OPINION: Why Luhya women should be as aggressive as Kikuyu women

One thing that everybody attests about kikuyu women is how they are aggressive in all aspects of life. Whether it’s in the family circle or in politics, kikuyu women already got the memo that they need nothing but the cream of what life has to offer. Sadly, the same cannot be said about luhya women.

For instance, let’s look at a simple issue like marriage. Kikuyu women have zero tolerance towards polygamy. Their men can’t face them and talk crap like “huyu ni mwenzako”. Even the powerful men with all the money and power have nothing to do but hide their mistresses. Then the Luhya women will be reasoning in a very defeatists way that it’s better for a man to marry than have a string of women. They will even encourage their men to bring home the said woman. Most of the time, they will seek solace in being accepted by their in-laws and being the first wife. It doesn’t bother them that their husbands make guest appearances at their homes. They will be like “atarudi tu”. Ooh! Poor Luhya women, who cursed you?

It’s only in Luhya land that a man can hit her woman and the older women will tell her that it’s because she is loved. They will tell her that it’s a good gesture to harden her for the hard marital life. We know that kikuyu women can’t take a beating from their men. They will report the matter to the police without giving it second thoughts.

Kikuyu women are in control of their reproductive health. They have children when they want and they know that they can take care of them. They have no problem hawking stuff with their children on their backs or relocating to distant lands to seek employment. A luhya woman will give an excuse like “baba Boi alisema nisitumie family”. Then she will go forth and have as many children as she can just to please her husband and his people. Then one day the man will walk out on her with another woman and she will have nothing to eat other than a humble pie.

I stand to be corrected or even to be stoned if am lying, but majority of the Luhya womenfolk have a strange relationship with money. They can have money but accept to give it to the husband to budget. It’s as if they don’t know anything about budgeting. The husband can budget it in a good or bad way depending on the kind of man he is. A kikuyu woman on the other hand will be thinking of how to get money from this husband to buy a plot somewhere in Ruai and develop it.

One indicator that Luhya women think narrowly about money matters is their obsession with small time chamas. They derive immense pleasure in pooling together their petty cash. They gossip over a cup of tea about whose husband has bought a piece of land at last. On the other hand, our sisters from the mountains are table banking. They are pooling huge sums of money together. When they meet, the issue of husbands does not come up. All their minds is on how to make this table banking huge. Before they know it, they have formed a Sacco and are lending huge sums of cash to individuals and even small businesses. Then when Luhya men go weak on their knees when they see such intelligent women, they cry foul that it’s because they are light skinned and pretty. When will Luhya women wake up from their deep slumber? Their docile levels are lower than the depth of Lake Victoria.