 Good Monday morning to you. Monday has started on a very high note. I don't mind the morning. My name is Hilda and you are watching youth and politics. Please do not go anywhere. Today, this week and next week, we are going to be focusing on women. So do make sure you participate in the conversation at Y254 channel on Twitter. The hashtag is Y in the morning. Hashtag youth and politics if you like to be more specific on Facebook at Y254 and on Instagram at Y254 underscore channel. And I'm not alone in studio. Yeah, you're with me Joy Mochache. I'm also here for youth and politics and we're going to be delving into a really interesting topic today. So stay tuned with us. And as Hilda said, you know all the platforms on which you can reach us. If you want to reach me, you can do so on joy underscore mochache. Yes, and in the spirit of the youth, there are certain things that are in the media right now that we cannot ignore. Yes, so it's about time we let you know what's happening in the world. There is one Johnson Sakaja who is the senator of Nairobi who talked about how the Kenyan government would be at war with the young people. Do check out this clip and then let us know what you think. In the month between October and December in Nairobi I have lost more than 30 young people to exjudicial killings. Mr. Speaker, in the last two weeks we've seen a 21-year-old young boy shot at the doset attack abandoned. We've seen a 26-year-old young boy arrested and charged in court because he had to sneak out his baby in a bag because he could not pay that. What are we talking about as a country? What future are we trying to build, Mr. Speaker? Mr. Speaker, we have told in this parliament for the last few years we've brought bills, Mr. Speaker. National Employment Authority are sponsored in the last parliament where all these young people who are supposedly defaulters of help would have now been engaged on compulsory internships which would have paid those loans. They are not being implemented. Mr. Speaker, about 30 percent procurement preferences for young people governors, ministers, PSS are giving their children they are giving their cronies. It is not being implemented. Mr. Speaker, we cannot go and I want to say it today with the authority of the Senate as the chair the vice chair of security committee any police officer listening to me, don't you try don't you try to arrest any young person who has defaulted on help and I wish because I think the character of Sir Samina is different I just pray that she was misquoted because I cannot imagine her having said that Mr. Speaker. We cannot be talking about recovering 7.7 billion from young people who have no jobs. In fact this house should amend the law help should not have an interest it's not about interest Mr. Speaker and number two you should not be asked to pay any penalty before you get employment. Government should figure out how they will find out whether those young people have got employment but why is it that today in a crime to be young person in part of my county Mr. Speaker the highest cause of death is youth just because you are young person you have to be in the house by certain time you go to look for job Mr. Speaker you get into a border border you come to town you are arrested the border border is not yours it is taken you have to pay 25,000 shillings to get it you open a kibanda in Nairobi Mr. Speaker the city council is on you you are arrested let us become serious Mr. Speaker the youth are the trustees well yes yes yes that was our senator Juan Johnson Sakaja however before I let our beautiful guests comment because today the focus is on women I would like them to introduce themselves because they have some power ladies in the house please say good morning to the people hello my name is Wendiawra from the University of Nairobi and the founder of Shiraz and the student leader of the women students welfare association it is a pleasure to be here today thank you so much my name is Faith Faw and I wear so many hats and I am here because of she decides and I am glad for us to talk about politics I am glad for us to talk about women issues thank you yes yes so now you have heard our senator complaining that there could be an issue when it comes to being a young person in Kenya and Faith you have already seen you are already ready to comment so I would like to hear what you have to exactly I saw my face when Sakaja was talking about the issue of interest funny enough when I was coming to the studio today in the morning we had this discussion with a friend of mine also on just help interest being wavered because it's too much there is so much depression with young people and it's because of you have so many loans to pay including help which comes with an interest so it's very funny when a government that's supposed to be protecting you as a youth is still putting interest on the education that's supposed to be empowering you because once you are empowered you get to contribute to the GDP and the economy of the country but if you are supposed to be paying this interest plus the loan that you have given before then you cannot be able to go forward with what you want to do because the old issue of interest is the old issue of you have money somewhere you want to try to live as a youth so it's a discussion that I would be really glad to have in especially help it's the in thing and it's something that is on going to us when do you are still in the university yourself so please can we hear speaking of help I want to deny the value of help to university students but there is a one year grace period given to students to pay the loan but now the issue comes what if you don't have a job during the one year because right now in this country you go for years with your papers right because all you see in the vacancies they need 5 years experience 10 years experience and then you wonder when we look at the experience from so as Sakaja said we need to first if there was an act okay there is a bill that he passed that was passed but if it was taken seriously then there will be maybe internships then the internship should be paid a stipend it will be made maybe in form of a contract where at least you show some money before you get the actual job so there are some companies maybe you will do attachment you are not given any money and that is so unfortunate so we need to really take the bill seriously it was passed recently and Sakaja is the one who on Aribo Sakaja is the one that brought the bill to the house so if it was something that is taken seriously to be executed then it will be so easy for the young people to be able to at least pay the loan I am not saying that we need to default but we need to make the conditions safe and maybe favorable for the youth to be able to pay back for the loan so the more we have the unemployment we want to expect the defaulting to go down because we are not going to provide the youth the jobs they need they are not going to have that space for entrepreneurship that gives them that good money then we will be expecting more defaulters so we need to really work on maybe taking seriously the bill that has been passed and ensuring that maybe the companies they need to pay the youth they need to create opportunities they need to make employment maybe in certain departments to be taken by youth in that way we will be creating more spaces and then talking of experience I know there are some jobs that really need experience but what if they create room for people to gain that experience because I can't get out of university then I am looking for a job I can't get that one experience you are looking for a job all job vacancies they are looking for experience so what about those who are just from the university yet they have the skills so we need to create that room to create that employment first so as much as we are creating opportunities for loaning money out for kids to better their lives we also need to create opportunities on how they can pay back those loans because we are just throwing them into the deep end we are giving them one thing we are not teaching them how to fish we are just giving them the fish and then what happens next but we should be teaching them how to fish I think is what I am gathering from what you are saying and apart from that also the grace period should be a little bit longer I find one year to be not practical even for a youth you just from graduating you just finding your feet on the ground and then now start paying home the interest by the way so the grace period should be extended I don't have a problem also with the paying of loan beneficially of help just like Wendy said but then again give me time I know I owe but give me time and give me practical time for me to pay you and also ways in which I can pay you exactly but at the same time if you notice the the speech from C.S. the C.S. more and she was talking about those who have jobs but don't pay so we can't also ignore that fact we have people who really are able to pay but they really are evading the the payment because the cost of living is very high and then also as you understand we are also refusing to pay because at the end of the day we have such so many scandals so a lot of our money is being lost to some of these government officials and not much is being done to get that money back so why are you hounding me in my house for my 300K that is the opinion of some of the Kenyans and some of the defaulters however please don't default on paying your loans that was just an issue we are rising today the focus is on women and today we have something special we have found out she rise and then we have found out and then we have sorry a representative she decides so in case you don't know what she decides it's all about please make sure you check this one out she is winning yes yes yes yes the reason faith appears here is because she is here so make sure you understand much better what she decides is all about and even next week we will still be with this particular team to make sure that we understand the aftermath of this event that is happening on the 2nd of March please faith enlighten us thank you she decides is a political movement one it's not an NGO because I've had many friends telling me this organization NGO is which one it's not an NGO it's a political movement that came about in January 2017 and it was because of something called Gagro by President Trump the global gas or something called the Mexico City Police so it came about because Trump withdrew all the funding from NGO NGOs that were implementing any issues on abortion or giving any information on abortion so NGOs were like no wait a minute this is a ladies issue apart from just being a ladies issue and a women issue they have a right to decide what they can do with their bodies, what they can do with their future what they can do with their life so that is where the two are originated from she decides I have a right to decide what I want to do with my body what I want to do with my life what I want to do with my future who to marry, who to have pleasure with who to have sex, how many children I want family planning so this whole issue around she decides so that is where it originated it's not an NGO it's a political movement where any friend that feels they need to be part of this can be able to sign up a manifesto that I'll give a link to sign up a manifesto and decide to protect a girl and decide to just be the voice of she decides so in the spirit of trying to to what do you call it to thrust women into leadership do you have any questions because I really want to ask the waswa chalili when it comes to she decides they do believe that a woman should have the right to do as she pleases with her body as well as the women students welfare waswa is a very long title please please let us know what do you think okay first of all we can't ignore the fact that the world is changing and the more the world is evolving women are getting more knowledge they are becoming more empowered then we are getting to be more aware of ourselves it's been okay for a long time decisions have been made for us and then you find issues like family planning you always have to maybe see what your hubby will say but now because we've learnt and we've learnt from our mistakes and we've also read and maybe we have that awareness and now it's time maybe it's a good idea that it's come up right now because it's time that the women know that they have a right to their body they have the right to make that decision that they really want so it's not time for us to really assume that someone will come and make decisions for us and it's a good initiative maybe and on behalf of she decides I'll urge all women to be part of this movement and if we come together then our voices will be stronger and then it will be able to create that atmosphere to be able to tell the world that you also have a sea and it starts with us before we start even making decisions on other things we have a sea on ourselves and that's one big step one major step that the world is taking I applaud them that she decides and by there so interesting I think that's so interesting because we're coming from a very patriarchal society and this is a very very female issue and some even look at it and say that they're just being feminist but aside I don't think it has anything to do with that at all I do feel that it is important though to give women a chance to decide because so much has been decided for us for such a long time to the point where sometimes it's our own detriment so it reaches a point where you look and you say you know what I think it's time for me to stand up and say I'm going to make certain decisions for myself especially when it's going to affect me personally or it's going to affect me in the majority in the majority sense so I've just got to ask when it comes to launching something like this was there any kind of backlash that you got I find it so interesting because there's a lot that you're saying that I'm sure some people are like exactly exactly exactly yes there was a lot of backlash even from the NGO world even the ones being run by yes even the ones being run by the so-called feminist being run by women led organization there are still some issues the way you've said apart from just Kenya being at Shiako there are still some issues on she decides manifesto that people don't describe to it's still like a tabu pregnancies and child marriages in some part of North and Kenya it's the ongoing thing so I go to North and Kenya I'm like if you decide it will be another issue altogether so yes there's been backlash and there are some NGOs that have signed the manifesto they say they're not part of it which is okay because we invite only the people who are there the whole scope of she decides issues that pertain the body issues that pertain the sexual reproductive system issues that pertain the decision making of a woman so if you agree with this scope of she decides then you're a friend of she decides and just like we say that we are it's already here the conversation is already continuing my right I'm empowered I should be having these and that so what we just want to do is enforce their voice and let her word she decides it's so kachi apart from just being kachi it gives the conversation running so fast there's something that happens when it comes to the moral compass which I think is very important which is the fact that so many things have already been decided for us as women so we don't really get so many so a lot of chances to decide what it is that we really need and also this could be some of the roadblocks that we experience when it comes to leadership people don't trust generally it's a couple of some parts of society subscribe to the idea that women should not lead so I wanted to ask you Wendy she decides community is saying that we should allow abortion if the woman feels that it is something that will benefit her life do you subscribe to the school of thought okay first of all okay I think people may misunderstand there are many versions of feminism but from the word God is not a feminist thing because everyone has their own version we have to clarify this and then we also would know about the morals we need to uphold as women as people in the society and then we go to school there are a lot of things we read from the internet we read from people but we can never assume that these things happen someone we can't assume for example I'll let you go into maybe a good high school cannot get pregnant but she has all the knowledge she needs they are being taught about it they have clubs they have mentorships but it is still happen at the end of the day so the question is what if it happens we didn't say that let's do some silly things because it's a free world because we are women we still have limits but what if it happens what to do next what do you do next you don't just sit there now your life has stopped because you made that one mistake life has to go on and maybe deciding making that decision is what will determine your next step in life because sometimes you can't assume all situations are the same what if the girls life is in danger what if her future is in jeopardy so there are a lot of things you need to consider when such things happen but we didn't say we are promoting immorality we didn't say we are encouraging girls to just have sex with their body because they are free we didn't say let's just do anything we want there is no full stop we will still do that we will still continue telling our young girls to keep safe to protect themselves but what if it happens what if it happens what if it happens because you watched the exposure about the Kwak clinics I bet if you watched it I almost cried it is something that touches you you see a girl being forced to squat on a bucket and to force that fetus down how do you do that and of course they will leave some damage and then you accept money the parent doesn't know because these things are cheap they are everywhere in the clinics in the estates what if we just make it make the parents understand that there is a safer way of doing this what if the girl dies I think maybe you should let us know the background of this particularly because I can imagine the moral backlash that you gave people should go back to Kwak clinics I am thinking you are so brave you have no idea how much braveness it takes to know what you are doing I admire that as we are having this conversation something is just running through my mind because this one is a TV station and I am speaking even from a spiritual point of view because I am also a religious person and I am for pro life in the school of thought of pro life and pro life in this sense this same girl want to condemn her for engaging in sex when she didn't want to but then again she has the decision she has a right to decide whether they want this child or not whether they want to carry the pregnancy to term or not and she decides not only about abortion because we are really focusing on abortion here because I am sure that is where people will be picking exactly that's why I am saying this and pro life in this sense when she has just given the issues that can happen if she decides to go to the Kwak doctors and back streets actually Kenyans don't know what these girls go through there is a lot of data that gives us how many lives are being lost when people go through unsafe abortion there is a lot of data that are being given on how many people just take suicidal pains at home and even medicines that they go buy from God knows where to just terminate but what about if we give her a life where she can decide I will get rid of it but before getting rid there is no money in the counseling part options are being given before you decide to terminate you have ABC options before you reach to this point please do this and do this and do this in a safe way so that by the time we are preaching the gospel of not terminating we have already saved a life here that will be taking concentrated jik or too much wires being inserted in the name of just getting rid of the pregnancy so I am so for pro life but pro life in saving the mother and then we can talk about other things so when she decides or not just one thing on everything I can see what you mean in the sense that not only can she decide to have an abortion she can decide to keep the child she can decide to carry the child to term and raise the kid she decides up to you to go and tell her you to give birth she will decide whether she wants to have that baby or not and also that counseling it's so paramount it's so important because what you're doing is you're letting this young lady know that look when you make this decision ABCD will follow if you make this decision ABCD will follow and so in her mind she needs to make a decision if you don't give her those two explanations those two choices without giving her the consequences you just throw her out there to make her own decisions like you said someone can have a drink and some bleach I love the way you bring it because that is what she decides give her an option let her be the sole decision maker without question without coercion without any external factor and even as we are discussing women issue when we talked about feminism there are very different versions of feminism I'm a feminist but feminist in this case I believe in equal opportunities and chances for both the boy and the girl because many of women outside here they normally say I'm a radical feminist men are the problem to ask they need men basically which is not right there's something I want to ask why do you believe that this movement is political it's political because it engages policy makers it engages parliamentarians people who give the laws whether we're having abortion or not it happens in the parliament people who form policies regarding the abortion termination of pregnancies it's politicians so if we don't bring them on board then this one will just be a mere talk on the TV shows but if we bring them on board and you're like wait a minute we're having this data all this is based on research how many lives are being lost and how many can be prevented let us preach the gospel first and even as we preach the gospel family planning when it happens how do we protect our girls so we bring in politicians we bring in parliamentarians that's why we say it's a political movement they have to be involved we have to involve the government in this so as much as this prevention we have to focus on the cure and also so that an actual change comes around because without those policies without those laws you're just talking about in place by the people you are including in this political movement and I think you've gone to the right place so there's something else beside the abortion now let's leave that topic of abortion deciding let's talk about as deciding how we want to look like because recently there was a thread on Twitter thick versus thin ladies something thick versus I don't remember it very well but then I was like what are we discussing about being thick and thin that's really something to talk about because if I decide the way I want to be then you have no say on it if I decide I want to be plum then you don't have 12 issues with it if I'm fine with it so these are some of the issues that we when we talk about deciding then that comes up so let's not limit ourselves to abortion and maybe because people just mistake she decides for deciding on to abort or not so it's about the bodies so that you can clarify that but there's also the issue of oh goodness think I've just lost my train of thought as we bring it back when you talk about even our own bodies yes, I've remembered thank you so much there's something that Wendy has talked about when it comes to how women carry themselves and there's a president or prime minister, a female one who complained that a man can wear the same suit 100 times blue suit 100 times but when a woman wears the same outfit 2 times somebody will start making a few comments here and there so let us know when it comes to dressing do you guys feel that we should have yes yes we should I decided whether I want to wear these gray and black dress today tomorrow I wash it, I wear it I decided and I wanted to bring in the point of even the body because I feel it's a pertinent issue to us as women and we've been subjected to criticism I'm not expected to be like you all slim, I'm a bit plump I'm not expected to be brown like you but there's a lot of pressure on how a woman should look like the brown, the tall and there was recently, I think Kuchu was last week documentary on Kuchipua on just bleaching and this one is because of pressure and the reason they are giving it's because light skin are attractive what about their dark skins so women should be given a chance to decide what they want to do there should not be any pressure I get married right now my husband he starts increasing weight they'll be like the wife is doing well the wife is doing the duty but personaly let me get fat you're looking like so much what happened so he had a right to have a big stomach they start increasing some cellulite I do have a right I'm no longer an attractive which makes women body to be an ornament rather than an instrument which should not be the case I know what you're bringing so it should be an issue of I decide I want to be plump that is how my body is don't put pressure on me I want to be light skin that's your issue deal with it let me be dark but even the ones who want to be light let them decide as long as you've given them an option this is what you're choosing this is the consequences now you choose that is where we are coming in with all she decides I think that's so important and it's good to cover such issues as well this is encompassing everything that has to do with the woman in every way, shape or form and what about when it comes to dressing because I can imagine the first woman who wore trousers did not get an easy crowd I can imagine what she went through the very first one and so I'm thinking of this as I'm not thinking of it as the same but I'm thinking of it as starting a movement about an issue that is almost tabu issues that are almost tabu and you know when you say things like people asking themselves how is light skin, dark skin tabu because number one people hate talking about it and then yeah it just becomes something where you ask yourself when will the lady come and decide what beauty is yeah okay then I guess it's about how we conclude this segment because next week we're going to have a heavy heavy heavy transition when it comes to this so please do not go anywhere thank you so much for coming to studio today I think it's about time we pay the way for man talk or with one calamival so please don't go anywhere watching youth and politics please do stand by next week we're going to have the ladies faith is not going to be unknown next week we're going to have quite a number of ladies here and we're going to delve into this in more detail but for now please make sure on second of March you are paying attention and stay tuned to what happens when she decides please do not go anywhere