My Turn: More power to (Nyeri) women!

Transformer’, ‘propeller’, ‘mti’, ‘fundamentals’... these are just some of the words that have invaded the national discourse this past week (I’d wager even the chaps at State House must have used them), thanks to two women from Nyeri.

What, apparently, happens to be a simple way of expressing displeasure with a wayward spouse in a Nyeri household has caught the attention of the nation. And the male chauvinist brigade is not a happy lot!

True, the punishment administered may not have been commensurate with the crime, but from the way the narrative has been shaped, you’d think an Armageddon has been visited upon Kenyan menfolk.

So what if two men from one county were Nyerified by their wives in a span of one week? Did it merit the hubbub it created? Trust Kenyan men to turn anything that seems to show women in a superior position into a gender war. Now the talk is how the world is no longer a safe place for men.

Yet we keep harping on how we are the stronger sex. Stronger sex, my hind foot! If only two incidents can have us screaming serikali saidia, then there is an even bigger crisis than what was imagined.

Fine, maybe a little spanking on the bottom, or a sufuria thrown in their faces would have done it. Hey, just like they used to do before, you know. But then again we would have missed the little joys the incidents have brought us in this age of mobile Internet bundles. The memes flying around have been silly, funny, and just plain horrid... and have, rightly, put the fear of God in men.

I hate to drag Dr Monica Juma into this discussion, but this latest incident has served to show us this girl-child empowerment business is not complete.

With a little education these women, just like Dr Juma, would have been kicking corporate ass; slugging it out with the best of the best, blazing a trail in the world of academia and politics. Not cleaning after an alcohol-addled, ne’er-do-well husband who is more than happy to drink away his existence.

That boiling, roiling rage, would have been channeled into more useful ventures such as giving an earful to MPigs who wiped the floor with Dr Juma. Sticking it to the man! Literally.

On a more sober note, though, for all the outcry it has generated, and with the existence of organisations like Maendeleo ya Wanaume, you will be forgiven for thinking this is ‘the spirit of the times’. Men are scared of women who can hold their own in a world experiencing testosterone overload.

But did it ever occur to you that these are isolated criminal acts? How many men get away with atrocious acts of violence? Why does a man douse his wife with petrol and set her on fire — yes, it happened — without creating a public furore? The cruelty visited upon women and the girl-child by men on a daily basis is sickening yet it is hardly a subject of Whatsapp jokes.

This is not the forum to explore societal failures. This not the place for psychological mumbo jumbo. This a place for the unabashed truth, which I am sorry, dear fellow men, we must swallow.

If the first thing that greets you every day when you get home is a pan to your head, then you probably deserve it. It is most likely you have been shirking your responsibilities as the man of the house and you need some reminding. But then again, maybe not! Who says the world is a fair place?