 The government should have been on the forefront to ensure that the jet the bill passed but the government itself was not committal. A week before the president announced that he the best performers in his government are women, he also said he looks for the day that state house would have a woman president but this is just lip service. Our party leader has been saying that yes we support women and almost everybody in Kalonzo, Musalia, Weta, everybody talks about their support for women. They all have wives, they all have daughters, they all came from mothers right but somehow they're not sold to the fact that we need women to have their space. We have a population of 50 percent men and women. We have a population of over 54 percent children so children are being nurtured by women so you cannot avoid women in leadership and the fact that the bill failed now we only have the judiciary. Now there's been a sense of arrogance, there's been this conversation that will the judiciary dissolve parliament. It is my sincere hope that they do not because because because I respect the constitution. The constitution is what we're governed with. Obviously a constitution requires some amendments here and there but you cannot say that you're going to amend something that you haven't already implemented and I think even the way the duality bill came in it was saying that within a 20-year period we will have this many seats and then eventually women will be left to compete. We've got 23 women who came under the single constituency. We've got three governors out of 47 that's less than 10 percent. The 23 women again without the 47 women reps would have been so we would have a very insignificant number of women. Just look at Nairobi. I'm the only I'm a woman rep. 17 constituencies in Nairobi you only had Masikakuya. One out of 17 85 wards in Nairobi you had only five women come in. The counties have been able to follow the constitution and do a top-up. Now people look at that as a burden but the whole system might be a burden not just the women. The fact that the political parties are not able to use the funding they get from government to ensure that they actually build the space of women. Now the politics of Kenya is about money. If you go and you're asking for seats there's two things either you have performed which requires money you've helped with funerals you've helped with school fees you've helped with with the burials you've helped with medical you've helped with when the house is burned you go and see all that requires resources. Now the women don't have that kind of resource. Now political parties can put a fund to address an issue whether it's SGPV whether it's economic empowerment for the even for the nominated but you'll find that the majority in the county government who are nominated will never allow for funding for women to gain their space. So you'll find that in the end the woman is coming in without any resources how is she going to get the votes and the voting of Kenya is about handouts. It's the way we've been cultured so again she doesn't have that money to go and give handouts. So the men will come with a big bag of money and of course that's what happened in Abakasi when I stood there was I mean we saw the candidate I was against had pockets of money in his in his socks. So our politics is about money it's about what have you done for us. I think I got the mamata title I was a business woman I was able to gain support and that made it easy for me to gain my seat and of course I had vied three times four times before so I feel that we need to have a law that allows women to be brought in and when they are brought in they will earn a salary they will hopefully get some funding and the woman rep has a guff fund so you're able to fill me but you can see it is so little I get seven million shillings for constituency my male counterpart gets a hundred million you actually fill me because with my money but you know so I'm saying that they will never allow us to get the hundred million or anywhere close to that because they know that we will do so much more as women and then their seats will be relinquished so the men the boy or boys club is out to protect themselves. I see the boys club is out to protect themselves I normally need to have a lot to say when it comes to that but let me pass a lot the bishop to government a little bit do you believe that the the two-thirds gender bill is going to affect the advancement of women? Yeah if it is not passed it's going to affect I I want to say that women ministry as for the church we call it women ministry it's very vital and remember a house or a family with a woman usually is very stable with family with a man has cracks very many times I usually give an example of my daughter who is below 15 and my son is 16 when my daughter comes to the house in the evening he finds a glass on the table you ask me dad are you still using the glass if I say no then she's not seeing the need for the glass to be on the table but my son comes saying hi dad jumps on the street takes the remote to start watching the TV and see and it's just inside actually it's naturally inside and I realize that my wife is doing a lot to the boy you watch the dishes do like this but my daughter is just flowing below 15 but flowing with everything in the house sometimes I wonder what what what is this and so I believe that and if she she will be empowered then I am very sure I have a daughter will be resourceful even for me in the late age but my son the way she's he's going I don't know it could be a problem like me but what I believe is that the gender the third gender rule should be passed it's a bill that we need uh some of us from the religious leaders we were so much disappointed because we were looking forward and remember now the church has accepted the women to be in leadership that's why you can have women bishops have women pastors we have women um um uniting marriages because that's what the holy books are telling us to do and therefore I support that and I wish the government will take some some control and give us the third gender bill rule so that we are able to move forward that would be my comment okay so we have one very easy one at the house today and if you don't know that on eight or much it would be a big match against uh first of all I'll start by saying at this point women are empowered what we need is what Esther Pasaris has said very eloquently we need women to be enabled because then when a woman is empowered but she's given seven million to work with and a man who is empowered is given a hundred million to work with she's literally disabled she can't be able to do her work properly and so we need women to be enabled enabled in the sense that we need the two-thirds gender rule to pass so that women can have that open platform to be able to access these political positions and spaces it's only when they can be able to to access these spaces that they can be able to take part in important issues to do with women matters because then yes women matters are matters that need to be taken seriously because currently we are dying in the hands of our country we are dying in the hands of our men we are dying in the hands of our government we are dying in the hands of everything that is supposed to be what means protection to a human being and so then we need those persons to be able to sit there to be able to get a platform to speak life to our issues because our issues are there and I acknowledge that we have allies we have men who can speak life to our issues however we can't run away from the fact that no matter how much a man is an ally a man has never lived his life as a whole woman and so a woman has to be there to speak her truth about her issues for those issues to be taken seriously and so we do need that space and it's really disappointing that the only reason we couldn't have gender built pasts is because of quorum I mean that is such a disappointing thing because then that in a clear picture black and white no shenanigans it says people are not concerned and are not bothered then the question that begs how is it possible that we have a government that is unbothered about 50 plus percentage of his population population here okay interesting I think I think Pasarisi do you like to respond yes I mean first of all I want to say look at Mary Lise all right yeah Mary Lise works in the grassroots okay look at the way she's I look and look at the way she speaks she's already a leader we have no shortage of good women leaders and I'm sure by the time we're done today and every woman here speaks you will see that the woman has a voice she understands her issues she understands her solutions and we need to empower her now for Mary Lise to achieve what she wants to achieve her dream her vision she needs an enabling environment an environment that respects who she is how she thinks what she wants all right and and I feel that's what's lacking and now when I take that to the parliament and I try and champion for Mary Lise I don't have the numbers all right now there's been this talk about the fact that women themselves were not there women are their own worst enemies men have got this way of trying to make us look like we are we are on obstacle I want to tell you something we had 59 women in parliament we had one or two that were not well okay and we had a few that had trouble to do very very good things okay conferences in outside the country representing issues of women and issues of of society so but for me where were the men where was the jubilee government because you know you didn't even need a position to be there jubilee on its own and this was a government bill jubilee on its own has the numbers to have passed whatever it is they wanted they could run the government without us okay without the opposition but the opposition was there jubilee is where we failed so this handshake this handshake for me needs to be about the right things the first of all respect the constitution second thing unite the country I am disturbed as I'm sure all of you are disturbed because the handshake is about bringing all our communities together when I look at what we're circulating on on on whatsapp what we're circulating on the social media I have a feeling that uhuru and raila need to revisit the handshake because this handshake now seems to be dividing us not uniting us all right if we if we if we are not careful the tension that is building is going to harm this country so we're going to make peace with the luo community and the kikuyu community but we're going to divide the kikuyus from the kalingins we are not achieving peace I think I appeal to baba baba you're an old man you are a seasoned politician be the father that this nation needs if we're talking corruption I do not believe that there's anybody in this country who has been in leadership past and present who has not dipped their hands in the kukija everybody has been corrupt all right and you know some of the questions that are being asked by the leaders that support the deputy president cannot be ignored all right some of the press the deals that the president had with with the with the uh the deputy president that you know that 10 you and 10 me is the same thing that kibaki had with raila and he didn't do it the memorandum so I'm saying that they have I'm I'm worried I'm kikuyu all right and I'm in the opposition I've had issues of my own community because why are you with them all right but right now I'm worried because as a community the kikuyus are going to be perceived as people that cannot keep their word well I see me what today we would not really want to do well on this on no I know I know but you see the thing is the the the audience that is sitting here are concerned about the future of this country nobody wants bloodshed these are the same people that in the way they live they'll be the ones raped they'll be the ones uh uh uh made they'll be the ones having their property destroyed this country has so many issues and I think it is important that since the majority is youth yes right it is the same youth who are some buzzing these very horrible messages you know social media is deadly it is deadly we're trying to have peace and yet we're having heightened tension all right I feel that there's time for us to really revisit as a country all right if we're going to deal with corruption that's true we need to deal with corruption it is the reason we have poverty but we cannot be seen to be ganging up against one community because I'm telling you right now it is not just the deputy president it is there are some kikuyus there are some lures there are some kambas there are some other Somalis who have been ingrained in corruption so I'm saying as a country for the youth we need to talk honestly about the current issues the gender bill respect of the constitution corruption let's not look like we're ganging up against one community okay and then also about youth empowerment youth empowerment is affected by corruption in fact in fact I'm glad you brought up the issue it's the youth that are going to face some of these issues it's the youth that are being raped in fact in the room today we have women political movements that have been gearing up to make some changes here and we have she decides Kenya represented here as well and they had a conference at this particular weekend in which they were talking about the fundamental rights of women especially when it comes to their health and their sexual reproductive health rights and their amendments that need to be made when it comes to this particular bill so I wanted to understand from you and the bishop especially when it comes to the current sexual health right situation are we at the best we is it catering for us as women or is it doing us a disservice let me tell you we've we've just passed we've passed after a long long wait with interference from the Catholic church the abortion guidelines yes we cannot avoid abortion abortion is always going to be with us for very many reasons one medical conditions a woman sometimes her health the health of her baby is in danger to a young girl 12 13 she starts menstruating 9 10 11 she's raped she's pregnant she's a child when she has that child everything is destroyed fistula operations which they don't have money to to to endure the operations government is not providing funds for it she is a child she's not ready to be a mom then there is a young teenage girl who has her her sexual desires okay at 15 16 and then she she has a boyfriend they love each other it's normal yes to love your name your boy the boy loves girl they end up pregnant but they were not they were in school then that they are pregnant because they had unprotected sex all right but even with protected sex you can still get pregnant all right so for me recently in wastelands just I mean every day we hear about a child being found in the dumpster yes just last week we found a child in wastelands who now they're looking for the mother who threw this child in a paperback yeah all right so that they can arrest her no the idea is she threw this child in a paperback because she didn't want the child and we as a government have failed to understand I am so happy that Mary stops which was stopped from conducting a big safe abortions was allowed to we saw our human rights defender procure an unsafe abortion all right and and and died all right here we lost somebody that the country couldn't afford to lose so I am saying that as a country we need to understand that safe abortions are necessary if for instance I wait wait first before you continue I want the she decides members to at least say something about their movement then we can respond accordingly especially because I also want to get the perspective of the church because the church is what was the biggest we are a stumbling good morning once again good morning my name is mikrin and once again I'm so happy to be in the audience and in this space now coming back down to she decides she decides it's a global movement but the Kenyan chapter was just launched like some two days ago she decides basically advocates and fights for the women's rights when it comes to reproductive autonomy women's rights to their bodies without question let me underline that because as much as we are really we are really we are really boosting ourselves so we are building ourselves to be enshrined in the constitution and the national international human rights we say human rights are inalienable and in the concept of talking of inalibility women's health most especially reproductive health have been alienated from them it's a right that the society that the government has been taking for them I mean from them making decisions on a woman's body it was so dependent on so many other factors what I mean saying about a woman's body what I mean saying when it comes to access to contraceptives when it comes to pregnancy women historically have never or hardly made decisions when it comes to their reproductive health care so she decides is a movement that advocates for women's rights to reproductive autonomy women's rights of their bodies and choice choice is so important choice the aspect that no one not the government not the men not the society can take from them so in a nutshell she decides is a movement that advocates for women's reproductive health autonomy okay so let's now talk to the clergy let's hear let's hear what the bishop has to say this is this is really very interesting first of all I want to share with the audience that we have a forum called gospel parliament and we discussed these issues with pastors I think in our parliament we have we have discussed several issues the LGBTI community we have discussed the the gender best violence and we also discussed the women but I think reproductive health is a big issue that we also have in our in our motion that we are discussing our fear is that the church and the holy books that we read has some guidelines on how to conduct certain issues and therefore because of that as a clergy I will use that book um appropriate to deliver what maybe the the the church want to hear from me but sincerely speaking things are happening and this is where I say this is why we began our parliament so that the the things that we have issues with can we discuss them yes we know uh the bible talks life begins at the conception and so you cannot terminate it we all understand that but what if that life has come in a wrong time it has come in a time that is not accepted what do we do with it or if the career of that life as an issue what do we do so yes the bible says I that life should not be terminated but now as a human being what do I do so these are some of the issues that we we we talk about and agree and say yes these are some of the challenges we are facing and we can advise and therefore me I believe that the church should be able to advise where appropriate give options and live for someone to decide whether this is what I need in my life and that is actually what I believe in as a clergy I'm saying like that because we come from different theological backgrounds some come from baptist some come from Catholic some from the sds some from the radical pendecostals and remember even this time as a church we have an issue with the divine healing of HIV because we tell people to throw away drugs even after seeing what what ARB has done to somebody who still insists too bad hour and you see those are some of the issues that we must discuss as clergy disagree to agree but come up with a solution so I want to agree with with the she decides that a woman should be given a safe space to decide of course I I've never seen in fact we have never I've never we have never asked women what are you doing with your life we only we only demand something small from them and of course that's all usual that's what men demand but there's there's really freedom for women to decide on what they want but sometimes condition force them to come and ask so I think all all this once when she may will agree with me goes to empowerment if a woman is empowered and given resources this woman can really control what she wants and can even say say yes listen here bishop today I don't want a child I want a child two years to come and I will obey because I will not strain I would say so I know other clergy may not agree with me but as the speaker of gospel parliament those are some of the tough issues that we really agree to disagree and some we support some we say no some we divert from the holy books remember in the holy book there are some which the bible says that Paul says I say as Paul some I say so and so and some said as Jesus himself talk about this so those are some of the boundaries that we are looking for we harmonize them and therefore we help our community to live a life that can give them hope even as they go that's those are some of the comment that I would but the church has been a hindrance and a roadblock for so many things which I want to accept it is a reality and it's just because we come from different theological background but if you can join in our gospel parliament I believe we can come up with a solution but Saris you need to visit us one of these ways I'll tell you what we put so much money we put so much money on condoms all right but we never put so much money on female condoms we never put so much money on on on on on sanitary towels we've never put so much money on commodities but controlled commodities and what the result of that is a lot of street families the results of that you saw what was happening in a quorum you put in them in the forest at night those are kids so why don't you just give those women family planning because they were obviously born by someone who doesn't want them all the orphanages in Nairobi are filled with children and I'm sure if we did the DNA we will find it's probably the same woman who cannot access but control either because she has no education or it's not available we have left the management of the reproductive health rights of a woman to the donors and not and the major donor was America and now that we have Trump on the in the office hopefully not for very long we are not getting the commodities we want but having said that I'd like the bishop to talk about the church that he went to to preach yesterday we shared when we were at the reception he was preaching to a church of LGBT and in this country our president when Barack Obama came said LGBT was not an issue we want to discuss it it is an issue we have a huge LGBT society and for me they're getting raped they're getting ostracized they're getting emotionally traumatized you know and I feel that's an even bigger problem so we have this society the bishop here went went yesterday to preach on a Sunday to the LGBT community in a church so for me I would love us as Kenyans to stop playing judge I said judgment is for God and God alone us it's to live it with God and God is loved so I I have a lot of gay friends a lot and I don't judge them and they're really good human beings the Anglican church actually all said they could have gay priests and the priests are doing a good job all right but they're gay I mean at the end of the day uh I think it's important for us to recognize and people say oh you're the western ways western ways no it has been there and it will be there uh until the end so I think God you know God loved um what was it king David and he loved Solomon and they did crazy things you know and and God said the reason he loved him because it was his heart it was God was looking at what a man for my oh for my heart a man after after my whole life he could see the love that David had for him and it didn't it wrote off all the wrongs that David did according to society so I feel that God only knows what's in the heart the relationship of spirituality whether you go to heaven or earth is only with the man who has judgment or the woman who has judgment because I must I believe God is a woman so um so for me for me for me I honestly want us to accept and be tolerant with each other and the tolerance if we build tolerance you know like even when Isha Juma was removed wait for us for me tolerance carry on um there are ladies over here who have experienced that form of judgment even not only from the from from not only from society but even from the church from the church and um we made sure we represent them here we have one mis-president over there bright star kasioka who was told she's too young to be to be her leader are you serious maybe you are height school uh students at home in their village uh to make sure that they're able to go to school sure sure girls are either kidnapped or booked or sorry booked uh from birth just to go to the go through the cuts and not get an education then we have miss somebody who's from the arts let's have them all speak it's very important because they the story of how uh artists are being um female artists are being ostracized for wanting to dress the way they want and tell them to tell what what where really the church is is hindering them from growing please tell me so that i will represent you i will tell them i will tell them everything uh okay on discrimination um i happened to go to school very very young so by 19 i was graduating back last year december and i was a student leader in my center and if i explain my experiences with discrimination has been quite a lot when i started buying the first time i was told water tour a canyon you know and you know i'm very passionate about kids so sometimes they have a postcard so and then even in some leadership a big leadership forums i apply and then maybe someone tells me you're not right so you're very very young at 20 you should be doing other things go out party you know and start trying these things when you're 25 so i feel it's uh it's not even um uh discrimination because of your gender or because of even age it comes up sometimes or and i'm sure as the person is you face this a lot you're so pretty and and you're told ah you're so pretty you know women should not be pretty and in leadership and i'm like uh so someone told me even though that you just go try singing that's where you fit because you're sort of um very pretty and people will never take you seriously and then again your voice is very high you know so i think discrimination but i think as a woman or as a man whatever if you got discriminated society sometimes is upon you to stand i have been here today because i've stood up and i said no no one is going to define me i mean i might be young i might have not that big experiences when it comes to leadership but the little i have i'll show you and i can speak so i think sometimes it's upon you to define you because the society is cruel sometimes people don't even care they will try to pull you down they'll try to tell you you are nothing but you know what most of us people even in social media will bring people down are so frustrated with their own lives you know they're trying to go down with you in the same room you should not listen to them and last advice i preach every day even to children you know i tell them the society might not approve of you but look at me i'm doing things because i believe in myself and i believe in god so women who are here please keep up and i'm so proud of you a lot of people are brave you know you are beauty actually that was the main thing that was coming up you know i don't know but you made it today and you've shown every young person it doesn't matter the society what do they think about you it doesn't matter the social prejudices what some of this it's a problem to define yourself and that's the advice i have for every young person who is watching and everyone person who has never been discriminated if you are gay if you are disabled if you have any challenge just define yourself and raise again a step odds the apple ceo team cookies are gay man but he's doing so much as an apple ceo i didn't know the apple ceo is a gay man but let me tell you a point that she made a point that she made that i really love the people that have something negative to say especially on social media the people that insult you all the time and have and hold a moral card on you they themselves are so frustrated don't just love blocks hi everyone my name is Brenda Samba aka Ms Samba i'm an artist and today i'm here i'd like to talk about the challenges that we female artists you know go through in this pre in this industry that is predominantly male so the first issue is sexual harassment see for instance i've released a new video and i'd like to push it i have to reach out to dj's i have to reach out to radio presenters tv presenters uh most of them are male so when you when you reach out to them most of them are like okay now you have to do something for me in order for me to play your music or in order for me to do this for you you have to do for me something in return which is very frustrating and that's why most female artists end up quitting because because we're not taken seriously the men look down upon you you're not taken seriously at all like for instance i was um at citizen just last weekend i was called for the interview but when i went there they switched the interview i was supposed to go with uh the artist that i i featured in my song what they did is that they switched the interview the interview became his and then now he introduced me it was very very very frustrating for me and and then most of the time when you're trying to when you're going to you know perform live music or when you're about to do a show we are patronized as women people are like are you sure the mic is loud enough are you sure you can are you sure you're okay are you not nervous like we're not taken seriously also the government is not helping at all for instance the government is stuck in the traditional mindset that artistry is just a way of expressing yourself and that's it they don't take it as a serious business let's take for instance the the music corporate society of kenya they don't do anything to help the artist the music corporate society of kenya is the body that oversees the royalties from airplay for the artist what they do is that they collect this money they don't hand it over to the artists so basically the the kenyan artist is really suffering and then you're left at the market yeah you're left at the market the producers and yeah so a lot really needs to be done um especially the government's because i think the government is the only solution here to be honest the sadness is we've had so much problems with the corporate society of kenya there's a time that looked good they had a big PR event where they were giving out checks and we thought wow finally they've got it right and i i must admit that i haven't really paid much attention to that i've been looking at how we can improve the art um i and i really feel akote has shown a path where you can you can do it online you can do it online you can book your shows you can own your your state and she's become very successful and now we say oh you're wrong what did you can't do this again we're trying to bring her down i say go go go she runs akote safaris she's educated her children to university she is a proud single mother she calls herself president of single mothers and we have a lot of single mothers i'm saying that social media platform and then we also have to find a way that we cure this and for the media houses when my daughter was singing uh at sixteen um i i i tried i myself to get her cd played in the radio stations and again i realized that it was about exchanging money i even complained to to one of the radio stations that why do i have to pay for each play my daughter cd you know so we do have corruption in media a lot of corruption in media we do have corruption in government we do have corruption in public entities kenya is basically corrupt corrupt corrupt we think sleep eat corruption and to change that will require a complete mindset all right and the future generation is you that keeps standing up and fighting against it um and i think it's a journey that's begun and it cannot lose momentum it has to continue so for me the people that say oh corruption is about our community no it's not about your community if your community if we can prove if the dci can prove without reasonable doubt that the person has actually stolen public funds i want you to arrest the person charge the person and do it quickly the judiciary has to say that most of the times they cannot charge somebody with corruption because of um because there's not enough evidence we need to do this so for me music lovers and music uh uh uh for you take take them to court and let's try and see if we can get some way with that and i'll be happy to help out with that i like that take them to court that's yeah i like to touch on um the dress code with female artists are judged a lot well when you post a picture of yourself maybe in a mini skirt or a crop top people judge you you'll start hearing comments like oh she's sleeping with the producers for money she's sleeping with someone to do this or there's no way she'd have gotten to that level without sleeping with someone those comments are very very frustrating and it even becomes more frustrating when it's coming from fellow women so we're talking about two men empowerment but at the end of the day we women need to do better i'm sure everyone in this room has had an encounter a bad encounter with a female and it's it's very frustrating because we men use this all the time against us they tell us oh women you are you are your own enemies wish to some extent is true it's very true we need to start let's let's have our own club and let's hold each other's hands and let's support each other let's stop sabotaging each other let's be happy for one another and that way we're going to be able to beat this man and like the fact we just have to be united and like the fact that you said we need to hold hands and stand together yeah we need to hold hands so can you move the microphone back to them no the man the man the man what something is wrong with the man oh wait oh wait the man oh god something wrong with the man thank you so much i'll be here for you the man i was worried you were about to speak all of you and then we end up not speaking but i'm happy thank you so much my name is an old i'm a youth champion for sustainable development goal three and five quality education and gender equality so i'm very happy to support our sisters in making sure that their lives become better let me enlighten you on something according to the last demographic health survey it shows that um one in five girls between 15 and 19 has already had had a baby or is pregnant with their first child that is not something we smile about as kenyans why are you so passionate about women because i i would like to make a difference in the world not so many young men are willing to do such advocacy like supporting young women and other women to move masses to create impact in the community so i'm driven to see a world where women and men can equally access opportunities resources and be able to get education until they achieve their dreams and thank you so much for being here thank you for standing with the that's great all right so also as we are holding hands please can we go to sekian at the back we cannot forget our sisters from mars island yes yes my name is sekian lethura let me repeat that because people tend to forget my name i work with and for nashipai marsay community project which is a cbo that is focusing on restoring a school in kajado west i hope i'm allowed to comment on everything so i'll go back to the gender being that i i only want i want to say that men are only afraid because women do so much with so little and they cannot be they cannot imagine having us having so much they cannot imagine what we will do i like that we do so much with so little they cannot imagine us having much because they think we will overthrow them by the time it's coming also i want to talk about discrimination okay when you work with women you will get discriminated you'll get discriminated because in where i especially where i come from women are property you see you can't go to a house and borrow a girl like can i have your girl let me go and use her to look after my kettle or or hold my babies so for us as marsay women we we get a lot of discrimination okay the support is here on the ground but in the grassroots there's a lot of discrimination because you you are left to do the work alone the churches will sit on the fence the men will sit on the fence and the women who do that work will we'll just do the work alone and our youth especially youth from marsailan they just don't the marsay men especially let me just say men i'm sorry but men they just don't do anything at all so you guys have decided to take matters into your own hands because god is a woman so we have to do we have to do what god does like we have to make sure that because god created a woman okay we believe god is a woman so and we are women so we have to make sure that what god created remains what god created is empowered so we empower our girls through education despite the discrimination despite all the sitting on the fence we are here and right now i will tell you that in a school which was almost closing down because the because it was only a girl school and no girls were going to school the population stands at 350 now around three years after we started this project and yeah okay once she was saying alia and i i i just i just want to speak about it a little bit yes yes it's about akote and how women don't have bodily autonomy and how little thing you do you judge for it and i took upon myself to do a silent protest a silent protest on social media and for me i wanted to speak because for me i my social media is literally my voice i never allow anyone to get between myself and my social media and so for a couple of days now i've been doing a silent protest on posting pictures about myself their selfies about my body most of them almost nude pictures to see what will happen oh goodness to see what will happen yes i i personally i protest every day about everything that i believe in and in posting those pictures it started on friday saturday and yesterday i spent my whole day being trolled on social media by women and men now that didn't worry me because that made me realize this is something that needs to be done because then it's today morning someone comes into my inbox and tells me you've been my role model and i told them i'm i am living my authentic life now if i'm your role model that stays but if i have to do something to make myself look a certain type of way to be your role model it's about to get off the bus it's about time you get off the bus and you make sure you pay my mark hunger so that i can cause you can't just make me a role model and not allow me to be my authentic self i'm a human being fast and i have to live for myself before i live for anyone how do we consider that for women that is very important all right all right oh my god like we are running out of time i don't even know what to do but um but um i personally i would like you to respond to some of the comments that the ladies here look uh you know quickly as one of the biggest problems in in parliament when we were talking about nominating women uh there was like oh no if political parties bring their girlfriends etc etc oh yeah which was wrong we have so many amazing young i would love to see her in parliament the chances of her getting there as elected would be tough all right but getting there is nominated to prove herself and to educators the lady who's fighting for fgm i mean i love what you're doing well done there's a lot of money uh and you've got a lot of ambassadors as well doing lots of good work in uh like jocelyn glay i think there's a lot of good working in in in samburu and then we've of course we've got the woman rep who supports the old cultural ways of doing things but for me i god if god is a woman according to the messiah community it is a shame that we feel we should alter the woman's shape and in altering her in altering her in circumcising the woman can you imagine you're circumcised in a very barbaric manner and then within a week even before you've healed you're being given to a grown-up man you know who rapes you you know he rapes you that's not love making that's not marriage that's rape and then you start having your first child and even before you've healed from your circumcision this is wrong and the government has banned it and yet it is happening and it's happening because we don't have enough women in leadership if we had more women policemen if we had more police women if we had more you know now we've got more chiefs coming up as women i think we need women to have their space and we settled for not more than two thirds that means one third women in the stg number five it's 50 50 it's not about settling so i want i want to tell you all of you've got a pain point and the pain point can become a career i'm a social entrepreneur turn that pain point into a career and run with it believe in it and it will work it will work because the solutions to our country will not come from the few elected leaders it will come from all of us pulling together in the right direction and the right direction is women need to have their space uh she decides needs to be given she needs to be empowered a woman has the right to decide about her own body not a man deciding you need to be circumcised or you need to not have this baby or have this baby no i think women it's time it's time we claim our space and for the artists i think we will have need to have a conversation with the media houses so that women can be put there there should be a gender desk in every media house so a woman can start at the gender desk and the gender desk can monitor and see how many women artists have we promoted because akate refused to go for an interview with them she said clearly why should i come you don't even play my music who are you you know what you want me to come and talk about is akali butua you know and his madness why yeah okay okay i think it's time we wrap this up um um we will continue with this hopefully some other day i know that it's just not normal to have some of this big big shots come down to add to the grassroots and talk to us and we are so grateful uh madam for your presence here today uh from the church what can we get as a party based on what you've had based on what we have we have i've heard from the audience audience first of all the young people i want to say on behalf of other clergy they may agree or they may not agree that we we are really sorry for certain oppression that we put towards you and it's simply because of the the laid-down procedure of the of the of the religion that we serve or that we work for but in reality we really need to change and that's why we have the gospel parliament to talk about these issues and give a safe space for other people also to live i'm an ally of lgbtiq community and i support them as a community i understand where they are coming from and my prayer is that they should be given space to grow and be be be to develop and grow and be and and also give uh to be somebody in in this country uh and they should not be discriminated and as a church what i'm saying is that let the church begin discussing this and coming out with solutions that can help our young people uh grow uh because we are facing out the person who should come behind me is you and if you come with an old boy or old girl mentality you will not really succeed so it's my prayer that as young people um i want to encourage you continue going to the church if there is any challenges face that clergy or have a club that can discuss some such things but if not so you are welcome to gospel parliament you can come and give us hard time there you can come and give us a hard time it's a good time we conclude this segment you guys i'm so sorry i don't know if i have time for one more for because people are really interesting yeah okay and uh please remember that international women's day is on and the march is going to be on as well so please i hope to see all of you there on Friday when we take to the streets i mean i hope you'll also be joining us when we take the streets and please make sure it's about advancement of gender equality now that we even know that god is a woman or god is a woman in some of this community it is possible you're watching this and policies with myself killed our baby and it's about time i let one of the audience members say goodbye to you as a parting shot there you go okay once again my name is purity jebel from youth alive kenya and uh we advocate for youth inclusion at the decision table we don't want to be aside we want to be at the table so like actually what we do we have this great project called to shiro kishijami and uh and majority of the participants there are women from