Little to celebrate about election of women

 President William Ruto and Kenya Kwanza leaders during Kenya Kwanza Women Charter conference held at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi County. [PHOTO: SARAFINA KAIYONGI]

On August 9, Kenyans trooped to polling stations to choose a new president as well as 290 Members of National Assembly, 47 senators and woman representatives, 47 county governors and 1,450 members of county assemblies. Of the 16,100 candidates, Kenyans elected 26 female MPs, up from 23 in 2017, seven female ygovernors, up from three in 2017, and three female senators.Some political analysts are terming this performance a breakthrough. I beg to differ. From where I sit, the performance does not pass muster yet. In fact, if you asked me, women politicians got it all wrong from the onset of the political campaigns. For starters, women who contested for various political offices only accounted for 20 per cent of all the candidates yet there are more women than there are men of voting age. What would have been the outcome if more women had offered themselves for elective posts?While male politicians were meeting in high-end hotels, holding political rallies and forming alliances to position themselves for power, their women counterparts were busy playing flower girls and forming "Warembo na Wanjawa" outfits. That is, if they were not swaying their viuno (waists). What makes our women sell themselves short at a time when the world is counting on women leadership of integrity and inclusivity?The 2010 Constitution requires a two-third gender balance in Parliament. But the two male-dominated chambers have never passed a law to that effect, despite legal challenges to force their hand. The number of elected women had already risen in 2017 to about 20 per cent of the National Assembly. However, Kenya is still far behind some of its neighbours, such as Rwanda, in terms of parity. Never mind that theirs is a moderated parity.Truth be said, the political journey of Kenyan women is often fraught with difficulties, and that of the 2022 candidates was no exception. Which begs the question: Why is the trajectory of women politicians so markedly different from that of their male counterparts? Apparently, men speak in the language of Power, capital P - formal, hierarchical, competitive. On the other hand, women speak the language of Value, capital V - personal, subjective, connective.The contrast between a Power structure and a Values structure is what sets women leadership apart from men. Power and Values are contrasting models, different conceptual frameworks for the content of our lives, different ways of seeing and being in the world. In each, the same actions and even the same words take on different meanings.In the external power construct of this culture, success means title, money, power, indicating position in the hierarchy. In a values construct, success means something other: affirmation instead of rejection; expression instead of inhibition; access instead of exclusion; growth instead of limitation.

Power and valuesIn the power construct, power means power over others. In the values construct, power can mean control over our own lives. In the power construct, money is the equivalent of power and a way of keeping score. The old joke goes: Whoever has the most money when he dies wins. In the values construct, money means choice. Or, you might go further to say money is the equivalent of freedom. Although the power construct defines our culture, the values construct, I believe, has more in common with women's lives.Here's a portrait of the society we're now working so hard to support: More fragmentation of the sexes, religious and ethnic groups; more polarisation between the rich and the poor; more crime and corruption and the continuing plague of drugs; the deterioration of the environment, of cities, of the educational system, of the infrastructure; the inequities of health care; the family and social crisis for so many Kenyan children. It's a familiar litany of signs of the times, and, as we all know, there are more.The question I ask fellow Kenyans is this: Are women in leadership positions helping, as promised, to address the larger problems of society? Are they contributing new ideas to the dialogue or are they continuing to only look through the lens of feminism, driving only the feminist agenda? Are they really leaders? Or are they, as some have charged, simply men in skirts?Women weren't supposed to be trying to mimic the basest, most primitive, killer side of men. They were supposed to be trying to get into decision-making roles to try to change the way business is done, for the good of everyone. Aren't those competitive, killer values the fundamental problem with the system?

What women wantWomen know what it is they are against. They are against discrimination against women. But what are they for? That old perennial question: What do women want? Not in the context of fairy godmothers with wings, or men on white horses in the wings, ready to grant their wishes. What do women want in today's changed world, with their own independent voices and having won the right to be heard?

Women face many moments of choice between being themselves or being liked and being "one of the boys" - a choice between having integrity and making others uncomfortable. And I wonder if women achievers are allowing their independent ideas and differences to be socialised, and compromised, out of the conversation?At the very least, men and women inhabit different cultures. From the collective intelligence on the subject in general - and keep in mind that nothing in general is true - men tend to be warlike, competitive, aggressive, with a worldview that is external, exclusive, power driven.

Women, on the other hand, tend to be collaborative, caring, nurturing, with a worldview that is internal, subjective, value-driven.Men are single-minded. Women are complex. Women's lives are composite, like the eye of a fly. That's one reason women have so much inner conflict and why choice is so essential to their struggle. Men are ambitious, decisive, self-assured.

Men are short-term. Women are longer-term. Women are more concerned about outcomes and the future, a condition that may arise from caring for children, including dealing with the diapers. I'm convinced that if women had been captains of industry from the start, society wouldn't be having the same back-end environmental problems.In the power model of culture, politics is also war. And using the metaphor of sports, politics today produces some of the best tournaments on television. Every day we see in the news sound bites from the political power game. Our politicians just don't get it. They don't make the connection. When you kill a part of your own society, you kill a part of yourself. Shall our true women leaders arise and be counted?

- Edwin Wanjawa teaches at Pwani University.