 Thank you so very much Stephanie Ayyeta and you're a very interesting guest. Not only is he funny, but he is a bit peculiar. Yes, I don't know if you caught the epitaphs and the things and how he went to the graveyard at Langata cemetery. I have questions, I have questions for days, but we will get to that later. Meanwhile, you can still interact with us at WhiteFive on Facebook, WhiteFive for a channel on X, WhiteFive for a channel on Instagram and of course all the rest threads and then of course if you missed an interview, we just want to watch one over and over again. YouTube channel is WhiteFive for as well. My name is Valentine or at color me Val and it's always always. It's an honor to be here with you now. It is about that time for youth affairs. We rebranded in case you haven't figured it out yet. We used to call it youth in politics, but we decided we sat down as a panelist. Come out to a cupboard because my youth affairs sounds better than sometimes. It's not only about politics that there are a lot of other things involved, whether it is politics or not, but we're going to put it in the mix. Now today's guest on youth affairs. I don't even know. Let me try my best to introduce her. If I make a mistake, she will, I want to believe she will graciously forgive me. But her name is Grace Mouinde. She is lawyer and vice chairperson of the Fika Mediation Center. Yes, and she is as lovely as she is smart. So I really can't wait for her to get started with us. And the topic of the day is the impact of miss or disinformation on the participation of women and youth in political processes. So I'd like to start from the known to the unknown. So first of all, how many actually are we as women in the political arena? And maybe there's parities that come with it. But before all that, good morning. Did I miss something? Yes. What did I miss? I knew it. My second name is Yokau. Probably I thought you're not going to probably be able to pronounce it. That's why I left it out. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for the wonderful introduction. Yeah. And thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to be in this show. I really do appreciate it. And I'm very energetic about speaking about women and youth in politics. Yes. This is good to have you. It's very, very good to have you. We've been having, well, I want to choose my words carefully here, but since the beginning of the year 2014, I've seen a lot of women coming together for one reason or the other. It was the Femmecide March or this or that. But tell me, do you feel like we're well represented as women in politics? I'd say currently a lot is being done. A lot is being done. Since the constitution 2010, that was put into and probably the two thirds of women are being put and being assisted to be part of politics. It is being actually in the current government. They've ensured the two thirds women have been put in place in both national government and in the county government. And especially in the county government, at least we have 33% of women who are being, who are representing the rest of the women in the country to be able to settle their voices. All right, thank you for bringing up the constitution. I think it's a very fascinating document. I do my best to brush up on it. So article 27 that talks about equality and freedom for discrimination. I think that's where it all stems from. And part three says women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economical, cultural, and social spheres. And we're saying basically that we're going somewhere, we're headed somewhere. There's a good track record. I'd say there is. However, women in politics, it is not an easy road to walk on. It is very tough, it is very sunny. And if we look back and see how women have had to endure so much, especially if you are a woman and you're vying for any political seat, it becomes very difficult because you'll find, in the era that you're in right now, even in the villages you'll find people with smartphones. So if at all someone decides to troll you as a woman, the first question will be, are you married? Do you have children? So these are some of the questions that we women, women who are trying to be in politics, get. Because does it mean because I'm not married, does it mean because I don't have children? I cannot be in politics, I cannot be a leader. And some of these questions are usually not asked for men. For men, it's usually about their agenda, their roles in leadership. But when it comes to women, it has to be about my personal life. And you've also seen in most of women in politics who have been in so many trolls, especially on Facebook, you'll find that there are blogs. People are being paid to troll women, especially in politics. So you'll have to choose between vying and eudignity because you'll find people out there will go digging you out and trying to look for things that are going to be negative about you but they'll not look at the positive things that you're going to bring to the women. Because they are different women. They are marginalized women. We have women with disabilities. And all these women, if we don't have people who are being put in to ensure that all these women are being checked out and to see if we are going to have the space and have a voice to speak, then it becomes a very serious problem in our society. Yes. And especially I feel where we are right now, it's not as if... I want to say African, but it's not an African thing because they're African countries, like for example Tanzania who are actually working with a female president. Like the top office is called Murembo. But it's a very male-dominated place and you have to be very formidable. You have to be cold and calculating. But the funny thing is when I was Googling it now the topic was brought to me. The first thing I did, let's see what Google thinks first. So I'm like, okay, top female politicians in Kenya. The next question I see, who is the most beautiful? Who is the... I was like, okay, why? Why are we now just not about our families, also about our physique? So you're either very beautiful or you're very cunning but you can't be both. Is that true? I'll just be candid about what you said. There's a special place in hell for women who bring other women down because if you look actually even on the social media and these blogs and these pages you'll find that, okay, I'll give an example of a very vocal woman leader in politics, Pauline Joroke. We have seen how she's been trolled because of speaking out, you see. And it is we our own, our own people are the ones who are making us they are the same people who are bringing us down. And it is very saddening that you as a woman will want to bring another woman down because me being up there means that I am going to also help you and help our voices be heard because if at all, currently I believe the population of women is 51%, 52% if I'm not wrong with my statistics and if at all we are not given an opportunity to ensure that our voices are being heard we'll remain in the kitchen because I think in our society we are still patriarchal we're still patriarchal because men don't think women need to be leaders and you'll even find it in parliament even when a woman tries to speak other things are brought up how you're dressing, how you look do you have to have makeup when you're going to parliament all these things, if you look at them they're really not important what is more important is what you bring to the table, yes. I remember there's a time after just the previous, the current actually the previous and the current presidents the first ladies happened to have short hair water and now it became an SI unit like if you don't have short hair then you're eating someone's money and you're not humble at all so you should look like this so what's happening, is it a bar to be set should we all be conforming to what they think we should look like because they don't really wear makeup Margaret Kenyatta and Rachel Ruto do not or have never seen so is that something that we should be doing well I'll tell you one thing I'm a jack of all trades I've also done a short course on beauty and cosmetics and the reason as to why I did it was because I felt at some point I never felt like I was beautiful enough and I felt like maybe I need to do a little bit more and try and see you you know, and I think also as I was growing up I had short hair my dad believed that if I have short hair he does all my things he wrote a waste time yes the rest of the things I'll be wasting time so you see even from where we come from some of us at least we were lucky enough to have parents who understand that education is important because to some other parents they feel like educating a girl child is not important what are you gonna do you see so they prefer there is that stereotyping because if you're a woman and I educate you what else will you do but if you educate this man he's better off than me because I believe as women we have to work twice as much to be given and to be recognized as a man is in the society there's an article that I just finished reading actually on the same but before I get to it I want to ask do you think we're being encouraged right now as it is as a society to think about being the political arena when you're asked what do you want to do when you grow up and to be an accountant and to be a model do you think that there are encouragements to try and get into the political field or it's just something that they call them women with backs of steel is it just for them or do you think we'll be encouraged I believe there are great women out here who are instilling good values in girls and I think it starts from home and also in schools and I think in most schools in high schools right now I think there are sessions that are being put in place for these young girls to understand that when they get out of school there are other things better to do rather than probably just when you're done in campus and you choose what to do you can still be a leader because I believe not everyone probably was born a leader not everyone was born a leader or a public speaker or probably a public speaking but I believe there are so many ways especially even in devolution I think devolution especially at the county level is helping so many youths and they've come up with various ways of having platforms where the youth have to speak up and have to talk about what are their needs I really don't think they're being had and especially if it's more on politics more youths are usually used than being assisted or rather been shown the way on how to get into the political space or how to be better as a leader because in most cases especially when it comes to politics and when it comes to vying and now we have those rallies whenever there are politics these people use young people but they will never they will never impose or maybe point out things that you as a person who's assisting them get this in on how you're supposed to go about it because when you're done helping them that's it and it's very sad that the help is usually once of it's not at the I'm doing this for you for this X amount of time this amount and then it just disappears like that especially with what's going on right now but I do want to refer to a debate that was very heated on another mainstream oh my voice sorry mainstream media platform so I was senator senator Nairobi was very heated talking about how I don't want to point fingers but how sometimes you find people in specific roles of government when it comes time for public participation because that again is catered for in the constitution you cannot just pass a bill or something like that there must be public participation so now what they do is they take the youth or the elderly and then you know transport them from wherever they have come from so that they just amplify a certain thing that they want to happen so that leaves us we feel like making a difference but we're really not we're just being told to say something how would you explain to a youth that their voice is important there's no best way to tell people or tell the young people how best you can do it but I believe there are numerous ways to educate people and instill knowledge in people and make them understand the importance of being in the front line in youth leadership and also for women being in leadership and politics and all that I remember there is a time I asked one of my colleagues and I asked her if she had voted and she told me no and I asked her why and she said does it even count wow you see being in society where people think the vote doesn't count is quite frightening because if we don't practice our sovereign rule like the rule of the people we are the same people who without your vote it means your voting your vote is going to not ensure the right person to get in leadership and it is quite unfortunate that most people don't vote and especially for the youth most of them don't vote I was going to say something mildly violent but let me just hold myself together the article I was mentioning I will tell you about it in detail later but I wanted to read this part so there are sections on women in politics and it is as recent as they have statistics for the previous general election so it has gender violence in the mix gender violence in politics the magnitude of brutality women face the african pose is unmatched intimidation and real brutality women face as contestants in politics has a significant influence on their political participation so in the kenya political landscape the pose have experienced violence from 1992 1992 comprising racial conflicts and other types of violence women running for political office are targeted both verbally and physically now we put in cyber bullying as well this violence against women in politics has an aim of making them withdraw from politics it is violence that manifests at all stages of the electoral cycle and continues even while they are in office do you agree? I do agree I do agree now let me give you a story of a lady who was actually vying for mc in mir she had grounded well in her area but I think a few weeks towards the election a video speculated all over social media it was about her personal life things that really things that even me as a person I just can't even talk about it because it is very it brings someone self esteem down because people don't think about this as a woman if at all you decide to put my personal life out there remember I have a family I have children and whenever you put these things out on social media my children will say them and every other person who probably even want to buy for another seat they will go on google they will search my name but what do they find? you limit people from doing exactly what they want and this lady had to step down because how it hit her was so hard that she couldn't even sit in front of people even for a minute and if you are not buckled up as a woman in politics you cannot make it because live alone being a woman we are also human beings and we have feelings so people forget that when you are doing this our mental health is also important because once you do that it is hard to forget something and also I will give an example of Amelia Diambo in Parliament she was unrest and what went out in the public domain was that she stripped herself and that was not true that was not true if this woman was not strong enough to still even walk around and be a woman who decide that this is what I want and this is what I have to do and none is going to tell me otherwise she will still not be in politics because people saw her and these things they are all over and it is usually very difficult to regain your confidence after such things are done yes it is true basically even though it is true it is an incident someone was slapped in Parliament it was a female and we all saw it by the way it was on camera she just said no it wasn't me brah we could see you it's okay I choose to forgive you for now alright so there is something else I want to read for you before we start wrapping this up oh gosh we have not that much time left but let me try to make it wholesome before we go alright so this is one of the things that I already mentioned the Constitution but just to read it out for you it efforts to attain gender parity and women empowerment article 27.3 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 oppose the principle of equality and non-discrimination by guaranteeing fair treatment for both sexes further the same Constitution as provided for by article 27 and 81 abides the holding of government seats either elective or appointive beyond two thirds of the same gender constitution of Kenya encourages engagement of women in politics and in leadership targeting the historical exclusion of women in politics and contributing to the efforts that commenced in the 1980s on gender mainstreaming so this is something that has been going on for a while because we've gone through all the way from the 1980s and if we think about our forefathers who do we think about Tom Boyer who the dodingas do we Kenyatta we have a female in mind when we think about who made or who you know was part of our sovereign nation that we can call free and fair today one I'll tell you that lady has really strengthened and I think she's not really recognized as much as she should be recognized because she's fought so hard she's fought for women so hard that even I feel like we as women have not recognized her because I remember she's also been fought by men because I even remember when she was actually elected to be the vice president running it there were some blogs where people tried to put her down and one of the blogs read that the vice president Kamala Harris in the US had congratulated her but in real sense most of those blogs are actually trying to make her look like she was trying to look for validation and that was not it you know and also I believe like Fida Kenya most women I think probably if you're able to you can actually join Fida Kenya because they have programs where you find that they try to assist women especially even in politics to strengthen you think to strengthen your capacity as a woman on how you suppose to handle some of these things oh okay so they're actually forums that you can go to forums that you can actually go to to assist you alright so guys we've just been trying to how to say really put a lay on the land on how formidable you need to be as a female and I know that I think the men are kind of tired of hearing it because I see on social media you also have to make a cameo just see what people are saying on the ground but again the empowerment of women is not the bashing of men it's just empowering women and this is a male dominated game so we really do hope to see you know like us just recently the face of women in politics say you know baby girl women rep now forgotten where she recently got proposed to like it was such a big thing her name is stepping my mind but now the face is she nominated I think she was nominated because most women actually there's this norm that we get free seats because what is remained of the seats you know out of 149 seats I feel like we should at least get half or if not half a better number of women who are going to sit in these spaces because I think we actually even don't get the respect we deserve because most people think that we get the free seats because you are nominated Senator you are nominated NCA and all that thank you for saying that okay so let me just give you statistics now she's brought something else very interesting and this is all the way from 1963 but and the number of elected women appointed in women in parliament was 0% when we started but now things started to change I'll just pick it up from 97 97 were 4 elected women 5 appointed women and 1.4% in parliament 10 elected women 8 appointed 7 4.1 in percentage 2007 16 elected 6 appointed 8.9% in parliament now that's you know we've been we're in 2020 but you can see the trend we're not that many 8% there's even a 0 1.2% that's alarming but currently I believe that rule has been put the current government has really tried on that with the county government we have at least 23% of women representing us in parliament that's one of the things the president actually was very vocal about when he was campaigning yes he did say that he's going to do it and he did it we're also waiting for the things to be done but that's neither here nor there thank you so very much maybe you'd like to wrap it up what I'd like to actually tell the women who want to be in the public and be politicians you have to buckle up it's not a bed of roses it is not a walk in the park you have to be bold enough to speak up and ensure that you're not going to be bullied because there's so many bullies out here who are going to make you feel like as a woman you don't deserve any political so therefore you need to ensure that you have your self esteem up there to ensure that as a person if you know you're a leader and you're a woman get out there and speak up and put on your gloves because it's going to be a punching situation when you get into politics are you vying for something anytime soon you're so composed I think you should I'll try hopefully maybe one thing that I'm bold enough because I have a father who has actually always encouraged me and made me feel that I can do anything if there's one person I feel who has always motivated me with my dad and my mom as well because I remember there's one time I told my dad that given a chance I'd go back to high school because I felt what I did wasn't enough and the best thing I actually gathered from him was that he told me it doesn't matter what you got back it doesn't matter even if you feel like you didn't do your best where you are right now is that you need to start doing your best until since then till now that is what I usually do you're empowered indeed I see you thank you so very much for coming it's been a very interesting conversation very enlightening I hope you have learned something or two if you would like to watch this interview again do not be afraid white 5 4 channel on youtube but please still interact with us Brian Sokro 101 is coming up with the tail end of the conversation and he has a very interesting questions on our socials again white 5 4 on facebook white 5 4 channel on x on instagram and there my name is Valentine from myself and Stephanie Ayeta we will see you when we see you have a fantastic day