| Friday May 14, 2004 |
| OPINION |
| Who will reinvent Maendeleo? By Lucy Oriang' |
|
My dear sisters at Maendeleo ya Wanawake, I am glad you have finally settled on the list of candidates for chairperson in the June elections. You know that thing about following the leader? You can exist in a vacuum for only so long. Perhaps we can now get down to the serious business of turning around this organisation, which has surely earned its place in Kenya's history -not always in a positive light, but as the best known women's organisation yet. My first concern is that the line-up is pretty predictable. You have cleared outgoing chair Zipporah Kittony to try her hand at it for another term. One would have thought that eight troubled years would be enough for the good woman, but there's no accounting for taste. Then there's the war-like Eunice Kamotho, who has already put up such a vigorous campaign that one wonders whether she will have any energy left when push comes to shove. Then there are Rukia Subow from North Eastern and Martha Mugambi and Charity Kiome-Muthaura from Eastern. Not much to write home about, but this is democracy at work. Most of these candidates, if not all, have a long association with Kenya's premier women's organisation. This may not necessarily be a handicap, but what Maendeleo needs right now is someone to take it by the scruff of the neck and kick it into the 21st Century. And so we must get up close and personal and ask the question: are they up to the task? The English have this saying: "The king is dead. Long live the king!" I want to take the liberty to paraphrase this and say, "Maendeleo ya Wanawake is dead. Long live Maendeleo!" It is all about managing change. And the situation is truly desperate. The fate of Maendeleo is frightening. Starting out as an organisation with universal appeal, it has systematically been degraded into what amounts to a perpetual battleground for political forces determined to ride on its back. Maendeleo has paid a high price for its dubious connections, and risks being reduced into a footnote of history-especially if it cannot rouse itself out of its lethargy and appeal directly to the next generation of women. The short-cut would be to blame it all on politicians. They have made it their business to tell us what to do with ourselves. We have let them, mainly because they have been our husbands, brothers, fathers and God knows what else. You can blame this on Maendeleo's origins. For all that it is touted as a grassroots organisation, the Maendeleo leadership has always been drawn from the elite of the day. They were the wives of the leaders of independent Kenya, the teachers in your local school, the nurses, and so on. As a good friend once said, this grassroots business is as complex as an onion-you peel one layer, only to discover yet another below it. It takes a truly dynamic leadership to build bridges across the board. Matters came to a crux with the marriage with Kanu in the 1980s. And now all the fine and upstanding men and women of Narc have discovered just what a treasure chest Maendeleo can be. The difference is the same, my sisters. It is not so much that they love Maendeleo. It is all about self-interest. Kenyan women may not have come to terms with their strength as movers and shakers, but Kembi Gitura and Joshua Toro know it only too well. So do Joseph Kamotho and everyone in the elite corps in Parliament. We are loyal to a fault and eminently biddable. We vote in large numbers, come hell or high water. Get us on your side-it takes very little to do so- and you might as well pop the champagne. Then you can sit pretty in Parliament for five years and do f*** all for us. Is it any wonder that the battle for Maendeleo should be so vicious, particularly in the jostling for the upper hand in the political arena? Imagine how much power that would translate into in the event of a referendum! We could also point a finger at Mrs Kittony. But she is only one woman. Where were the rest when the water started leaking into the boat? This is the question that we must ask our line-up of potential chairpersons. Power is not enough. It is what you do with it that counts. Changing the lives of Kenyan women, at 52 per cent, the larger part of the population and also the hardest-hit when it comes to poverty, demands more than a chain of women parading endlessly before us in elegant suits, vitenge and hats. It is nice work if you can get it, of course, but give us our money's worth at least. As the tempo rises in anticipation of the national poll, it is useful to take a quick glance at what others have had to say about Maendeleo, once celebrated as the only organisation with tentacles in virtually every village in Kenya. The word "dormant" is almost universal; "one-woman-show" is another and "small clique" is pretty high up. The victorious candidate will have her work cut out for her. There is no way to sugar this pill: Maendeleo is probably at its lowest ebb ever. And, going by recent trends, the June election is unlikely to bring forth the radical changes that must take place if Maendeleo is to reinvent itself. There's being political, and there's becoming the lap dog of politicians-and women had better learn the difference if they are to get anywhere in public life. Perhaps Maendeleo's greatest failing has been its inability to make itself relevant to the modern Kenyan woman. We speak of the organisation in terms of the past. Everyone's mother or grandmother belonged to Maendeleo in its heyday, but few of us do these days. The organisation has not given us reason to line up for membership cards. It is left to politicians to buy in bulk and distribute the cards exclusively to their supporters. What's to join, particularly when Maendeleo has been so slow to counter its negative image in the past decade or so? Getting rid of Mrs Kittony is the easy part. Rebuilding Maendeleo into a vibrant, effective vehicle to deliver on the aspirations of toda's Kenyan woman is the challenge. The woman who would be chairperson might tell us what the organisation stands for-and being a plaything for the powers-that-be is not an acceptable raison d'etre. In many ways, what has happened to Maendeleo is only natural in the lifecycle of any organisation. It is how we manage the transition that will make the difference. What Kenyan women need right now are strong, bold and independent-minded leaders. Be afraid for Maendeleo. Very afraid. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ms Oriang' is the Nation's managing editor in charge of magazines |
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