatened to take the Limuru Country Club to court for allegedly locking them out of crucial elections.

Caroline Ngugi, Martha Vincent, and Rose Mambo were stripped of their voting rights ahead of elections to pick a captain and vice-captain of the club. Under the by-laws passed recently by the club’s board of directors, women cannot speak during Annual General Meetings, but can only sit in as observers.

If it goes to court, the matter will turn unwelcome spotlight on private golf clubs said to have entrenched discrimination against women.

Ms Mambo, the Chief Executive of the Central Depository and Settlements Corporation, Dr Caroline Ngugi, and Ms Vincent are locked in battle with the directors of the club, who say women have no right to vote to elect various officials. Only men can do that!

After they protested, Mambo was stripped of her post of vice-chair of the board while Ngugi and Martha were suspended for six months and one month for “misconduct”.

Ngugi is a former women captain at the club. Martha is a businesswoman and also former women captain. The three joined the club in 2006.

Discriminatory rules

On December 18, last year, as the club sought to elect a new captain, vice-captain and members of the golf, the directors made some amendments to the club’s regulations that barred women from voting.

“After campaigns heated up, the frontrunner was not the preferred candidate, but enjoyed the support of the women members of the club. But suddenly, the election rules were changed and women were barred from voting.  The preferred candidates were elected unopposed,” said Mambo.

The controversial anti-women clause reads thus: The golf committee brings a male-only affair, only full male members with valid handicaps and who are fully paid up, will be allowed to participate in the meeting and that lady golfers will attend the meeting as guests. ?

This saga has lifted the veil on the sexism and rampant gender discrimination in private golf clubs, which the majority of Kenyans have no chance of accessing.

“Denying women a right to vote just because they are women is insulting and unacceptable. We won’t accept to be treated as second-class citizens in our clubs,” she added.

Now the victims of the blatant discrimination have taken the matter to Government institutions, including the Gender and Equality Commission, and Ministry of Sports. They will also be recording statements with the women rights lobby Fida-Kenya to have the matter resolved.

“We are prepared to go to the highest court to challenge this primitive and outmoded discrimination on grounds of gender. We are doing for our children and all the women who deserve respect for their rights,” said a determined Ngugi.

The club, which began in 1929 and is 25km outside Nairobi, offers a scenic 18-hole golf course, lawn bowling, tennis courts, cricket, squash court, horse riding, swimming pool, snooker and billiards, bar and restaurant, children’s room, conference/workshop facilities, library and scenic walks.

Attempt to arbitrate

Mambo revealed the anti-women discrimination is rife in most of the 40 private golf clubs around the country.

She said Limuru Country Club were among the progressive few where women were free to exercise their fundamental democratic right of voting, but that suddenly changed in December last year, when matters came to a head.

For many years, golf has been a male-only sport and Kenyan women have only recently made their entry into the sport and the exclusive private golf clubs. And even though they pay, women do not enjoy all rights in the clubs .

“In many clubs, women introduce their male spouses who are   allowed to vote but women are not allowed to do the same. It is obvious discrimination on the basis of gender that cannot be tolerated by any self-respecting woman,” she said.

Attempts to have the matter arbitrated by the Kenya Golf Union have unsuccessful, allegedly because the the directors of the Limuru Country Club were unco-operative. 

However, in their defence, the club directors said: “As a private member’s club, we do not wish to discuss the matter in the Press since that would be washing dirty linen in public.” 

Club chairman Yasin Awale went on to say in a statement sent to The Standard On Sunday that: “Our club has laid down mechanisms for resolving disputes and those mechanisms have not been exhausted. We don’t understand why the women rushed to the Press prematurely.”

He said the matter would be resolved.

Yesterday, the women claimed that they went public after their efforts to resolve the matter behind the scenes were unsuccessful.

Joining the country clubs involved paying a one-off fee of Sh250,000 as well as Sh32,000 annual subscription.  Their lawyer Philip Murgor said that the Constitution was clear on discrimination on the basis of gender.

“There are institutions in this country that consider themselves private and out of bounds of the Constitution. Now the Limuru Country Club has changed its rules to render women second-class citizens and unable to exercise their right to vote,” he said.

Mambo added: “For long, golf has been considered a male sport but developments over the years have shown a growing interest and participation of women. For instance, Rose Naliaka has put Kenyan women golfers on the map,”

“We should all be members of equal stature  with full rights and obligations,” she said.