The Burundi National Police is composed of 2.9 percent women. Despite a 30 percent quota for women’s representation in parliament, there is still a long way to go to fill the gap in government institutions where women represent only an average of 20.15 percent. Courtesy: Bernard Bankukira

By Bernard Bankukira
BUJUMBURA, Jul 5 2014 (IPS)

As Burundi heads towards the 2015 general elections, and despite a quota of 30 percent women’s representation in parliament, women in this southeast African nation feel that they are yet to have a significant say in the management of their country.

Bernardine Sindakira, the chairwoman of Synergy of Partners for the Promotion of Women’s Rights (SPPDF), a Burundian coalition of women’s rights organisations, tells IPS that the country’s very traditional culture still considers women as “homemakers” as women are educated to play this role from young. “A hen doesn’t crow when the rooster is there,” says a Burundian proverb."We’ve got so many woman engineers at building sites, doctors, heads of organisations, business women, security women, and so many others." -- Marceline Bararufise, Burundian Member of Parliament

“This has long kept her in the position of being unable to [ensure] her empowerment and have the place she deserves in the country’s management,” says Sindakira.

This country is still recovering from a 12-year ethnic-based civil war after the 1993 assassination of the country’s first democratically-elected president, Melchior Ndadaye. Almost 300,000 people died in the Hutu-Tutsi violence and the conflict “had a very negative impact on women and young girls who experienced rape and other forms of sexual violence,” according to a 2011 Global Network of Women Peacebuilders report.

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, after the 2010 elections women in Burundi held 34 out of 106 seats in the lower house, about 32.1 percent, “as well as a significant rise in the upper house to 46.3 percent, due to a considerable degree to its quota system.“

But according to a 2011 report by the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders “the law does not specify the quota for women in other decision-making bodies. Thus in the top three offices i.e. President, First Vice President and Second Vice President, there are no women.”

SPPDF figures show that although the 30 percent quota is almost fully respected in elective agencies like parliament and local administration, there is still a long way to go to fill the gap in government institutions where women represent only an average of 20.15 percent.

In security services, women’s representation remains the lowest.

• The 2012 official records of the Burundi National Defence Force show that women represent just 0.5 percent of the force — 148 woman soldiers of the total 25,000.
• The Burundi National Police comprises 2.9 percent women.

Marceline Bararufise, a Member of Parliament (MP), head of the Parliamentary Education Sub-committee, and head of the Association of Parliamentarian Women in Burundi, told IPS that there is proof that women can perform better than men when it comes to public service delivery.

A 2012/2013 national survey conducted to assess the public service delivery at the district level, revealed that the district which came in first place for service delivery was a northern district headed by a woman. Many other districts headed by women were among the most successful, Bararufise said.

As SPPDF has launched a nationwide campaign for increasing women’s representation in the overall management of the country, Sindakira regrets that the law itself still discriminates against women.

“For example, we have been fighting for a parliamentary review of the matrimonial law so as to enable women to benefit from [inheritance], but the current situation is that we are even banned to raise the issue. This hampers all women’s efforts to stand for their rights,” Sindakira said. Here, women are not allowed to inherit and property passes from father to male heir.

She also regretted that so many women still consider that a review of the matrimonial law would be a breach of culture.

“Having educated women implies that the culture has also changed and thus no reason for the dark cultural practices to keep the Burundian woman behind,” said Sindakira.

Bararufise, who served as a governor before becoming an MP, points out though that Burundian woman have made significant steps towards self-empowerment.

“Now, apart from these political positions enshrined within the constitution, we’ve got so many woman engineers at building sites, doctors, heads of organisations, business women, security women, and so many others. This is to show that a woman of 20 years back is totally different from women now,” she told IPS.

She said that while she understood that Burundian culture was among several factors impeding women’s emancipation, it was important to note that women’s empowerment did not mean standing completely against culture as there remain some positive aspects of Burundian culture that need to be preserved.

“The only thing is that both men and women must understand that the sustainability of their family is the duty of both of them [and comes] with equal responsibility,” she said.

Bararufise regretted that Burundian women in leadership positions were disrespected by their male counterparts. “In some situations, women in positions of leadership find it difficult to command respect from men.”

She also acknowledged that a lot still needed to be done to evolve and change these current attitudes. “We want men to understand that women are able and have rights to contend for higher positions, instead of staying home.”

A woman casts her vote on May 20, 2014 in Lilongwe Mpenu North, about 70km from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. Credit: Mabvuto Banda/IPS

By Mabvuto Banda
LILONGWE, May 29 2014 (IPS)

When Malawi’s President Joyce Banda said that last week’s elections were fraudulent and riddled with rampant irregularities, social media went viral calling her a loser. 

“She is a cry baby,” said one Malawian on Facebook who identified himself as Wellington Phiri. “She should just concede defeat,” said another."I am ready to leave whichever way this goes. But I am happy that the people of Malawi know that I wasn't lying when I called this election fraudulent." -- President Joyce Banda

Banda had nullified the elections and ordered that voting be repeated within 90 days, triggering public anger and resentment. But a legal challenge from the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) prevented the nullification of the results as she had no lawful basis to annul the election.

But now it appears that Banda has rallied support for a recount even from her worst critics, which include the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and various other opposition.

“MCP cannot accept these results because they are fraudulent,” MCP vice president Richard Msowoya told IPS. Malawi went to the polls on May 20 in its first tripartite elections. Banda contested the presidential seat against 11 other candidates. The MCP’s head, retired evangelical pastor Lazarus Chakwera, was one of Banda’s main challengers for the presidential seat.

“We cannot allow people to steal our vote just like that and we have evidence and agree with President Banda that the election has been rigged,” Msowoya added.

The High Court in Blantyre is expected to make a ruling on Friday, May 30, to either order the MEC to declare the winner based on the current votes or initiate a recount as demanded by Banda and some opposition parties.

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda said that she is ready to leave the stage if the country’s High Court rules that the electoral commission should announce the winner of the tripartite elections and not initiate a recount. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

In a quick interview with IPS, Banda said that she was ready to leave office if the court ruled that the MEC should rather announce the winner of the election and not initiate a recount.

“I am ready to leave, whichever way this goes. But I am happy that the people of Malawi know that I wasn’t lying when I called this election fraudulent,” she told IPS.

On Sunday, May 25, the MEC admitted it had received overwhelming complaints about the election and could not proceed with announcing the winner.

Last week’s poll had been plagued by problems from the outset, with voting materials turning up hours late and ballot papers being sent to the wrong parts of the country. Organisers had to extend voting in some urban areas for a second day and initial counting was delayed by power outages and a lack of generators at polling stations.

Voters went on the rampage in the capital Lilongwe and in the commercial city of Blantyre burning tyres and shops before the military moved in and intervened.

To date the MEC has only released 30 percent of the official vote count, which showed that the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), lead by Peter Mutharika, brother of the late President Bingu wa Mutharika, was in the lead with 42 percent of the vote. Banda followed with 23 percent.

But Msowoya pointed out that across the country there were cases of having more votes than voters. He said that in the constituency of Machinga, in southern Malawi, 184,223 people voted — this was 33,778 more than the total number of people on the voters’ roll for the area.

“In another constituency jn Dowa West were 70,845 people registered the final tally sheet shows only 1,164 voted which is very strange,” Msowoya said.

Banda’s ruling People’s Party (PP) also stated that several polling centres across the country recorded more people voting than the number of registered voters for those areas.

United Democratic Front presidential candidate Atupele Muluzi told IPS that his party had also received complaints from several centres. “In one instance, a presiding officer for a polling centre ended up signing for the results of two other centres, which is illegal,” Muluzi said.

The push for a recount of the vote has also now gained traction with several leading civil society groups.

The Malawi Council of Churches, an influential grouping of protestant churches, joined the chorus to push the elections body for a recount. The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, a leading rights NGO here, and the Association of Media Owners have also called for a recount.

“President Banda has been vindicated because she took a bold and brave move to challenge the MEC and ask for investigations into the electoral process. No one wanted to listen but now its clear that she was right,” Shyley Kondowe, one of Banda’s most trusted aides, told IPS.

However, if the MEC institutes a recount of the vote, it faces a legal challenge from the DPP.

“There is an invisible hand controlling everything because we are surprised that three political parties have formed a post-electoral alliance to fight our presidential candidate because he is in the lead,” the DPP’s lawyer Kalekeni Kaphale told IPS.

He said that the MEC and the courts had no power to extend the eight-day period outlined in the constitution for the electoral body to announce the results. The constitution, he said, can only be amended by parliament.

Whatever the outcome, Onandi Banda, a political commentator and human rights activist, believes that this is a major test for Malawi’s democracy.

“The president was after all right that the election was rigged. But how we move forward from here is what will make or break Malawi,” he told IPS.

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda has vowed to get to the bottom of a corruption scandal where more than 100 million dollars were suspected to have been looted from the government since 2006. She is currently campaigning ahead of the country’s May tripartite elections. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

By Mabvuto Banda
Apr 14 2014 (IPS)

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda is campaigning ahead of next month’s elections to extend her term of office. But many believe that the massive public service corruption scandal here has weakened her chances of winning.

This southern African nation goes to the polls on May 20. However, after a February auditor’s report into the scandal revealed that 30 million dollars were stolen over just six months in 2013, Africa’s second female president has faced calls to resign. She become president in April 2012 after her predecessor President Bingu wa Mutharika died in office."We have repealed repressive laws, we have changed the status of women, the media is free, and we allowed everyone to demonstrate freely when just two years ago people were being killed for doing just that." -- Malawi's President Joyce Banda

But Banda is confident that she has done more than enough to address the corruption  — where a total of more than 100 million dollars were suspected to have been looted from the government since 2006 — and ensure her chances of retaining office.

She has taken on the powerful players involved in the corruption scandal and arrested 68 people, including a former cabinet minister, businessmen and senior public officers. “Cashgate” was first exposed last September after a failed assassination attempt on a government budget director who was believed to be on the verge of revealing the theft.

Banda has frozen over 30 bank accounts and 18 cases are currently in court. In this interview, Africa’s most influential woman discusses with IPS correspondent Mabvuto Banda her two years in power, the challenges, and what her hopes are for the future. Excerpts follow:

Q: President Banda, it’s been a tough two years of fighting to right a sputtering economy left by your predecessor, the late President Mutharika. How have you fared?

A: We inherited an economy that was in a crisis. Today, we have turned around the economy because we took decisive action to heal the country, recover the economy, and build a strong foundation for growth. It’s been two years since our people spent hours in fuel queues, it’s been two years since businesses struggled to access foreign exchange.

Q: How did you manage to do that?

A: We agreed to swallow the bitter pill and made unpopular decisions like the devaluation of the Kwacha, we have been implementing a tight monetary policy…our fiscal policy has been tight. These are some of the pills that have set the economy on a path of healing and represent the foundation of a transformational agenda that we will implement in the next five years.

Q: You rightly said that your first job was to bring back donor confidence and unlock aid which was withdrawn. You did that but now because of the “Cashgate” scandal, donors have suspended 150 million dollars in budget support. Do you take responsibility for this?

A: Yes, I do because “Cashgate” happened on my watch and my job entails that I take responsibility and deal with it. This is why we have taken far-reaching measures in dealing with fraud and corruption and engaged foreign forensic auditors to get to the bottom of this corruption in the public service.

Q: Your critics think your administration is not doing much to get to the bottom of all this. Any comment?

A: Sixty-eight people, including a former member of my cabinet, have been arrested, more than 18 cases are already in court, 33 bank accounts have been frozen. This is the risk I have taken which very few African leaders do when they are facing an election.

I have vowed not to shield anyone, even if it means one of my relations is involved. Now tell me, is this not proof enough that we are taking this corruption very seriously?

Q: But many believe that you personally benefited from this “Cashgate” scandal. What do you say?

A: When you are fighting the powerful, an influential syndicate like this one, this is not surprising. Secondly, this is an election year and you will hear a lot of things but the truth shall come out.

The other thing you should know is that I am a woman in a role dominated by men and I am therefore not surprised that I am getting such amount of pushback…we shall overcome this, and those responsible for stealing state funds will be jailed and their properties confiscated.

Q: You face an election next month and the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit has projected that you will win the election despite the scandal. Do you believe that?

A: Yes I do believe that I will win this election. I also know though that it’s a close one but the advantage is that people have seen what we have done in two years.

We have repealed repressive laws, we have changed the status of women, the media is free, and we allowed everyone to demonstrate freely when just two years ago people were being killed for doing just that.

Q: Forbes Magazine named you as the continent’s most powerful woman. Do you feel that powerful?

A:  No, I don’t. I will feel that powerful when every woman in Malawi and Africa is free from hate and is empowered.

I will feel powerful when woman no longer have to lose their lives because they are abused, when they stop dying from avoidable pregnancy-related deaths. I will feel powerful when women in Africa take their rightful place as equals.

Excerpt:

Rwanda’s Member of Parliament Veneranda Nyirahirwa says women in Rwanda have fought for political representation. In the Lower House of Parliament women occupy 64 percent or 51 out of 80 seats. Credit: Fabíola Ortiz/IPS

By Fabíola Ortiz
KIGALI, Apr 7 2014 (IPS)

When Rwandan Member of Parliament Veneranda Nyirahirwa was just a girl, she wasn’t allowed to attend secondary school because of her ethnicity. 

It was only in the wake of the country’s state-driven genocide in 1994 — where almost one million minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus lost their lives in 100 days — and after a new government took power that she was able to attend high school.

By then she was already in her twenties. "[Women have] become part of the reconciliation process, we reconcile and help to reconcile others. We are taking things forward.” -- Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Agnes Kalibata

But she seized the opportunity to receive an education.

Nyirahirwa, 43, is now starting her second term as a deputy in the country’s lower house of Parliament. She belongs to the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the second-biggest of the country’s 11 political parties.

She hails from Ngoma district, Rukumberi Sector in Eastern Province, and remembers that growing up there were many barriers imposed on minority Tutsis attending school.

“We were segregated because of the regime, it was a part of the country … where people who lived there couldn’t go to school due to ethnic problems. It was very difficult to get a place in secondary school,” she explained.

It was the disappointment of her childhood that spurred her on to fight for a seat in Parliament. “I was frustrated watching the ones who were leading our country and I wanted to change things.”

Like many Rwandans, Nyirahirwa lost relatives and friends in the genocide and says, “Every Rwandan must be aware of the causes of genocide and do his or her best to fight against it. I am a Rwandan and I don’t want to leave my country.”

Remains of some of the over one million victims of Rwanda’s 100-day genocide. Credit: Edwin Musoni/IPS

Things are certainly different now. Nyirahirwa says women here have fought for political representation.

“We are happy for this achievement and for being the majority. There was a time when women in Rwanda were not considered important for the development of the country and they did not have jobs,” she said.

In the September 2013 elections, the PSD won 30 percent of the vote, with Nyirahirwa being one of four women from the party to win seats in Parliament.

But Nyirahirwa’s success is not an anomaly here.

As Rwanda commemorates the 20th anniversary of the genocide this week with memorials across the country, this Central African nation has become a regional leader in promoting gender equity and women’s empowerment.

Women are leading the way in national reconstruction and are considered to be at the forefront of promoting peace and reconciliation. Women, in fact, are leading the nation.

• In the last parliamentary elections, Rwanda once again broke its own world record of being the country with the highest level of women’s participation in Parliament.
• According to the Rwandan government, average women’s representation worldwide in a lower house stands at 21 percent and 18 percent in a Senate or upper house.
• This sub-Saharan country has three times the world’s average of female representation in the lower house, with women occupying 64 percent, or 51 out of 80 seats. During the previous parliamentary term, from 2008 to 2013, women held 56 percent of seats in the lower house.
• Rwanda also has twice the world’s average of women’s representation in the Senate: some 40 percent, or 10 out of the 25 seats, are held by women.
• There are also 10 female ministers who head up key ministries including foreign affairs, natural resources and mining, agriculture, and health.

Gender empowerment became a reality after the war and genocide when the new government, currently led by incumbent President Paul Kagame of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front, took power. It was then, according to Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources Agnes Kalibata, that the government began addressing national unity and women’s political participation as part of the reconstruction process.

Rwanda’s constitution, adopted in 2003, states that both men and women should occupy at least 30 percent of all decision-making bodies.

Kalibata said that now women are able to compete with men on equal grounds.

“We created a policy environment to give them a fair chance. Rwanda is leading this since we’ve had the decision that we needed to secure a place for women in employment and in the public space. We also want to try to influence the private sector to appreciate that,” she told IPS.

In her opinion, women are at the centre of national reconciliation.

“Empowering the women is part of nation building. Women are the majority and the major part of the agriculture sector. We know how to teach our children, how to handle our communities and how to build society.”

Nowadays, women are able to influence what happens in Rwanda, she argued.

“By influencing how our husbands think, we influence how our children think. And now in politics we also influence how the general population thinks. We’ve become part of the reconciliation process, we reconcile and help to reconcile others. We are taking things forward.”

Kalibata, who has been in charge of the ministry of agriculture for six years, admitted that reconstruction is still a challenge, especially in the field of agriculture.

It is estimated that 70 percent of Rwanda’s 12 million people live in the countryside, with women comprising the majority — 65 percent.

“This nation has had the worse nightmare that any country can have. It is fulfilling to have an opportunity to put it back together through agriculture; there are still many people whose lives can improve because they use agriculture to reduce their poverty,” she said.

When asked about the possibility of a female president, Kalibata said she was confident it would happen after seeing other women on the continent hold the post.

Africa already has three women presidents: Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Malawi’s Joyce Banda and the new interim president of Central African Republic, Catherine Samba-Panza.

“Yes, a woman president would be great if she is competent enough. This is beginning to happen on this continent. If a woman becomes president it will be because she is extremely competent to manage this country and I would be very happy,” she concluded.

Meanwhile, Nyirahirwa will keep working to change the lives of the people living in Eastern Province. And she intends to stay in Parliament for over 10 years at least.

“There is a significant change: every Rwandan now has the right to education. Before it was difficult to get the right to go to school. Now, we have a chance to go to university and also complete an MBA,” she stressed.

“I want to ensure that every Rwandan is able to get any job anywhere.”

Dr. Isatou Touray, executive director of women’s rights NGO Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children says that increased women’s representation in the Gambia’s is important for development. Credit: Saikou Jammeh/IPS

By Saikou Jammeh
BANJUL, Mar 30 2014 (IPS)

The countdown to the Gambia’s 2016 general elections has begun with a rare move to bring together female politicians from across the divided political spectrum to ensure increased female representation.

This week, local women’s rights NGO Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (Gamcotrap) launched a campaign calling for political reforms to ensure the effective participation of women in all positions of political leadership.

“We are now saying that we want to fetch our own water and drink with men from the same well,” Dr. Isatou Touray, executive director of Gamcotrap, tells IPS. The NGO has received support for the campaign from the National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S. non-profit that supports freedom across the world.“We are now saying that we want to fetch our own water and drink with men from the same well.” -- Dr. Isatou Touray, executive director of Gamcotrap

“What we’re doing has nothing to do with partisan politics,” says Touray. “It’s not about disempowering men. It’s about development, and it’s about gender politics.

“When we talk about gender politics, we’re talking about women from different political parties coming together to look at their issues and promote it, under one umbrella.”

The preliminary results of this tiny West African nation’s 2013 census show that women constitute more than 51 percent of the country’s almost 1.8 million people.

As of 2011, women represent 58 percent of national voters. Their numerical strength is not, however, reflected in the number of women in governance and leadership positions at both national and local level.

This is despite the fact that the Gambia has a female vice-president, Dr. Isatou Njie Saidy, who has held the post since 1997.

“Out of 53 National Assembly members, we have only four who are elected and one nominated female deputy. That’s nine percent,” Amie Sillah, a gender activist and politician, tells IPS.

“Also, out of 1,873 village heads, only five are women. There’s no female governor, no female district chief. So is that impressive?”

The structures within various political parties, at best, relegate women to being permanent deputies of male propagandists. Women mostly only hold leadership positions in the female wings of their political parties.

And the majority of politically-active women here spend their time campaigning for votes and financial donations for their male counterparts.

“In the selection committees of parties, even if a woman is made chair, as our proverb goes: ‘They [men] give you the head and take out the tongue’, so that the woman is not able to speak out. Men give you just a nominal power. In a nutshell, you propagate what they want you to,” Sillah says.

The Constitution guarantees women’s right to participate in politics and criminalises any form of gender-based discrimination.

Over the past four years, at least three pro-women laws have been passed: the Women’s Act of 2010, the Domestic Violence of Act, and the Sexual Offences Act, both of 2013.

Yet, women remain politically marginalised.

Activists say that because men dominate the political scene, the pro-women’s legislation has been watered down.

“Most of [women’s] issues have not been passed into law…and if passed, critical clauses are removed,” Touray says

Sillah explains: “They took out all the good things, all the crucial provisions in the Women’s Act dealing with marriage, inheritance … Also, they’ve refused to pass the provision on female genital mutilation. They took it out and this is about the reproductive health rights of women.”

Sillah called for an affirmative action quota system for the National Assembly that will allott at least 30 percent of seats to women.

“It’s time for women to be where the laws are made. So that when laws come that protect women’s rights, they can effectively engage to allow the bills to be passed.”

Haddy Nyang-Jagne is one of the four female members in the National Assembly from the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC). She thinks that the government has done a lot to ensure women’s participation in politics and that one of the reasons for the low number of women in parliament is the existing cultural barriers.

“The government has created the enabling environment, sensitised women. Now, is it stigmatisation? Women are afraid to come out because people speak ill of them.”

“Is it lack of funding? In APRC, money is given to candidates…Sometimes, it’s about religious and cultural barriers. Some people would tell you our religion of Islam does not accept women taking part in politics and we know that proposition is unfounded,” Haddy, who is serving her second term in the National Assembly, says.

However, women from the opposition say that the democratic space for vibrant multi-party politics has shrunk as arbitrary arrests and detention of opponents have become the norm.

Mariama B. Secka, the secretary-general in the opposition United Democratic Party’s female wing, explains that it is hard to be part of the opposition in the Gambia. The country has been a one-party dominant state since 1996 when army leader and now President, Yahya Jammeh, formed the APRC after he took power in a 1994 coup.

“I was invited to a forum by the women’s federation. When I started introducing myself as a member of opposition party, I was heckled. I was totally harassed. It’s not easy at all. We need a more level playing ground,” she tells IPS.

And the only people who can change this are the country’s majority female voters.

“We’ve observed that most of the educated women don’t even vote. We want to remain in our comfort zones,” says Touray. “And until the educated woman goes to the grassroots, we may not be able to achieve what we want.”

But Touray is optimistic and doesn’t rule out the possibility of a female presidential candidate for as early as the 2016 presidential elections.

“Of course yes! Why not! It’s possible,” she says. “The political landscape is for everybody. Women are saying that they have a right to be there and we’re going for elective positions rather than being nominated.”

Women in Swaziland’s Ekwendzeni Chiefdom register to vote for the primary election. Analysts say that chauvinistic practices are being used to prevent women from participating in the Aug. 24 elections. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Aug 21 2013 (IPS)

Archaic and chauvinistic practices are being used to prevent Swazi women from taking part in the upcoming primary elections, despite the country having a constitution that guarantees their rights, says political analyst Dr. Sikelela Dlamini.

“The discrimination [against] women by preventing them from participating in politics is a consequence of deeply-rooted notions of male dominance and the subordination of women,” Dlamini told IPS.

He was reacting to a recent warning issued by the chief of Ludzibini, Prince Magudvulela, who told his subjects that they should not vote for women in mourning during the country’s Aug. 24 primary election.

It was clear during the meeting that Magudvulela was referring to former member of parliament and a contender for the Timphisini constituency, Jennifer Du Pont. She lost her husband, Bheki Shiba, in May and mourned him for a month instead of the normal two-year period. She is running for a second term of office.“Women don’t look good in pants and the chiefdom banned them from wearing pants." -- local headman, Zephaniah Dlamini

During an Aug. 17 meeting at the Ludzibini Royal Kraal in northern Swaziland, Magudvulela told his followers that according to customary practice, women in mourning were not allowed inside parliament, royal residences and near the King. Magudvulela said that electing women in mourning to parliament would be an embarrassment to the chiefdom.

Swaziland, a landlocked nation in southern Africa with a population of just over one million people, is ruled by a polygamist monarch, King Mswati III. Here political parties are not allowed to contest for power but individuals are elected to parliament from 55 constituencies know as “Tinkhundla”. The constituencies are sub-divided into 385 chiefdoms or districts nationwide. In the primary elections voters choose candidates from their chiefdoms who will then contest the secondary elections and compete against other candidates in their constituency for a seat in parliament.

“You must vote for someone that the King will be able to use,” Magudvulela had said.

Magudvulela told his followers that even though, according to the country’s constitution, Du Pont had a right to decide whether she followed the custom of mourning or not, customary law was still superior to the constitution.

Du Pont, who attended the meeting, was devastated by the chief’s conduct but said that she was still determined to win the elections.

“I’ll launch a complaint with the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC),” she told IPS.

Local chiefs play a huge role in the election process here. Swaziland’s EBC gives them the responsibility to decide where in their local districts to hold the elections.

Since the election process began, some chiefs have told their subjects not to elect gay people or those who belong to political parties.

King Mswati III , when dissolving parliament on Aug. 2, told the nation to elect people that he would be “able to use”. It was a statement that has been criticised by the progressive movement.

“It might look like it is just advice from the authorities, but this was a way of telling people what to do,” head of department in theology and religious practices at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), Nonhlanhla Vilakati, told IPS.

Du Pont was not the only woman to be discriminated against ahead of this election.

When Mana Mavimbela was nominated to run for a seat in parliament in the Lusabeni constituency, EBC presiding officer Lindiwe Sukati disqualified her because she was wearing pants.

“The presiding officer just asked the audience if a woman wearing pants [should] be allowed inside a cattle byre,” Mavimbela told IPS of the Aug. 4 incident. “When the people said ‘no’, she just moved on.”

She has since launched a complaint with the EBC.

“I was nominated and I haven’t done anything wrong in terms of the law that would have disqualified me,” Mavimbela said. She was the only woman out of four candidates nominated from her area.

Mavimbela was also summoned to appear before the Lusabeni chiefdom where local headman Zephaniah Dlamini said that it was unacceptable for women in the district to wear pants.

“Women don’t look good in pants and the chiefdom banned them from wearing pants,” Dlamini told local newspaper, Times of Swaziland.

Mavimbela said that she had apologised to the Royal Kraal council on Aug. 10, because she feared for her destitute family who live in rural Ncandvweni, in southern Swaziland.

But Vilakati said that the chiefs’ conduct was not surprising in a country where people are expected to live according to the public transcript.

“We have no gender policy in the country and people react in different ways depending on their living realities,” said Vilakati.

Women in rural areas tend to face more challenges with regards to customary practices compared to their urban counterparts, Vilakati noted.

While EBC chairperson Prince Gija condemned the violation of women’s rights on the basis of customary practices, he said he had no control over the chiefs.

“The chiefs are appointed by the King,” he told IPS. “The EBC can only advise them [about] civic education, but we have no power to reprimand them.”

Gija admitted, however, that chiefs play a big role in the Swazi elections.

However, giving chiefs the right to run the elections is an anomaly on its own, said UNISWA law lecturer, Maxine Langwenya.

“The EBC is abdicating its responsibility because the constitution is very clear that the EBC should run the elections,” Langwenya told IPS.

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda says women must be empowered and have to be actively involved in all decisions related to their health and well being. Credit: Katie C. Lin/IPS

By Mabvuto Banda
LILONGWE, Aug 3 2013 (IPS)

Malawi’s President Joyce Banda knows a thing or two about women’s empowerment. After all she is the first female southern African head of state.

But she has not had it easy. Banda had a tough job fixing a sputtering economy after taking over from her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika who died in office on Apr. 5, 2012. In 2011 the country witnessed nationwide protests against Mutharika and the failing economy. The United Kingdom, Malawi’s largest donor, had suspended 550 million dollars in aid after Mutharika expelled its ambassador for calling him an autocrat.

But she did succeed. Since taking office she has implemented of a number of austerity measures, which included selling the country’s presidential jet for 15 million dollars and taking a 30 percent cut in her salary. She also embarked on a range of reforms that not everyone has agreed with. The most controversial has been cultivating closer ties with international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund, which is known for its heavy-handed austerity plans.

But in June, the World Bank said the country’s economy was recovering, with manufacturing expected to grow six percent and agriculture 5.7 percent.

In September 2012, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute reported that since Mutharika’s increasingly autocratic rule ended, respect for democracy and human rights has returned to the country under Banda’s presidency.

In an exclusive interview with IPS, Banda said that women’s empowerment remained high on her agenda.

“The message I am trying to send is ‘Nothing for us without us’ – nothing for women without their involvement and inclusion. We need to make deliberate efforts and policies that will aim at eliminating the structural barriers posed by poverty and gender inequality in economic empowerment of women because such efforts will have long-lasting improvements on the welfare of a woman,” Banda told IPS.

In June, Banda appointed Anastasia Msosa the country’s first female chief justice. Msosa is just one of a number of women who have been appointed to high-level positions by Banda. In March, she appointed Hawa Ndilowe the first ever female head of the public service. Banda noted that even after women’s active participation in the fight for independence in the 1960s and their involvement in liberation movements in Africa, “women did not get prominent decision-making positions to correspond to their inputs in the struggles.”

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: Many scholars and activists say that there is a direct link between gender equality, good governance and women’s empowerment and sustainable development. Do you agree with that?

A: Gender equality unlocks the potential of women and men to allow space for each other. And women’s empowerment proactively enhances the capacity of women to participate in decision making and in matters that affect them.

Q: Since you came to power in April 2012, you have appointed a number of women in very influential positions like chief justice and head of the public service. You have also appointed more women to your cabinet. What is your agenda?

A: It is important that women’s needs, aspirations and realities become central drivers of policies and programmes to increase maternal health care access and utilisation. Women must be empowered and have to be actively involved in all decisions related to their health and well being. As I have said many times before in different forums, we cannot talk about empowering a particular group without involving the group itself. No decisions should be made about women without women’s involvement.

Q: Before you joined politics, you formed the National Association for Business Women, an organisation that lends start-up cash to small-scale business women. You also successfully set up a school to help educate girls. Why are you so passionate about this?

A: Women constitute the majority of our population in Africa. Therefore, when we talk about poverty, suffering and underdevelopment, we are talking mostly of women. That’s why I believe that the promotion of gender equality, women’s empowerment, improvement of maternal health and achieving education for the girl child is a transformational strategy to achieving development.

Q: Women’s subordinate position in most African societies restricts the ability for them to take control of their lives to combat HIV/AIDS, leave a high-risk relationship or have adequate access to quality health care and education. What is your take on this?

A: In Malawi women and girls between the ages of 15 and 30 experience very high rates of HIV/AIDS infection. The infection rate of women/girls is six times higher than that of men/boys in the same group and the reason is because of the low socio-economic status of women in addition to various cultural practices that prevent women from negotiating safer sex.

Q: So what needs to be done to change this?

A: We need laws that protect women and my government has managed to push through the Gender Equality Bill and it has been passed by parliament. We also need deliberate policies to push capable women into decision-making positions in every sector so they lead and help empower fellow women.

Q: Finally, what are your last thoughts on empowering women?

A: In most African countries, women have over time faced a variety of legal, economic and social challenges. These disadvantages placed women and girls at the margins of society. In most homes, girls lack opportunity to access education. It is typical that in most African families when resources are low they prioritise boys’ education over girls’.

Sex-stereotyping on the part of parents, educators, religion, the media and society at large encouraged the practice that certain jobs are exclusively for men, and as a result the majority of women remained in the ‘feminised’ jobs. In some African societies, customary laws regarded adult women as minors and these women in most instances did not enjoy property and inheritance rights.

This increased their dependence on men. Treatment of women as minors manifested in formal provisions barring women from opening their own bank accounts and apply for credit in their own right, for instance. Women have not enjoyed access to factors of production like their male counterparts.

However, I am pleased that African women have not just sat back, and accepted being pushed into the margins of society. African women have risen up to claim their rightful place in society and are driving the agenda for their empowerment.

Excerpt:

Sudanese women are not exempt from the government’s repressive tactics and are increasingly targeted for speaking out against Sudan’s government. Credit: Zeinab Mohammed Salih/IPS

By Reem Abbas
KHARTOUM, Jul 2 2013 (IPS)

More and more of Sudan’s female politicians and rights activists are being arrested and detained in the government’s clampdown on opposition political parties.

Asma Ahmed, a lawyer and member of the banned Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N), was released on Jun. 14 after a five-week detention. She believes that the Sudanese authorities are increasingly targeting women because they have become more active in the political and social arena in recent years.

“The targeting of women activists is because we are continuing to send our messages effectively. If we weren’t, we would not be detained … but detentions will not make women less keen to continue activism,” Ahmed told IPS.

The rebel SPLM–N was banned in 2011 when it took up arms against government forces in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

“My house was watched for a few days before my detention. My family was told by National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) officers that I had been summoned, and so I went to the interrogation in Khartoum north and didn’t return home that day,” Ahmed said.

According to international rights watchdog Amnesty International, Sudan’s 2010 National Security Act, “provides agents of the security services with wide powers of arrest and detention. Torture and other ill-treatment remain widespread.”

In April, Human Rights Watch said in a statement that “in recent months the Sudanese government has increased repression of political and civil society groups. The authorities shut down four civil society groups in December, accusing them of receiving foreign funds, have also closed down Nuba cultural groups, and recently re-instated restrictions on the media.”

It is unclear how many women remain in detention. The Sudanese Council for Defending Rights and Freedoms, an independent body of human rights defenders, lawyers and politicians, stated that the SPLM–N alone has 600 detainees, a significant number of whom are women.

Women are not exempt from the scare tactics used by security services. The events culminating in Entisar Al-Agali’s arrest are almost like a Hollywood action film. She was driving home from a meeting on Jan. 7 when a car belonging to the NISS began following her until she reached Africa Road in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

“They tried to stop my car, but I was speeding and trying to get away. They caught up with me and hit my car from the back and, because I was trying to avoid an accident, I stopped the car,” Al-Agali told IPS.

Al-Agali had returned from Kampala, Uganda where she had been taking part in the talks that led to the drafting of the New Dawn Charter, a document signed by Sudanese opposition political parties, as well as rebel groups and civil society, that deals with the methods to be used to bring down the Sudanese regime and set up a transitional government in the war-torn country.

“I spent 87 days in Omdurman Women’s Prison, 75 days of which were in solitary confinement,” said Al-Agali, who is a leading member of the opposition Socialist Unionist Nasserist Party.

Al-Agali was the only woman to be detained after the signing of the New Dawn Charter on Jan. 6, which saw a wave of arrests of political leaders. She is, however, not the only woman to spend weeks or months in detention in the past two years.

In November 2012, 34 alleged members of SPLM–N, most of whom are government employees, were detained in Kadugli, the capital of the embattled state of Southern Kordofan. On Apr. 26, 14 were released, but the 20 others continue to be held in detention in Kadugli Prison.

Khadija Mohamed Badr was one of the detainees released and she now stays with her family in Khartoum.

“She was severely hurt and broke two spinal discs as she slipped while in detention. She is now paying for treatment with her own money,” an activist who is trying to raise financial assistance for Badr, and who wished to remain anonymous for fear of his safety, told IPS.

Meanwhile, the government National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been trying to establish itself as an advocacy body for political detainees. But Abdelmoniem Mohamed, a human rights lawyer who has monitored the NHRC’s role in other cases, told IPS that it has not been responsive to cases of political oppression, such as that of Jalila Khamis.

“The commission asked us to submit cases to them, cases of political detainees. But I am sceptical as they were slow to act on Khamis’s case,” he told IPS.

Khamis, a teacher and human rights activist, was detained in March 2012 for a video she recorded on the war in her homeland, the Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan. Fighting between the Sudanese army and the rebel SPLM–N has been ongoing in the region since June 2011. Khamis had faced life imprisonment but was released in January after a long trial.

“I was subjected to long interrogations, the worst time was when they told me that they would kill my son. This was when I was diagnosed with arterial hypertension,” Khamis told IPS. Although released, she continues to be monitored by state security.

While it is difficult to say how many female political activists are in prison, one activist who preferred to remain anonymous told IPS:  “When the family of a detainee in Kosti (a city south of Sudan’s capital Khartoum) visited her in detention, they were given a long list of women’s names to choose from. This means that there are many women detainees we don’t know about.”

Fatima Ghazzali, a pro-democracy activist and journalist working for the political section of Al-Jareeda newspaper said that women were at the forefront of the calls for democracy and freedom in Sudan.

“It is women who are the majority of internally displaced in this country, they bear the brunt of war. Women suffer the most under authoritarian regimes, that is why it does not surprise me to see that women are more keen to have democracy in Sudan,” Ghazzali told IPS, adding that only democracy would give women their full rights and protect them from security forces.

The escalating participation of women activists in recent protests and campaigns has even made the police take notice of women’s participation in calls for democracy, she said.

“They said that women and journalists are always there, always present at protests,” said Ghazzali, who spent time in jail in 2011 for an article she wrote on the gang rape of a female protestor in detention.

Zimbabwe’s legislation is silent on the issue of women’s rights to inherit communal land. And upon their husband’s deaths, many widows find themselves evicted from their matrimonial homes. Credit: Michelle Chifamba/IPS

By Michelle Chifamba
HARARE, Jun 24 2013 (IPS)

When Maude Taruvinga* votes in Zimbabwe’s elections later this year, she will be voting for her local female politician as she has placed her hopes for a better future on the presence of more women in this southern African nation’s legislature.

In January 2012, Taruvinga became a victim of Zimbabwe’s patriarchal traditions when her in-laws forced her out of her matrimonial home in Marondera, Mashonaland East Province, after her common-law husband passed away intestate.

“I eventually decided to leave my husband’s land because I could not endure the harassment any more. No one could help me. Even the police took the side of my husband’s relatives.“Only a woman in parliament is capable of changing the life of another woman.” -- Member of parliament and chairperson of the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Beatrice Nyamupinga

“Many widows find themselves thrown out of their homes by greedy relatives and give up because of a lack of knowledge and (because the do not receive) protection from the police,” 45-year-old Taruvinga told IPS.

The Zimbabwe Administration of Estates Act No. 6 of 1997 stipulates that if a spouse dies without a will, the surviving partner inherits their immovable property. Prior to this act, a husband’s estate was dissolved if he died intestate.

However, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association director Emilia Muchawa told IPS that although 86 percent of the country’s women earn a living farming communal land allocated to their husbands by traditional chiefs, legislation is silent on the issue of women’s rights to inherit this land.

“Customarily chiefs allocate land to male heads of households, but women do not automatically inherit this upon their husband’s death.

“They may be evicted from the land when widowed, regardless of the years they spent married. Many who remain on the land do so at the goodwill of their in-laws or traditional leaders. Childless widows are often evicted, as are young widows who refuse to be physically ‘inherited’ by a male relative of their late husband,” she told IPS.

Currently, Zimbabwe’s new constitution, which was enacted into law in May, provides for equality of both sexes, and activists who spoke to IPS said that there was a need for laws to be revised to reflect this, and to protect widows married under customary law.

Civic groups here believe that if more women were elected to Zimbabwe’s parliament, they would be more vocal in addressing this and other discriminatory practices against women.

Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU), a non-governmental organisation that aims to increase the participation of women in policy- and decision-making, launched a “Vote for a Woman Campaign” ahead of the presidential elections.

The campaign is meant to help the country achieve gender equality in accordance with the Southern African Development Community Protocol on Gender Development .

The protocol includes several progressive clauses and 23 set targets, including the target that women will hold 50 percent of decision-making positions in public and private sectors by 2015. Women constitute some 6.7 million of Zimbabwe’s 12.9 million people.

“The ‘Vote for a Woman Campaign’ will accelerate the number of women taking up positions in parliament and local government. It is meant to raise awareness among the general populace to vote for a woman in the hope that women in parliament will improve the lives of women at the grassroots,” WiPSU director Fanny Chirisa told IPS.

Marlene Sigauke, programmes manager at the Center for African Women Advancement, an organisation that works for the development of African women, told IPS that policies and political party manifestos on gender equality must be fully implemented.

“Women in power should be able to develop strong, gender-sensitive policies (that benefit) women at the grassroots,” she said.“Only a woman in parliament is capable of changing the life of another woman.” -- Member of parliament and chairperson of the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Beatrice Nyamupinga

Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Monica Mutsvangwa told IPS that it was time to fight for women’s rights.

“The new constitution reserves seats for women and we want to take that opportunity … to improve their welfare,” she said. The constitution allocates 60 total affirmative action seats for women in both the country’s 210-seat parliament and 88-seat senate.

“The constitution now approves an 18 percent quota of women’s participation in politics. We are therefore going to use this constitution to implement policies and turn theory into practice,” Mutsvangwa said.

Member of parliament and chairperson of the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Beatrice Nyamupinga told IPS that although Zimbabwe was signatory to a number of conventions, the government has failed to implement these policies.

“Many victims (widows not allowed to inherit their husband’s property) are afraid to report their cases for fear of being judged and interrogated by authorities and the police. The new constitution has provisions for gender equality and certain clauses protect the rights of women. If women themselves are not present in parliament to make sure that the laws are implemented, then the provisions will never come to pass,” Nyamupinga said.

“Only a woman in parliament is capable of changing the life of another woman.”

*Name changed to protect identity.

Ndomi Magareth, sows bean seeds on her small piece of land in Njombe. The lives of Cameroon's women could change for the better now that 20 women were elected to the country's upper house of parliament. Credit: Monde Kingsley Nfor/IPS

By Dorine Ekwe
YAOUNDE, Jun 6 2013 (IPS)

Marlyse Aboui, a 40-year-old nurse, has still not gotten over the astonishment she felt when she heard that Cameroon’s President Paul Biya had nominated her to the senate.

“I feel like I am in a dream that I will wake up from at any minute. When I first learnt that I had been appointed to the senate, I told myself that it couldn’t be true. I asked myself what I could possibly have done to receive this high appointment from the president,” she told IPS.

As the local party chair of the National Alliance for Democracy and Progress, an opposition party in eastern Cameroon, Aboui is one of only 20 women in the 100-member Cameroonian senate. Seventy senators, 17 of whom are women, were elected on Apr. 14 in the country’s first-ever senatorial elections. Biya was required to nominate the remaining 30 senators, and included in his nominations were three women.

“It is a great honour that I truly appreciate,” Aboui said.“Women can contribute much to politics. We have often seen that some conflicts are narrowly avoided thanks to their powers of persuasion." -- Justine Diffo

Nicole Okala Bilai, a senator from the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), shared Aboui’s excitement. The female politician, who was elected in Mbagassina in central Cameroon, hopes to use her presence in the senate to radically reform this Central African nation’s schools.

Women’s rights organisations and politicians say that the appointment of women to the upper house of parliament was timely.

Yvonne Muma Bih, a national executive committee member of the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front, is one politician who welcomed the appointments.

“The rise of women to this office offers some encouragement to those still suffering under the yoke of male domination, who believe that women cannot pursue political careers. We have done better than certain European democracies and this is something to be celebrated,” she told IPS.

The secretary general of CPDM, Jean Nkuete, told IPS “female candidates were strongly encouraged throughout the course of this election, not just to meet gender quotas, but mainly to highlight the place our party gives to women and to their vision.”

However, Justine Diffo, national co-ordinator of the NGO More Women in Politics Network, a support network for women’s political participation, told IPS “20 percent is inadequate.”

“Women can contribute much to politics. We have often seen that some conflicts are narrowly avoided thanks to their powers of persuasion. Why then deny them the 30 percent (women’s representation demanded by women’s groups)?”

According to Diffo, the only way to fully address women’s marginalisation “would have been for the president to nominate 15 women out of the 30 senators that he is mandated to appoint.”

However, the Association to Combat Violence Against Women believes there is reason to applaud the progress made.

In fact, Cameroon’s Electoral Code of Apr. 19, 2012 provides a way to reduce the existing gender gap in electoral contests, through various forms of affirmative action during the electoral processes. Articles 151, 164, 181, and 218 of the Electoral Code aim to increase women’s participation in politics.

A study by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), published on International Women’s Day, Mar. 8, pointed to a slight overall increase in the number of women in Cameroon’s national assembly.

According to the INS, between 1992 and 2002, the number of women in the national assembly dropped from 23 to 10 out of 180 members of parliament. However, between 2002 and 2012, the number of female members of parliament increased from 10 to 25.

At the local level, between 2007 and 2012 out of 360 mayors only 24 were women. Furthermore, Cameroon has six female ministers of state out of 30. There are also four female director generals in state-owned entities.

Claude Abe, a sociology lecturer at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaounde, the capital city of this country of 20 million people, explained the causes of poor female representation in decision-making positions.

“Structurally, Cameroonian society sits between tradition and modernity. As a result, there are many persistent and long-standing elements from tradition that continue to play a part in our society,” he told IPS.

“There is one category of women who remain stumbling blocks for other women – they are not prepared to vote for a woman simply because she is a woman,” he said.

He added that many men still believed that a woman’s place was in the home, while a number of women still believed that they could not play a role in politics.

In addition, he said, “Politics also requires a lot of money. Invariably, the majority of women are financially dependent on men and this limits their ability to get involved in politics.”

Leader of the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Peter Mutharika (c), was released on bail on Mar. 14 after being arrested with 11 other top Malawian government officials on charges of treason. Credit: Mabvuto Banda/IPS

By Mabvuto Banda
LILONGWE, Mar 20 2013 (IPS)

Malawi’s first-ever tripartite elections in May 2014 will be a litmus test for President Joyce Banda, who is faced with an opposition majority in parliament, soaring food prices, and a potential treason trial.

The charging of 12 top Malawian government officials with treason may be a catalyst for more unrest and a recipe for disaster for Banda as soaring food prices are set to impact over 65 percent of Malawians this year.

“Those who blame Joyce Banda for the food shortages and the high (food) prices will easily join in and use the arrests to ferment their anger towards her government leading to the elections next year,” independent political commentator John Phiri told IPS.

Banda, the country’s first female president, will seek re-election next year. She took over the role after her predecessor, President Bingu wa Mutharika, collapsed and died on Apr. 5, 2012. She heads the governing People’s Party (PP).

However, on Mar. 11 she ordered the arrests of 12 government officials, including Peter Mutharika, the late president’s younger brother, and Minister of Economy and Planning Goodall Gondwe, a former vice president of the International Monetary Fund. Gondwe has since resigned from his post as minister.

The accused, who were released on bail on Mar. 14, have been charged with seven counts of treason, inciting mutiny, conspiracy to commit a felony, breach of trust, and giving false evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into President Mutharika’s death.

The Commission of Inquiry report found the accused guilty of conspiring to prevent Banda’s ascendance to the presidency. The inquiry also found that they allegedly tried to convince the Army Commander of the Malawi Defence Forces, General Henry Odillo, to take over the country. Odillo had refused as the request was against the country’s constitution, which calls for the vice president to assume power in the event of the death of a sitting president.

However, the arrests of the government officials sparked protests in Lilongwe and Blantyre, and the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which is headed by Peter Mutharika, is already using this to pressure the government to drop the treason case.

“President Banda should focus on the suffering of many Malawians who cannot get food or medicines in hospital, and not on arresting Peter to stop him at all costs from contesting the 2014 tripartite elections,” DPP spokesman Nicolaus Dausi told IPS.

“Such actions breed violence and she will be blamed if things get worse,” Dausi said. The latest data from the Centre for Social Concern, a local research institution focusing on the cost of living in urban Malawi, showed that since Banda took over, a family of six now needs an average of 200 dollars per month to meet basic food demands. In a country where the minimum monthly wage is about 20 dollars, it has left many unhappy with Banda’s austerity policies.

Charles Mlombwa, a vendor and DPP supporter, warned of more protests if Peter Mutharika was prevented from participating in the next election.

“I support late President Bingu wa Mutharika’s party … because I know that many things are wrong and this government has failed,” Mlombwa told IPS.

The government estimates that over two million people need food aid this year. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, cereal production for 2011/2012 was seven percent below the previous season’s harvest. In addition, “significantly high maize prices in the southern region are negatively affecting access to food, especially for vulnerable people.”

In urban centres women have been sleeping outside Admarcs, government grain markets, waiting to buy cheap maize. Reports of women fainting from hunger in queues have become the story of the day here. Many here blame Banda for the maize shortage.

On Mar. 13 the Consumer Association of Malawi accused her of emptying the country’s silos of maize and distributing it to the poor for free. The association claimed that much of the maize Banda was distributing was meant for sale at the Admarc markets.

Elizabeth Gama, a mother of seven, has been travelling over 70 kilometres every day from her home on the outskirts of Lilongwe to the nearest Admarc.

“There is no maize in the Admarc markets and when I find it, I am only allowed to buy 15 kilogrammes per person, and yet the president is busy distributing maize for free across the country,” Gama told IPS.

Mphatso Katuli, a mother of four who said she had been sleeping outside an Admarc depot for the last three days waiting for maize, was also unhappy with Banda’s regime. “During President Bingu wa Mutharika’s time all of this (did not happen) because we had enough maize and Admarc markets were well stocked then,” she told IPS.

Meanwhile, Augustine Magolowondo, the Africa regional programme coordinator for the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy, feared that the treason arrests were likely to fuel unrest in the country.

“It is apparent that these arrests have created an environment of tension in the country and the reaction of the supporters when their leaders were arrested cannot simply be wished away…under such circumstances, conflicts are bound to arise,” he told IPS.

Ophamally Makande, the spokesman for the PP, defended the arrests.

“This government is only trying to promote a culture of accountability and the arrests, therefore, are justifiable because people need to know what happened to their president (Bingu wa Mutharika) and why they wanted to stop President Banda from taking over,” Makande told IPS.

Five million registered voters in Zimbabawe have an opportunity to change the lives of this country’s women. Women represent the majority, some 53 percent of the Zimbabwe's 12.6 million people. Credit: Trevor Davies/IPS

By Nyarai Mudimu
MOUNT DARWIN, Zimbabwe, Mar 15 2013 (IPS)

“Ten reasons why women must vote ‘Yes’ for the draft constitution…” says the Constitution Select Committee’s campaign radio jingle that plays over the airwaves in a grocer’s store at Mukumbura border post business centre on Zimbabwe’s northeastern border with Mozambique.

Zimbabwe is holding a referendum on Mar. 16 to decide on whether to adopt the draft constitution that has taken almost four years to draft and gobbled 50 million dollars of donor funds from the impoverished country’s economy.

The Constitution Select Committee (Copac) is the constitutional parliamentary committee tasked with writing the draft constitution, and ahead of the referendum has been tasked with informing Zimbabweans about the draft and encouraging them to vote.

But the radio jingle is almost drowned by noise from a neighbouring beer hall’s jukebox.

Ironically the jingle’s message is seemingly aimed at women at the border post business centre, but they appear to be busy going about their daily chores – vending fruits and vegetables, almost indifferent to a process that local politicians have described as a game changer in this southern African nation’s political history.

A disinterested Maria Nyamasoka, 48, tells IPS that she does not care about the draft constitution.

“Nothing will change for me. Maybe for you people from Harare it will. Maybe that’s why you have travelled all this way to come down here to talk about this draft. In the last election my homestead was burnt and I narrowly missed rape from some party youths. I really do not want to talk about this…I don’t want to have anything to do with politics,” she says.

Despite attempts by Copac and political parties to push supporters for a “Yes” vote this weekend, some say they are unaware of the referendum or the draft constitution that they have been asked to vote on. Sithembile Mpofu, a Bulawayo housewife, is one of them.

“Maybe it is because I do not watch ZTV,” Mpofu tells IPS, referring to the national television station where programming has, in recent weeks, been dominated by campaigns asking registered voters to tick “Yes” on the referendum ballots.

“I cannot go and vote for something I do not know, even if I vote ‘No’ I will be dishonest,” she says.

But despite the lack of interest by some, five million registered voters here have an opportunity to change the lives of this country’s women. Women represent the majority, some 53 percent of the country’s 12.6 million people. The Women’s Coalition, a grouping of women’s rights NGO, has been campaigning for the acceptance of the draft constitution.

“Women have fought hard to get almost 75 percent of our demands adopted in the draft. Definitely life for women will never be the same again under this new constitution, if it’s adopted,” says Slyvia Chirawu, a national coordinator at the Women and Law in Southern Africa, and a member of the Women’s Coalition.

Chirawu says that women suffered particularly from Section 23 of the current constitution, which denies them equal rights as men with regards to custody and guardianship of their minor children.

“Under Section 23, a woman could not apply for a passport for her child without the consent of the father…(a woman) could not get her child’s birth certificate in the absence of the father of the child. But men could do all these things in the absence of the mother of the child,” says Chirawu. In the draft constitution women are now able to apply both for passports and birth certificates for their children without the consent of their child’s father.

Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Deputy Minister Jessie Majome, a member of Copac, tells IPS that according to the current constitution girls can marry at 16, while boys can legally do the same at 18.

“What this meant is girls had to drop out of school to be married off, while boys continued with their education. The boys had to wait to reach the legal age of majority, creating an unfair advantage against women. But according to this new draft, both boys and girls will be allowed to marry when they reach the legal age of majority,” says Majome.

The draft constitution will also ensure women relief from some harmful cultural practices that have been considered permissible.

Under-age girls have been married off to older men, while widows have been forced to become the “wives” of their late husbands’ male relatives.

“Although the (current) constitution had been amended recently to forbid some harmful cultural practices, this draft actually forbids and makes it unconstitutional for customary law to take precedence over common law. Women had been disadvantaged when it comes to inheritance, as they could not inherit family property. Widows also lost their property upon the deaths of their spouses,” says Majome.

Jane Chiriga, a gender researcher, says the draft is “a triumph for women.”

“There is a deliberate effort to address the flaws and gaps of the current constitution. What remains, I think, is to align this with the country’s laws,” Chiriga says.

In the past, the participation of women in politics has largely been left to the discretion of political parties to create quotas for women. But the draft constitution proposes to set aside 60 seats for women in the 210-seat parliament. In addition, women will constitute at least half the membership of all commissions and other elective and appointed governmental bodies.

“What takes the cake for me is the half membership for women in all commissions and other elective or appointed governmental bodies,” says Chirawu.

A legislator from the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T), Tabitha Khumalo, says “it is a big step for women to be given prominence in the supreme law.”

“(In the past), women’s issues in this country have been addressed in token terms as if to appease us. But we have rights as equal citizens and this draft, if read with other laws, is something that will change both our public and private lives,” she tells IPS.

Constitutional law expert Alex Magaisa also believes that the draft could help stop the “politicisation of the security forces,” who have not hidden their support for President Robert Mugabe and in the process aimed their baton sticks at men and women alike.

The current constitution is silent about the key issue of political neutrality of institutions such as the army, police, and civil service.

“The draft has clear and extensive provisions that require these bodies (security forces) to be politically neutral and not to interfere with electoral processes,” he tells IPS.

*Additional reporting by Ignatius Banda in Bulawayo.

Steve Bonuke, chair of Trans Youth Group, a youth group in the Rift Valley Province that promotes peace, political tolerance and youth empowerment, says polling companies withhold important information about how they reach their conclusions. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI , Feb 27 2013 (IPS)

When Kenya’s only female presidential candidate, Martha Karua, dismissed electoral opinion pollsters who claimed that she stood a mere one percent chance of being elected to office, many said she did so because the results had not favoured her. 

Karua’s misgivings were, however, not without merit. The issue of sampling methodology and procedures used by opinion polling companies to arrive at their conclusions have raised serious concerns in this East African nation ahead of its Mar. 4 elections.

“Pollsters use registered mobile phone users as their sampling frame, as opposed to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) list of registered voters,” statistician Charles Onyango told IPS.

“Recent opinion polls have shown that, while 95 percent of their respondents claim to be registered voters, only two-thirds are registered voters according to IEBC records,” he told IPS.

There are three main electoral opinion-polling companies in Kenya — Infotrack, Ipsos Synovate and Strategic Research — and their research results have received extensive media coverage, often becoming big headline news.

But political analysts continue to claim that these polls are commissioned by biased sources and rather than reflect the opinion of the public, their controversial results are more likely to influence voter behaviour and possibly result in violence.

According to political analysts, in 2007 current Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s supporters refused to concede defeat because the opinion polls had predicted that he would win the presidency.

“And the danger is that there are many who don’t understand that an opinion poll is not an electoral poll,” Paul Muigai, a political analyst in Nairobi, told IPS.

“It is this misconception that largely contributed to the much-disputed 2007-08 general election violence provoking a near civil war,” he added.

After Kenya’s first presidential debate held on Feb. 11, pollsters claimed that presidential candidate and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta look the lead in the polls.

But Wilson Ugangu, a media analyst and lecturer at Multimedia University College of Kenya, told IPS that the results of such a poll could not be useful in providing a picture of likely voting trends, winners or losers in the coming elections.

“Further, the pollsters did not take into account the dynamics of two different mediums — radio and television — and their impact on people’s perceptions of the candidates’ performance in the debate.”

Ugangu added that those who listened through the radio, and those who watched the debate, certainly formed two very different perceptions of the candidates.

Such concerns affect the general credibility of polls.

“This country has not reached the point of having reliable and trusted pollsters because they withhold vital information. For instance, we don’t know who funds them and whose interests they serve,” Steve Bonuke, chair of Trans Youth Group, a youth group in the Rift Valley Province that promotes peace, political tolerance and youth empowerment, told IPS.

“Their results will only fan tension, conflict and violence as they did in 2007-08 when losers believed in pollsters more than they did in the electoral body,” he said.

Bonuke pointed to a recent series of opinion polls carried out by two major polling companies within the same period, targeting similar counties and which arrived at significantly differnet results.

“It has confirmed what we have always believed: the polls are neither scientific, nor objective.”

According to political analysts, electoral polling will have a significant impact when Kenyans cast their ballots.

“If they do not (predict) trends carefully, they could raise the public expectations and cause euphoria around perceived winning candidates, and result in a disputed election.

“Many Kenyans don’t know that electoral opinion polls are sample polls and not election polls….When the outcome of the elections goes against what the pollsters are saying, we might have a repeat of the 2007-08 violence where losers might refuse to concede defeat,” Onyango says.

It is a concern shared by the chair of the IEBC, Isaack Hassan, who has previously called for opinion polling to be barred for three months prior to the general elections.

But there has been little political support to regulate the process.

When former member of parliament, Bonny Khalwale, introduced the Publication of Electoral Opinion Polls Bill to parliament in 2011, it faced stiff opposition from those who have been consistently favoured by the polls. The bill was meant to regulate electoral opinion polling according to international standards.

“Odinga opposed the bill vehemently because opinion polls always favoured him,” Muigai said.

Although the Publication of Electoral Opinion Polls Act 2012 demands that pollsters reveal information on the methodology used, like, for instance, who was sampled and from which region, this is yet to happen.

“The issue of sample spread is key. If you are collecting data in Nairobi County, and have a lazy data collector who only samples people in Kibera, the results cannot be representative,” Onyango said.

This, he said, was because Kibera is one of Odinga’s strongholds.

“You cannot sample one sub-ethnic group and claim that the results are representative of the communities’ voting patterns. Each community tends to gravitate towards certain politicians,” Onyango added.

Immaculate Musya, a politician formerly with the Orange Democratic Movement Secretariat and who is no longer contesting the elections, also questioned who pollsters used as samples. “I have never been sampled — neither do I know anyone who has. I live in Nairobi and am constantly in the streets,” she told IPS.

Jennifer Massis, who is vying for a seat in parliament in Rift Valley Province, sees no harm in polling.

“Let us not politicise a purely scientific exercise. Electoral opinion polls are really done for the benefit of politicians,” she told IPS. “They inform us on likely voting patterns and facilitate strategic thinking.”

Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission chair Mzalendo Kibunjia, (right) flanked by constitutional expert Paddy Onyango (left) says that the country should opt for power sharing in the next government. Credit: Brian Ngugi/IPS

By Brian Ngugi
NAIROBI , Feb 25 2013 (IPS)

Days ahead of Kenya’s general elections, the country’s former deputy Minister of Information Koigi Wamwere has slammed calls for power-sharing among minority ethnic groups in the next government, calling it a “dangerous concept”.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), a government agency set up to address inter-ethnic conflict, and a section of Kenyan civil society have called for this East African nation to adopt negotiated democracy as a way to stem the deep-seated differences between various ethnic groups here.

Ethnic violence followed Kenya’s disputed December 2007 poll, claiming around 1,200 lives and displacing 600,000 people.

But Wamwere told IPS that a sharing of power could threaten the country’s young, multiparty democracy.

“It is pure nonsense to imagine that Kenyans are not ready to live with democracy. Democracy is not easy to implement, but we should not opt for short cuts, but go by its principles for the long-term good of the country,” he said.

All eyes are on Kenya to see whether it will avoid a repetition of the 2007 violence when it goes to the polls on Mar. 4. Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group (ICG), have warned that this year’s elections could be ethnically divisive if rising tensions are not curbed.

According to HRW, inter-communal clashes related to pre-electioneering have claimed more than 477 lives and displaced some 118,000 people since the beginning of 2012.

But according to the chair of the NCIC, Mzalendo Kibunjia, negotiated democracy – a system in which political power is shared evenly among various ethnic and interest groups – would enhance inclusion among Kenya’s 42 ethnic groups by doing away with Kenya’s current political model where “the winners take all and the losers lose all until the next elections.”

“Kenyan politics is about numbers and you get those numbers, not by selling ideas, but by retreating into your tribal cocoons. This means that small tribes continually feel neglected once the dominant ones win power, and this feeling of seclusion is being replicated in the run-up to this election,” Kibunjia told IPS.

But Wamwere, who is author of the book “Negative Ethnicity: From Bias to Genocide”, which looks at the ways ethnic rivalries in Africa undermine democracy, pours cold water on claims that power-sharing enhances inclusion and cohesion among various ethnic communities.

“If people are clear about whom they want to be led by, that person can come from the smallest ethnic community or grouping in the country,” he said.

Retired President Daniel Arap Moi, whose regime spanned 24 years from 1978 to 2002 and was widely seen as dictatorial, had embraced a similar mode of politics by insisting that Kenya was not ready for democracy, according to Wamwere.

“Moi kept telling Kenyans that they were not ready for multiparty politics and democracy,” he said, “And that is partly how he maintained his grip on power for more than two decades. Kenyans should be wary of those advocating for negotiated democracy.”

Cedric Barnes, Horn of Africa project director at the ICG, agreed that Kenya was ripe for democracy in its original sense and a repetition of the 2007 post-election violence was unlikely.

“If (in 2007) Kenya had strong and independent institutions such as a strong judiciary and electoral body that could have instilled confidence among Kenyans, this would have seen people confide in its institutions, reducing the risk of people taking to the streets and against each other to protest election results,” Barnes told IPS. He added that since the country’s new constitution was adopted in 2010, it had strengthened government and institutional frameworks.

But Cyprian Nyamwamu, the executive director of the National Convention Executive Council, which lobbies for good governance and reform, told IPS that there was needed for the inclusion of minority groups and communities in the government.

“Negotiated democracy is a platform to end suspicion and mistrust among antagonistic groups,” said Nyamwamu. “Whereas the new constitution has brought checks and balances of executive power and devolution promises to promote equal distribution of resources, we need negotiated democracy to ensure that all ethnic groups are brought to the table.”

According to Rose Waruhiu, a Democratic Party of Kenya politician and former member of the East African Legislative Assembly, the idea is a practical one for Kenya.

“Any party that wants to lead in today’s Kenya must reach out to all the various ethnic groups in the country. All ethnic groups want to see parties and politicians reach out to them in a special manner and, as such, negotiated democracy is a plus for both politician and voter,” Waruhiu told IPS.

Most say that it will take more than the negotiated sharing of elective positions to heal the country and enhance ethnic cohesion.

The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya, which was set up to investigate past injustices and lead reconciliation efforts, has yet to file a report three years after its formation.

Leadership wrangles and financial problems have rocked the commission, whose mandate covers alleged violations between December 1963 and February 2008, and has delayed its work by over six months.

It remains unknown when the commission will file its report after parliament refused to grant it an extension.

Hamisa Zaja dropped out of the Mombasa County gubernatorial race for lack of resources. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI, Jan 25 2013 (IPS)

Few women in Kenya harbour illusions of entering politics. Blatant discrimination, threats and intimidations, an uneven playing field and a largely unsympathetic public have turned electoral politics into a veritable minefield for women hoping to secure top government posts.

Despite adopting a more gender sensitive constitution back in 2010, in which Article 81(b) stipulates that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender, male-dominated parties continue to make a farce of the little political space offered to women.

Whereas previously women were only allowed to contest three seats – namely for the posts of president, Member of Parliament (MP) and councilor of a ward (a subdivision of a municipality) – an additional three seats are up for grabs in elections scheduled for Mar. 4 this year.

But “the environment is still not enabling”, Hamisa Zaja, a politician in Kenya’s Coastal region, told IPS.

“Women remain under attack from male opponents and even society,” she added.

When Vesca Kangongo presented her bid to vie for the gubernatorial seat in Uasin Gishu, a county in Kenya’s Rift Valley region located about 313 kilometres from the capital, Nairobi, her rivals swore that the governor of the region “would be anything but a woman”.

This statement has been echoed across the country and consequently only a handful of women are running for tickets of top seats.

Zaja explained that besides society’s negative attitude towards women’s leadership, the financial resources required to launch a competitive campaign automatically exclude many women from the running.

“I pulled out of the race for the governor of Mombasa County under the Wiper Democratic Movement because I don’t have the economic muscle required,” she said.

To qualify for the party nominations, Zaja was required to pay the equivalent of 1,700 dollars, a huge sum in a country where, according to government statistics, the average monthly wage is about 250 dollars.

“This is besides the money required to oil an effective campaign such as getting vehicles, fueling them to facilitate mobility, branding and so on,” noted Jacky Mwaura, a campaign agent.

When the presidential candidate Martha Karua, running on the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC)-Kenya ticket, announced that she only has about 640,000 dollars to her name, it was not clear how she would finance her campaign when her most serious rivals are talking about a 91.4-million-dollar budget.

“Campaign money in Kenya largely comes from personal wealth,” political analyst Peter Otondo told IPS. “Although top politicians hold dinners to raise money, this is often to hoodwink voters that they are being transparent and accountable.”

But even for those women able to pay the prohibitive nomination fee, a host of other hurdles present themselves.

“Women aspirants across the country face many challenges, only to lose the nomination ticket in the end,” a returning officer from Mombasa County, located in the Coast region about 440 kilometres away from Nairobi City, told IPS on condition of anonymity.

She added, “Most people here know Alice Maitha, the wife of the late former MP Kharisa Maitha, who has won the ticket to battle it out for the Senate (the future upper house of parliament) position under The National Alliance Party (TNA).”

As a returning officer, the anonymous source has insider information and revealed that Maitha was initially a staunch member of the Wiper Democratic Movement, and even paid the 1,700-dollar fee in order to fight for the Senate ticket.

“But at the very last minute, the party informed her that she was not financially fit and that “the Senate isn’t for women”, the officer told IPS.

But Maitha refused to be discouraged. She quickly joined the TNA, where she paid another 2,000 dollars to be allowed to vie for the same ticket, and successfully made it onto the ballot.

But her woes did not end there. According to the officer, Maitha has since been under pressure to “sell” her seat to a male rival.

The widespread use of violence, which has become part and parcel of Kenyan politics, is another serious deterrent to women’s participation.

A few days ago, a returning officer tasked with overseeing the elections succumbed to stab wounds sustained during skirmishes between rival groups in the recently concluded nominations.

“Women tend to shy away from violence,” John Ndeta, media coordinator of a project dubbed Peace Initiative Kenya, told IPS.

Since a great deal of the election outcome is determined by bribery, intimidation and outright hostilities, women invariably fail to secure the kind of support that is won through violence and coercion.

According to Ndeta, although the constitution requires a third of elected officers – at least 117 out of 290 members of the upcoming national assembly – to be women, “it will be an uphill task for women to get there”.

Furthermore, “Men campaign and lobby at night. A woman isn’t expected to do so. You find that a woman aspirant goes to bed thinking that her position in the party is secure, only to wake up to new realities in the morning after men have kept their night vigils,” Zaja explained.

Women who defy these political traditions face threats of rape, and other forms of bodily harm.

Education, or the lack thereof, also continues to be a thorn in the side of aspiring female politicians.

One of the strongest politicians in Nairobi County, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, found herself locked out of party nominations at the very last minute for lack of a university degree.

Wanjiru, who is assistant minister for housing, has always been open about her struggle as a single mother of three.

“Before she was disqualified, Wanjiru was the only female candidate in the race for governor, and she has a massive following,” Otondo noted.

With no hope of a sea change on the horizon, it seems that the constitutional space allotted to women is Kenya still far out of reach.

(END)

Hosea Nailel (5039), Julius Muriuki, (5103) and Peter Chesang (5106) joined over 2,000 participants in Nakuru Town in a race that aimed to bridge ethnic divisions ahead of this country’s March 2013 elections. Credit: Peter Wahwai/IPS

By Peter Wahwai
RIFT VALLEY, Kenya , Dec 21 2012 (IPS)

Runners Hosea Nailel and Julius Muriuki, who are from Kenya’s rival ethnic Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities respectively, met during a half marathon when they broke away from the pack and remained in the leading group. 

They shared water during the race and tried to outdo each other at various sections of the last stretch. They did not talk; they only tried to outrun each other.

Having met for the first time at the newly-inaugurated Menengai Half Marathon in Nakuru Town, Rift Valley Province in November, Nailel and Muriuki have become friends and want to become training partners.

It is particularly poignant in a country where the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities from the Rift Valley Province have been involved in deadly ethnic clashes almost every election year since 1992. The worst of it was in the 2007-2008 post-election violence, in which over 1,300 people were killed, 3,000 women were raped and more than 600,000 people were displaced, according to a report by the government-appointed Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence.

Nakuru County in Rift Valley Province was considered a political hotbed during the 2007-2008 election violence. And tensions are flaring in the country again ahead of the 2013 polls. This month the investment group Old Mutual Kenya said that ethnicity would also play a role in the upcoming elections.Recently inter-ethnic violence has flared in this East African nation over competition for resources.

On Sep. 9, 38 people were killed in revenge attacks in the Tana River Delta district of Kenya’s Coast Province. The deceased include eight children, five women, 16 men, and nine police officers.

In August four people were killed in a separate incident in Muradellow village in Mandera North, in North Eastern Province. Police said that the conflict occurred at a water point where herders had taken their animals.

In March, 22 people were killed in Mandera, in North Eastern Province. More than 1,500 people fled their homes as a result of the violence, which occurred in El Golicha village, close to Kenya’s border with Somalia.

But ethnic differences mean little to the two talented runners.

“I met Muriuki and several other athletes from Central Kenya at the marathon. I did not know him before, but since then we have been in communication, and we shall meet soon. We plan to train together and compete in a forthcoming half marathon. As athletes we shall use our talent to demonstrate unity,” Nailel, who comes from Eldoret town in North Rift Valley, which also experienced ethnic violence after the country’s 2007 election, told IPS.

Nailel, who placed sixth in the Paris Half Marathon in October, led a squad of runners from North Rift Valley to join over 2,000 participants in Nakuru Town in a race that aimed to bridge ethnic divisions ahead of this country’s March 2013 elections.

“Such races will definitely unite different communities and eventually the nation; Kenyans are known for uniting behind their sportsmen and women,” Nailel said.

Muriuki lives in Nyahururu, a town in Central Province, and is an up-and-coming runner.

“They are great runners,” Muriuki said of Nailel’s team. “They helped me improve my speed, it was a united race and we raced together to the finish line. I am in communication with Nailel and some of the other runners and I look forward to meeting them at the next race,” Muriuki told IPS.

Muriuki had appeared strong throughout the race but Nailel broke away at the finish and clocked 61:02 to win the half marathon with Muriuki coming in fourth. Muriuki was the only runner from Central Province who finished in one of the top 10 positions in the race, while Nailel’s team registered a convincing victory by scooping all the other positions.

Nailel and Muriuki hope that running will help melt the differences of their respective ethnic groups.

“It was very encouraging to see residents of Nakuru Town line up by the sides of the roads to cheer us on as we passed through the streets. We felt encouraged and part of Nakuru despite it being our first time participating in a race in the town,” said Nailel of the majority Kikuyu community in Nakuru Town.

Muriuki agreed: “It was the first time we met with many of these athletes in such large numbers and it would be a great thing that such events continue uniting young people from opposing communities.”

Both he and Nailel talk about finding a suitable place to train together. They think that Nakuru Town, where they met, could be a possible training ground because of its strategic location between their home towns. They also discuss visiting each other regularly.

Their show of unity is encouraging to others.

Athletics Kenya secretary general David Okeyo said that athletics was one of the most practical ways to build unity among communities ahead of the country’s March 2013 elections.

“There are hundreds of upcoming (runners) from different communities who can do more than just run, they can unite communities, if we bring them together like we did in Nakuru,” he told IPS.

Okeyo said that races like these were very important in areas like Nakuru County and the entire Rift Valley Province where the 2007-2008 clashes occurred.

Nakuru North District Commissioner Michael Kagika said that participating in races was a rare opportunity for athletes to use their sporting talents to unite, and to mend their differences.

“The marathon is a major step towards building and sustaining peace among communities living in Nakuru County and Rift Valley Province. It brought different cultures and communities together and it came at a time when Kenya is poised to hold the general election,” Kagika told IPS.

Zipporah Kittony (l) former chair of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation, Justin Muturi (c) chair of the Centre For Multiparty Democracy, and Alice Wahome, vice-chair of the CMD (r) addressing journalists in Nairobi on Dec. 13. Credit: Brian Ngugi/IPS

By Brian Ngugi
NAIROBI , Dec 14 2012 (IPS)

Kenya’s rights activists are furious that the country’s highest court “violated” women’s constitutional rights by ruling against the implementation of a gender quota in parliament ahead of the 2013 general elections.

Activists here are threatening to boycott the Mar. 4, 2013 elections and bring the government to a standstill unless the gender parity law, which states that no more than two-thirds of one gender should hold elected office, is enforced in the senate and national assembly in the upcoming elections.

Rukia Subow, chair of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation, the largest women’s rights NGO in Kenya, told IPS that this East African nation was headed for a constitutional crisis if it failed to heed the provisions of the 2010 constitution.

The Kenya Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, Dec. 11 that the constitutional provision calling for a mandatory one-third gender representation would not apply to next year’s general election and instead should be implemented progressively by August 2015.

“We respect the Supreme Court, but still we have to fight its ruling even if it means going to higher courts in the region. We will ensure that there will be no parliament next year as it will be unconstitutional should we fail to implement the gender principle,” she said, adding that the organisation would see to it that the principle was implemented by “any means necessary.”

As the Supreme Court is the highest court in the country, the next court of appeal would be the East African Court of Justice.

Article 81 (b) of the constitution provides that “not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.”

Further, Article 27(8) of the constitution states that there shall be legislation to provide for the above principle. But the failure of parliament to pass this legislation prompted the attorney general Githu Muigai to petition the Supreme Court for an interpretation on how the country should attain the gender equity principle.

In the landmark decision by four of the five judges hearing the case, Jackton Boma Ojwang, Njoki Ndung’u, Philip Tunoi and Smoking Wanjala ruled that the one-third gender requirement for the national assembly and senate could not be enforced in the 2013 elections.

They said that the historical marginalisation of women in elective politics could not be resolved by quotas but would only be realised over time and in stages.

The fifth judge on the bench, the country’s chief justice Willy Mutunga, ruled in favour of the principle being implemented ahead of the upcoming elections.

According to Rose Waruhiu, a prominent Kenyan women’s rights activist and former member of the East African Legislative Assembly, the ruling is a blow to the empowerment of women.

“The women of Kenya are seeing this as a blatant and direct violation of women’s constitutional rights of equality and non-discrimination based on sex. The ruling makes a charade of the whole idea of constitutionalism and is the ultimate insult to Kenyan women, women around the world, and in essence the Kenyan people,” Waruhiu told IPS.

The Centre for Multiparty Democracy Kenya has consequently advised political parties to immediately file a case with the East African Court of Justice, to force Kenya to observe gender equality in elective and appointive public positions.

According to the lobby’s chair, Justin Muturi, Kenya “is the only country within the East African community which has not (achieved) this.”

“We have resolved to sensitise Kenyans around the theme ‘no women, no elections on March 2013’, unless and until women are included in public office as stipulated in the constitution,” Muturi told IPS during a press conference in Nairobi on Thursday Dec. 13.

“The Supreme Court ruling effectively denied women their constitutional right to fair representation. We hold the view that the Supreme Court itself has failed to uphold the constitution and it is time the people who hold sovereign authority acted to stop further erosion of constitutional provisions,” added Muturi.

Meanwhile, Waruhiu said the court ruling was a fraudulent act.

“It has set women back in a big way. More importantly, however, it’s not a women’s issue, but an issue at the heart of our constitution. It’s about the affront to the sovereign will of the people,” said Waruhiu, who is also the vice chair of the Democratic Party of Kenya.

“Women of Kenya do not, and will not, accept a zero or minimalist approach in terms of the fulfilment of their constitutional rights. They are entitled to them as a matter of course, they fought for independence, and they continue to carry the greatest burden in building this nation,” she said.

Her comments were echoed by Winnie Lichuma, the chair of the National Gender and Equality Commission, the body charged with women’s empowerment in Kenya. She told IPS that women must demand that the principle be implemented immediately and not in stages.

“The gender equity principle on representation must be implemented now and can’t wait,” she said. Political representation for women in the current Kenyan parliament is considered low at only 9.8 percent, according to Lichuma.

Prior to the controversial ruling, the country was awash with heated debate about how the principle could be achieved.

Some legislators had said that it should not be implemented in the 2013 general elections. However, the attorney general and other observers had said that if the gender rule was not implemented, Kenya would head towards a constitutional crisis.

“This action by the highest court in the land of Kenya, if left uncorrected, would widen the inequality gap between men and women in leadership positions,” said Waruhiu.

Somalia's first female Foreign Minister Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan has a tough road ahead. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Nov 20 2012 (IPS)

As little-known politician Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan was sworn in as Somalia’s first female foreign minister and deputy prime minister on Monday Nov. 19, the stateswoman who hails from the unrecognised, self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland is tipped to become the country’s “Iron Lady”.

This is according to Adan´s political ally Mohamed Daahir Omar, who used to work closely with her in local Somaliland politics, in which he is currently active.

“We know Fauzia as a person with strong determination and as an approachable individual who likes to form consensus. But when she has to make a decision, she just goes for it and works to convince others of her way. She was mostly successful, and for that she can be considered Somalia’s Iron Lady,” Omar told IPS from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, referring to Adan’s strong will.

Adan, who returned from her first state visit to neighbouring Djibouti on Nov. 18 and missed the official swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet on Nov. 15, takes on the mantle of leadership in a country with a number of tough foreign policy challenges.

While details of Adan and her background are sketchy, and she has been reluctant to grant interviews to the press, Omar said that because of her skill as a consensus-builder, the new foreign minister could play a role in bridging the divide between this Horn of Africa nation and Somaliland.

One of her first tasks will be to advance tentative and delicate talks between the Somali government and politicians in the northern state. Somaliland unilaterally declared independence from the rest of Somalia following the collapse of the country’s government in 1991.

“The talks between Somalia and Somaliland will be an acid test for Adan because as a northerner she will have to show her people that she does not want to force them into a union (with Somalia) that they don’t want.

“But at the same time as a key minister in the federal government she has to represent the views of the government – the sanctity of national unity and sovereignty,” Garaad Jama, an analyst from the Centre for Policy Development, a think tank in Somalia, told IPS.

Adan, who is only one of two women in the 10-member cabinet appointed by Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, will also have to deal with the growing friction between Kenya and Somalia over the formation of local administration areas in southern Somalia.

The Kenyan military captured the Al-Shabaab-controlled southern Somali port city of Kismayo in late September. The port was one of the key strongholds of the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist radical group.

But Kenya has reportedly been pushing for the region in southern Somalia known as Azania or Jubaland – where Kismayo is the main city – to be given the status of an autonomous state, to serve as a buffer zone between Kenya and the chaos in Somalia.

The Somali government has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the creation of such a state, which it fears would become a Kenyan satellite rather than a local administration that would fall under its control.

Although Kenya vehemently denied the charges, its soldiers in control of Kismayo’s airport prevented a Somali government delegation from entering the city on Nov. 7, after a local militia leader objected to their arrival.

“The signs are already not good, with deteriorating relations between Kenya and the new Somali government and other tough and pressing challenges,” Maryan Muumin, a women’s rights activist from the Somalia National Women’s Organisation (SNWO) in Mogadishu, told IPS.

“It seems that the daunting task for the new foreign minister is clear cut and it’s for Adan to deal with the challenges facing her, not only as Somalia’s foreign minister, but as the first woman to hold that post,” she said.

Adan will also have to deal with Al-Shabaab, which still poses a threat to the government in many parts of southern and central Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, which is opposed to women taking up roles outside the home and has imposed strict Sharia law in parts of the country that it controls, has threatened to target Somalia’s United Nations-backed government leaders. The militant group led a failed attempt to assassinate the country’s new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Sep. 12, his second day in office.

“Although Al-Shabaab is now on the back foot, the group is the greatest threat to any government in Somalia,” Jama said “How this new government deals with the militant group, which has assassinated several ministers and other top government officials, will be a major test for the ministers, including the first female foreign minister.”

Adan described her appointment as a precedent that will open doors for Somali women.

“This is a historic day not only for Somali women but for all Somalia,” Adan said after the announcement of her appointment on Nov. 4.

Haliam Elmi from SNWO told IPS that Adan’s appointment was “a gift not only for Somali women but also for Africa and the world at large because women’s situations are similar in many parts of the world.”

She said she hoped that it would result in the acceptance of women’s participation in politics in this conservative Muslim country.

“This is a step in the right direction and we hope that society will finally accept women’s ascent on the political ladder,” she told IPS.

But Adan will have a tough road ahead of her. Not everyone has welcomed her appointment. Somalia’s Islamic clergy, for example, said that Adan’s appointment was against the teachings of Islam.

“In Muslim society women are given the highest role a human being can take, which is rearing children and being head of a Muslim home. What we hear from the government is in contradiction to our way of life as a Muslim society, and nothing but calamity will come from giving such political leadership roles to Fauzia, not only for her, but for her family and society in general,” said Sheikh Ali Mohamoud, a Muslim cleric in Mogadishu.

Cultural practices in Cameroon’s patriarchal society could prevent women from registering to vote in the country’s February 2013 elections. Courtesy: Ngala Killian Chimtom

By Ngala Killian Chimtom
MORA, Cameroon, Nov 7 2012 (IPS)

Cameroon’s new biometric registration of voters may end up disenfranchising many potential voters, especially women in the country’s predominantly Muslim north where cultural practices may prevent them from having their photos taken.

“This is a sticky issue,” Adji Massao, the Far North regional representative of the country’s elections management body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM), told IPS.

Biometric voter registration, which involves the use of fingerprint scanners and digital cameras to capture the bio-data of applicants, began in this west Central African nation on Oct. 1 in the country’s capital Yaounde and will be introduced to all 360 council areas across Cameroon.

In order to register to vote in the February 2013 parliamentary and local council elections, citizens are required to have or obtain a national identity card, which requires a photograph. In addition, passport-sized photographs must be taken of people registering to vote and people are not allowed to wear caps, lenses, veils or anything that could distort their facial identity.

In this part of the country, women are hardly allowed to go out, let alone remove their head-concealing veils as their husbands do not allow them to, even if the women themselves are willing.

Aisha Ibrahim, a housewife in Mora, a small locality in Cameroon’s Far North Region, in all probability will not be able to register to vote in February 2013.

Her husband, Alhadj Moustapha, told IPS that he was not comfortable with his wife removing her veil in the presence of another man.

“It’s risky,” he said.

“A true Muslim lady must cover her hair and her face,” he said with an air of finality, sending a clear message that he would never allow his wife to unveil in public.

Cultural practices in this patriarchal society tend to confine women to the home, preventing them from fully participating in society. Allowing women to get national identity cards could also be potentially upsetting for men who want absolute control over their wives.

Moustapha puts the situation rather brusquely: “Women with a national identity card could be difficult to control. Remember this is a key document required for anyone to travel … and your wife may just escape from home and go elsewhere … I can’t take such a risk.”

Ibrahim, however, has voted a couple of times in Cameroon’s various elections without an identity card.

“When it came to voting, the law at the time provided that any voter without a national identity card could present themselves with at least two witnesses,” Massao said.

Ibrahim was able to vote in accordance with these procedures.

“My husband and his friend flanked me as we went to the voting centre,” Ibrahim told IPS in a whisper. And casting a furtive glance around, as if she was about to betray a prized secret, she said, before moving quickly away: “They instructed me to vote for the ruling party.”

And she was not the only one. According to Massao, 40 percent of people who registered for the 2011 presidential election in the region did so without an identity card. Most of them, he said, were women.

It is no wonder that John Fru Ndi, the leader of the country’s main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), called that registration process a “gigantic fraud”.

“The method did not have the inbuilt mechanism for detecting multiple registrations and therefore there were several instances where some unscrupulous individuals registered more than once,” he told IPS.

“That is why the SDF fought relentlessly for the introduction of a biometric system in voter registration.”

Meanwhile, the elections governing body is already taking measures to ensure that cultural practices do not infringe on women’s right to vote.

“We are definitely worried by the situation,” Thaddeus Minnang, chief of operations at ELECAM, told IPS.

“As for women who would not take off their veils in the presence of men and do not even leave their homes, we plan to get female ELECAM officials to go to those homes and do the registration. This way, we will ensure the full participation of women in the process,” Minnang said.

But his optimism is tempered by the fact that many women in this part of the country also do not have a national identity card and would need to apply for that first in order to register.

“Women should register to vote. For that, they first need to get their official documents. Yet, there are still among us women without proper identification,” Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family Cathérine Abena told IPS.

Minnang said the electoral commission planned to work with political parties, civil society and the government to encourage all Cameroonians of voting age to acquire national identity cards. A special focus would be given to the northern parts of Cameroon, where ELECAM plans to sensitise husbands on the need to allow their wives to have a national identity card.

“We are ready to accept receipts testifying that someone is in the process of acquiring a national identity card,” Minnang said.

That women in the north of the country could find it hard to register on the voter rolls could worsen an already bad situation of electoral apathy in Cameroon, according to Owona Nguini, a professor of political science at the University of Yaounde.

Of the roughly 7.5 million people who registered for the 2011 presidential election, only 4.9 million voted. Observers have said that in a country where close to 11 million people have already reached voting age, such a turnout gives elected officials very little legitimacy.

Navo Kai-Kai from the Sierra Leone People’s Party told IPS that there were other pressing reasons for the decreased number of women contesting high political positions this election. Credit: Mohamed Fofanah/IPS

By Mohamed Fofanah
FREETOWN, Nov 6 2012 (IPS)

Only 38 women – of a total of 586 candidates – will contest parliamentary seats in Sierra Leone’s November elections, and the blame for this can be laid squarely on the shoulders of the current group of female lawmakers, according to Barbara Bangura, the director of the women’s organisation Grassroots Empowerment for Self Reliance.

The Nov. 17 elections will only be this West African nation’s third election since the civil war ended here in 2002.

And while the country will see its first female vice presidential candidate, Kadi Sesay from the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), run for office, there are not many women joining her in the race for parliament. There is no female presidential candidate. But in addition to the dismal number of candidates running for seats in the legislature, there are only 337 women out of 1,283 candidates for local council elections.

Bangura points an accusing finger at the current crop of female parliamentarians who, she says, are to blame for the failure of parliament to pass the Gender Equality Bill that would have provided for a 30 percent representation of women in the legislature.

Bangura, one of the leading women’s activists pushing for the enactment of the bill, has squarely laid the blame on the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus. Women from the caucus were meant to champion and table the bill and lobby their colleagues for its enactment. But they did not succeed, because of what the activist calls a lack of interest on their part.

“We had to be hard on their heels, they did not show enough interest in pushing the bill forward and also getting their parties to support it. Now many of them are not going back to parliament, as they have not retained their seats. I hope they have learned their lesson,” Bangura told IPS.

Banging away on her laptop in the Women’s Situation Room – a room in the country’s capital Freetown where non-partisan women sit, receive and analyse information before the elections – Bangura explained to IPS that there was controversy among the female parliamentarians over which institution would monitor the implementation of the bill when it was enacted into law.

The chairwoman of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus and member of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC), Marie Yansaneh, told IPS that there was indeed confusion about which institution would monitor the implementation of the bill, resulting in the bill not being finalised before the five-year parliamentary session ended on Sep. 25.

One school of thought said it should be a Gender Equality Commission, while another was calling for the creation of a specific Women’s Commission to monitor implementation.

“None of these proposed institutions had even been set up, so we lost time. And then these female parliamentarians had to go into their various constituencies to campaign, so there was no time for the bill. So that was the end of the matter. As far as we know the bill is still sitting in the Office of the Attorney General and was never tabled in parliament,” said Bangura.

Effective political participation by women remains abysmally low in this country of 5.9 million people.

Before parliament closed, just 17 out of the 124 parliamentarians were women. Women make up 18.9 percent of female councillors in the local government – none at the level of chairwoman – and they comprise less than 10 percent of top civil service positions.

The public information officer of the Human Rights Commission (HRCSL), Henry Sheku, told IPS that the enactment of the Gender Equality Bill would have affected the development of the country.

“There is a whole raft of women with the appropriate skills and experience to take on leadership roles, and the confidence to do so. But because of a bad system these women have been deliberately marginalised,” he said.

However, Navo Kai-Kai from the SLPP told IPS that there were other pressing reasons for the decreased number of women contesting high political positions this election. Kai-Kai has claimed that her male opponent from the SLPP, who was also contesting the post of chair of the Kailahun District Council, had intimidated her after he lost the party primaries to her.

“There was serious intimidation; my male opponent came out with his secret societies during our party primaries so I had to leave my district in Kailahun, east of the country, escorted by the police to Kenema district, for fear of my life. As a result I was unable to contest for the party symbols and lost to my male opponent,” Kai-Kai said.

The endorsement of candidates by political parties to contest elections in Sierra Leone is called “getting the party symbol”.

A number of women also dropped out of contesting the elections when the country’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) increased nomination fees.

“I withdrew from nominations immediately when the NEC announced increased nomination fees. I know it will be difficult for me to get that kind of money and my party will not help, so I lost my opportunity because of money and the lack of support,” Memuna Sapateh, a candidate representing the Peoples Liberation Party, told IPS.

The nomination fees were increased from one million Leones (250 dollars) to one hundred million (about 250,000 dollars) for presidential candidates, and from 100,000 Leones (25 dollars) to one million Leones (250 dollars) for parliamentary and city councillor positions. The dramatic increase in fees met with stiff opposition from civil society groups and the majority of the nine registered political parties.

Parliament approved the NEC’s decision to raise the nomination fees, and the new fees came into effect on Sept. 10. Only after political parties threatened to boycott the elections did the government allow candidates to revert to the fee rate from the 2007 elections. Instead, the government announced that it would pay the difference in the fees to the NEC.

But Bangura’s accusing finger still points to the female parliamentarians.

“Yes there were challenges for the women, the finances to run elections, the patriarchal political system, the sudden increase in the nomination fees,” she agreed.

“But I still blame the women in the political parties. I always say that women do not know the power they have; we always say to them you are a woman first before you belong to a political party. Not all of them with party symbols will win.  So whilst we are looking at the women that actually have symbols we have to look at the ones that will go through, that will win seats in parliament and council, we will definitely see decreased figures.”

Sheku said that the HRCSL would be focusing on pushing strongly for the passage of the Gender Equality Bill as soon as a new government took office.

Bangura was also upbeat. “After the elections we will re-organise and continue to push for the Gender Equality Bill so it becomes law.”

By Brian Ngugi
NAIROBI, Nov 2 2012 (IPS)

As Kenya gets ready for voter registration this month, ahead of the country’s Mar. 4, 2013 polls, women’s rights organisations are hoping that the provisions for gender equality in the new constitution will mean significantly increased representation in the government.

Winnie Lichuma, chairwoman of the National Gender and Equality Commission, the body charged with women’s empowerment in this East African nation, is guardedly optimistic.

“With regard to political representation in the current parliament, women are at only 9.8 percent, which is very low,” she said.

She told IPS that the country needed to “wise up to women’s leadership” as it prepared for the general elections – the first since Kenya adopted a new constitution in 2010 that recognises women’s rights and makes provisions for their representation in parliament.

Article 177 (1) (b) of the constitution seeks to provide a mechanism for the two-third gender principle at county level. The principle ensures that no gender shall exceed two-thirds representation in public, elective and appointive bodies.

Lichuma said that the constitution’s provisions meant that the number of women represented at county level would increase overall. According to the new constitution, 47 counties will now replace the provincial and local government administration systems.

She said that women would soon “be represented at the highest decision-making level of governance.

“The campaign message for women is that they should come out in large numbers, register in political parties and take part in the competitive elective process. If they do not meet the one-third gender requirement, political parties will nominate women based on proportional representation by use of political party lists, as provided in article 90 (1) of the constitution,” she said.

Voter registration is set to begin on Nov. 12.

Excerpts of the interview follow.

Q: Have there been any notable gains made by women in Kenya since the promulgation of the new constitution two years ago?

A: First, I think it is a very unfair question to put to the women of Kenya. I do not think the same can be asked of men.

However, I wish to note that women have been discriminated against for a long time and have been absent in the public sphere, their roles being relegated to the private sphere. Women have now benefited from the gender equality and freedom from discrimination principle in the constitution where they are now entitled to a 30 percent representation in public, elective and appointive positions.

All the new public bodies, especially the constitutional commissions and judiciary, have paid attention to the two-thirds gender principle. The implementation of the two-thirds principle is an on-going process, however, and only after the next general election will we really appreciate its impact.

Q: Clearly there is a huge disparity in the number of men compared to women in critical decision-making areas in both the political and corporate arena. Why is this?

A: The answer is obvious. Historically, women have been locked out of the public sector. There has been very little effort made to increase women’s representation in the political and corporate arena. Socio-cultural barriers have worked against women and hindered their representation at this level.

Sometimes women’s reproductive roles are used to deny them entry into the corporate arena. This is bound to change thanks to the constitution.

Q: Are Kenyan women ready to face their male counterparts in the upcoming political contest?

A: Well, the law is on the side of women but many other barriers are still there. The barriers that women have experienced politically include ideological and social-cultural ones. (Women also have to deal with) violence, especially sexual-based violence, limited resources and the fact that the majority of political parties are in the hands of the male gender.

Women also lack support from family members. In some communities clans have only endorsed male candidates to run, especially in the pastoral communities.

Women are ready but these barriers, coupled with the male propaganda that seems to have convinced Kenyans that women can only run for the seats set aside for women, is a blow to female candidates.

Q: There have been calls for countries to adopt gender-responsive budgeting, where public finance is planned with gender dynamics in mind. How does Kenya fare in its adoption?

A: The commission has supported the Ministry of Finance and Planning to mainstream issues of gender in the budgeting process. It is somewhat challenging … We urgently need to strengthen the capacity of the officers responsible for planning and budgeting in sector working groups and at the planning and finance level.

Guidelines on this also need to be well understood by all the players, and the commission has been looking at the process of coming up with gender-responsive budgeting guidelines. We are, however, still working to refine the tools that will be used in future budgeting.

Q: Rwanda is said to be doing well in the fair representation of women in government. It is the first and only government in the world where women make up the majority of members of parliament. What can we learn from them?

A: The key to their success is political goodwill. Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame is a firm supporter of women’s representation, which in turn has helped to increase representation of women at all levels of government including in political circles.

Q: Does the Kenyan government have the same political goodwill?

A: It is a gradual process but over time we are seeing many in the government warm up to the idea of fair representation for women.

A group of women in rural West Africa participate in a traditional ceremony to celebrate a polygamist marriage. Credit: Fatuma Camara/IPS

By Issa Sikiti da Silva
DAKAR, Sep 12 2012 (IPS)

Fatou (40), Awa (32) and Aissatou Gaye (24) sit in a meditative mood on the tiled floor outside their matrimonial home in Keur Massar, a township in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

“These are my three wives and soon I’ll take a fourth to comply with Islamic law,” brags Ousmane Gaye (50), a businessman who has commercial interests in this West African nation and also in neighbouring Mali and the Gambia.

“As you can see, they love one another and live in harmony and peace like three sisters,” he says. But peace and harmony have a strange meaning in Ousmane Gaye’s vocabulary.

“Last night, Fatou and Awa beat Aissatou repeatedly and launched a litany of insults at her,” a family source tells IPS on the condition of anonymity.

“They accuse her of bewitching their husband to make him love her too much. In fact, as you came in, he was busy reprimanding them. Honestly speaking, since Ousmane brought in Aissatou three years ago, his home has not known peace and harmony.”

The women are prohibited to speak to strangers, including neighbours, women’s rights activists or marriage counsellors about their matrimonial problems. They also do not have the right to complain unnecessarily as long as they have “everything”, which includes food, clothes and sex.

“This is the way of life in Senegal,” says Adama Kouyate, an internet café owner in the middle-class suburb of Golf Sud. Two years ago, Kouyate “inherited” the wife and six children of his late brother. He has just had a baby with his late brother’s wife, bringing the number of children under his care to 14.

“This has nothing to do with Islam, but it’s our culture. And no woman has the right to oppose this because she will be harshly cursed for the rest of her life,” he says in Wolof, Dakar’s widely-spoken language.

Aminata* a Dakar woman who secretly counsels and advises wives in polygamist marriages, says: “Polygamy is a form of modern slavery, believe me it’s not easy as it sounds. Women involved in this form of marriage have no voice and no channels to complain.”

Rokhaya*, a 23-year-old university graduate who earlier this year was forced to marry a 48-year-old rich man, agrees: “Polygamy is hell and a pack of lies.”

“Look at me, I am young and supposed to be doing things most girls my age are doing. I had dreams and aspirations to own a small company and travel the continent. I’m trapped and feel I’m going crazy because this illiterate rich man won’t let me fulfil my dreams,” she says, sobbing.

Daya* says she wants to further her education but is afraid that her husband will not allow it. She stopped going to school in Grade 7, at the age of 15, when she was given in marriage to her cousin, a Muslim cleric. Now she is 30 and has seven children.

Aminata, a divorcee who was involved in an 18-year polygamist marriage, says that polygamy violates the principle of equality, promotes gender disparity and compromises women’s progress in society. “And it’s getting worse in Senegal,” she says.

“In virtually every sector of life here in Senegal – in issues of inheritance rights, involvement in business, and access to land and education – women still lag behind, despite our constitution asserting equality between men and women.”

According to the Global Gender Gap Index produced by the World Economic Forum since 2006, Senegal ranks 102nd out of 134 countries. The index measures the position of women relative to men in the areas of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival.

A “2010 USAID-Senegal Gender Assessment” report, published in April 2012, also points to continued gender disparities in many areas in this country.

“It is widely noted that implementation of the various international and national laws on gender equality and women’s rights is weak and that the government lacks an adequate plan to enact its policies,” the USAID report says.

According to the report, 39 percent of girls in Senegal aged 20 to 24 have been married by the age of 18, while the country ranks 27th out of 68 countries surveyed in terms of girls marrying before the age of 18.

Most young men interviewed at the Place de l’Independance in the Dakar city centre say they would opt for polygamy when they are ready for marriage.

Lamine Camara, 22, a student at the Cheik Anta Diop University of Dakar, says he would rather be a polygamist and “officialise all my relationships instead of taking a string of girlfriends and risking diseases such as AIDS.”

Issa Diop, a 28-year-old polygamist truck driver, says young people like him become polygamists by choice.

“It’s like fashion, you follow the trend. Besides, women outnumber men in Senegal. Polygamy is helping a lot. Almost every man in my area, young or poor, is now a polygamist. So what?”

Slightly more than half of Senegal’s 12.9 million people are women. In the 15 to 64-year age bracket there are 3.6 million women compared to 3.2 million men, according to the country’s demographic profile for 2012.

“The practice, which in the past was widespread in rural areas, has reached urban areas with alarming proportions. And abuse is on the increase, mostly in Dakar, where polygamists are becoming younger and younger,” says Fanta Niang, a social worker and gender activist from Senegal’s third-largest city of Thies.

“There are no official statistics on polygamist marriages in Senegal that I know of. They used to say one out of four marriages in urban areas and one out of three in rural areas was polygamist, but these figures are flawed to downplay the gravity of the matter,” Niang says.

She adds that sadly most wives in polygamist marriages are illiterate and unaware of women’s rights and the right to equality.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization revealed in 2010 that approximately 61 percent lack basic literacy skills.

Senegal’s gender parity law of May 2010, enacted under the Abdoulaye Wade government amid criticism from traditionalists and Muslim hardliners, has paved the way for 64 women members of parliament of a total of 150 under the newly elected government of Macky Sall. The law requires political parties to ensure that half their candidates in local and national elections are women.

“There has been no progress regarding women’s emancipation in Senegal, and polygamy continues to play a big role in that respect,” Niang says. “Women’s empowerment should start on the ground, not at the top. These 64 MPs are just the tip of the iceberg. What about the 61 percent who cannot read and write.

“We interact with these women on a daily basis, and we see things you don’t even want to hear. That’s why I said there is no progress.”

Some argue that polygamy constitutes a threat to Senegal’s constitutional principles of gender equality and the National Strategy for Gender Equality and Equity which was developed in 2005. Moussa Kalombo, a gender analyst and religious expert, tells IPS that polygamy violates the constitutional principles of gender equality in every country.

*Names changed to protect identity.

Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been in power for 33 years, and will serve another five-year term of office after his party’s landslide victory, which the opposition claims is fraudulent. Credit: Louise Redvers/IPS

By Louise Redvers
LUANDA, Sep 4 2012 (IPS)

Question marks hang over the legitimacy of Angola’s general election as Africa’s second-longest serving leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos has won a five-year term in office following his party’s landslide victory.

The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) – which has ruled Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975 – secured a parliamentary majority of just under 72 percent.

Its former civil war enemy, the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), is second with nearly 19 percent, almost doubling its 2008 tally. Third is the newly-formed Salvation–Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE) which won six percent of the vote, according to provisional results released by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) on Monday, Sep. 4.

But while the MPLA – whose lavish campaign is reported to have cost over 70 million dollars – is celebrating its win, UNITA, CASA-CE and civil society groups are understood to be working on legal challenges to contest the results.

Once the final results are in, there is a 48-hour window available for a party to lodge a legal challenge with the southern African nation’s constitutional court.

In a statement issued on Sep. 3, UNITA said it was running its own parallel counting and was following the provisional results being presented by the CNE.

UNITA accused the CNE of using government security staff to run polling stations, questioned its processes for transmission of data, and complained about how many party delegates and observers had not been able to get accreditation to monitor proceedings.

The party has been critical of the CNE and its preparation for the election for some months, alleging fraudulent manipulation on the part of the MPLA. Complaints have centred around voter lists, the way they were compiled, audited and shared.

UNITA claims thousands of “ghost voters” have been added to the rolls and that the delay in publishing the final list would prevent many people from voting.

“We will not allow a brand of fraud to take place and we will not recognise the legitimacy of any government resulting from elections held outside of the law,” UNITA leader Isaías Samakuva said a week before the vote was due to take place.

On Aug. 31, the day of the elections, many people – exact numbers are unknown – were unable to vote due because they were unable to find their names on the voters’ list. Some were told that they were actually registered to vote several hundred kilometres away in another province.

The provisional results from the CNE indicate turnout was down significantly from 80 percent in 2008 to 60 percent this year. Turnout was significantly lower in the capital Luanda at around 50 percent.

However, teams from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries praised Angola’s CNE for the way it organised the election.

The AU mission chief, Cape Verde’s former President Pedro Pires, noted some issues with delayed accreditation of party delegations and observers, unfair access to public media space and a failure to allow diaspora voting. However, Pires said overall the election was “free, fair, transparent and credible”.

Bernand Membe, Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs Minister who headed the SADC mission, acknowledged some of the claims made by opposition parties but said: “We are of the opinion that while some of the issues raised were pertinent, they were nevertheless not of such magnitude as to have affected the credibility of the overall electoral process.”

Angolan musician and activist Luaty Beirao, who has been involved in various anti-government street protests and has helped set up a website that has been publishing complaints from the public about the election, told IPS that he was very disappointed in the observation missions’ standpoint.

“How can these elections be considered fair?” he asked.

“How can you say that thing went well just because there were no fights and people were not throwing stuff at cars or burning tyres in the street?

“Peaceful is not the only the way we analyse if an election was fair and free. We must analyse the high numbers of people who were not able to vote.”

Beirao, who has been jailed several times for his activism, added: “This election was rigged and this government is not legitimate.”

The CNE has denied any wrongdoing and the MPLA has accused the opposition of making up allegations of fraud to distract from their poor results.

The MPLA, however, has already claimed victory and many ordinary Angolans seemed oblivious of UNITA’s claims.

Avelino Pacheco, 22, from Luanda, told IPS: “In my opinion these elections went very well and we were free to chose who we wanted. The people have chosen the MPLA and President dos Santos.

“There was no fraud, we must respect the choice of the people,” the statistics student said.

A woman, waiting in a taxi queue who did not want to give her name, told IPS: “It doesn’t really matter about the result though, the MPLA is in power and will be for a long time. We should just accept it.”

Six other parties and coalitions, including the historic National Front for the Liberation of Angola and the Party of Social Renovation, shared the remaining three percent.

The country’s 27-year civil war only ended in 2002 and since independence in 1975 Angola has only had two previous elections.

The 2008 poll passed peacefully despite widespread allegations of vote-rigging, but the election in 1992 was abandoned midway and triggered a second phase of the civil war that lasted until 2002. The first civil war began after independence in 1975 until 1991.

Under the terms of the country’s 2010 constitution, the head of the party that wins the most parliamentary votes becomes president – thus Dos Santos is returned automatically to power.

This will be the 70-year’s first official mandate, Russian-trained engineer never having previously been formally elected, despite having ruling Angola since 1979.

While the oil-rich country has enjoyed stellar growth since the end of its three-decade civil war in 2002, and is forecast to see a GDP hike of 12 percent in 2012, only a few of its people have shared in the peace dividend.

According to the United Nation’s 2011 Human Development Index, Angola ranks 148 out of 187 countries and more than half of the population lives below the poverty line without access to basic services.

A record number of women were sworn in as legislators as Senegal’s new parliament was inaugurated on Monday. Sixty-four women now have seats in this West African country’s 150-member National Assembly, thanks to a law on gender parity.

But the breakthrough made by women candidates has relaunched a debate on the quality of their work in the legislature.

Elections to the National Assembly, the lower of two houses of parliament, took place on Jul 1, and were comfortably won by the Benno Bokk Yaakaar coalition (BBY), whose candidate – Macky Sall – won the presidential election in March.

But the poll also served as a test of a Parity Law passed in 2010 which required all 24 parties and coalitions to put forward equal numbers of men and women on their candidate lists.

Shortly before the legislative elections, the government and women’s organisations conducted a major awareness campaign about the law.

“Our objective was to see women take 40 to 45 percent of the seats,” said Fatou Kiné Diop, president of the National Parity Observatory (ONP), which was set up under the presidency in 2011.

The campaign would seem to have been a success, with the proportion of female legislators jumping from 22 percent in the previous parliament to 43 percent for the incoming session.

“The Parity Law has been decisive. It has been a big boost for women,” Diop told IPS.

“The critical mass of women elected – thanks to the Parity Law – should allow us to make some important changes in the National Assembly,” new MP Elène Tine told IPS.

But the breakthrough has already attracted criticism.

The lower house of parliament is often considered to be a rubber stamp for the president’s decisions. Sall’s BBY coalition took 119 of the 150 seats, but the new MPs – men and women alike – campaigned with a view to breaking with the past and restoring an independent role for the National Assembly in passing legislation and serving as a check on the executive.

Questions have been raised over the role that women will play in a newly assertive legislature.

“The quality of debate in the National Assembly is seen as relatively low, particularly since the passing of the Parity Law,” said Diop. “And the people who feel that way place the blame for this on women.”

But Georges Nesta Diop, political editor for the privately owned daily newspaper Walfadjri, disagreed. “The quality of women’s contribution to parliamentary debate can only be as good as the quality of the new legislature itself,” he said.

“Most of the newly-elected women have demonstrated a high intellectual level – even if that’s not necessarily the case for those from the BBY majority. They are nearly all of leadership calibre and have established profiles,” the journalist told IPS.

“A woman like Sokhna Dieng Mbacké (a journalist and former senator) will be on familiar ground in parliament. Mama Mbayame Guèye is a doctor. Fatou Thiam is a health worker. Elène Tine, trained as an archivist, was the long-time spokesperson for the Alliance of Progressive Forces (an opposition party),” said Nesta Diop.

“This group won’t want to just make up the numbers in the National Assembly. These women will want to take up the challenge of the quality of parliamentary debate at all costs,” he added.

Sociologist Fanta Diallo, a member of the Dakar City Council, also hoped for a strong performance by women members over the five-year term of the legislature. “Contrary to what many people think, for the most part the women who have been elected are strong candidates,” she told IPS.

The breakthrough in the legislature has sparked ambitions in Senegal, where women make up 52 percent of the population. The Parity Law needs to be applied to state-owned enterprises and several important economic sectors, such as agriculture and fisheries, said Diop, “to ensure that resources are allocated equitably between men and women.”

Unfortunately the law applies only to elected positions, said Khady Fall Tall, president of the West African Women’s Association.

Walfadjri’s Nesta Diop thinks that coming out of these legislative elections, women will be emboldened to press for equal access to decision-making. “Women have won a victory and will no longer back down or make concessions over their representation in institutions, whether they are elected or not.”

But he warned that parity will not be achieved based on simple mathematical calculations. “It’s not easy to find politically engaged women, yet this type of engagement is needed to challenge for elected positions,” he said. “But I believe that women are ready to lead this political fight.”

The presence of 64 women in the National Assembly will encourage women to enter politics, said Fall. But, she added, “It would be terrible if they enter politics only to keep their seats warm.”

For her part, Tine said: “The social roles assigned to Senegalese women should have a positive impact on the National Assembly in terms of our mandate; if not, this will be a failure.”

MP Beatrice Boateng had to overcome many obstacles when she ran for her seat in parliament. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

By Jonathan Migneault and Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
ACCRA, Jul 12 2012 (IPS)

Beatrice Boateng, a member of parliament with the New Patriotic Party, Ghana’s official opposition to the ruling New Democratic Congress, has earned her place among the country’s lawmakers.

As she takes her seat in parliament, she does so having overcoming the numerous obstacles that face all would-be female politicians in Ghana, including defamation and financial difficulties.

It is little wonder then that when visitors observe Ghana’s legislators in action, one thing is immediately clear – there are very few women who sit in the West African country’s parliament.

In fact, the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranks Ghana as 120 out of 189 countries for female representation in government. Only 19 of 230 members of parliament in Ghana are women. That leaves female representation at 8.3 percent.

“It was not easy,” Boateng told IPS, referring to her second shot at parliament in 2004. “The men really ganged up against me.”

That year, members of her own party defamed her in the media. “They said I was a teacher and didn’t have money, so I was flirting with other party members for it,” she said. “They thought as a woman they could manipulate me to do whatever they wanted.”

Boateng went to court over the allegations and eventually won the case that year. She was granted a retraction in the newspapers, an apology and some financial compensation. But not before the case was adjourned 11 times.

She did not win a seat that year.

She would have to wait four more years before she finally won the chance to represent the New Juaben constituency of the Eastern Region in parliament. In 2008 she won a seat as an MP and has been serving for the last four years. She did not win the party nomination in her constituency for the 2012 election, though, and will not run for a second term.

But Boateng’s triumph in politics is a rarity here. And a Ghanaian NGO called Abantu for Development has teamed up with the country’s Department of Women to draft a political affirmative action law to open the doors for women who want to follow in Boateng’s footsteps.

“If we do not put in place special temporary measures, women will never make it into public office,” said Hilary Gbedemah, a lawyer and the rector of the Law Institute in Accra who has worked on the draft legislation.

Eight years ago, the NGO Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa or LAWA Ghana made recommendations for draft legislation on affirmative action. Though work towards the legislation only started four years ago, with the Department of Women creating the Affirmative Action Legislation Working Committee, a four-person committee responsible for creating the draft legislation, in May 2011.

While the sub-committee is yet to start drafting and sifting through the varied recommendations received, they are working toward a gender parity zone where no gender occupies more than 60 percent of public or political positions.

In 1995, the United Nations’ Beijing Platform for Action on Equality, Development and Peace, to which Ghana is a signatory, recommended a minimum of 30 percent female representation in decision-making positions.

So far, 37 countries across the globe have reached the Beijing Platform’s 30 percent marker for female representation in parliament. Of those countries, only three achieved the feat without affirmative action initiatives.

“We are hoping that when we get the affirmative action law to back the policies that we have, we will have the basis to hold political parties responsible to give support to women,” said Patience Opoku, principal programme officer and acting director with Ghana’s Department of Women.

Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda are among the African countries with affirmative action laws. They each have more than 30 percent female representation in parliament. Rwanda leads the world with 56.3 percent representation.

But in Ghana, several factors still prevent women from reaching decision-making positions.

When Boateng ran for parliament for the first time in 1996, she said her biggest obstacle was her finances. “I knew I needed money and I didn’t have it,” she said.

Though in 2004, during her second attempt to run for office, she was in a better financial position and was able to secure loans from banks. But by this time her children had also completed their schooling, and she had more cash available.

Ghana is traditionally a patriarchal society. “When we come home we are given different roles,” said Hamida Harrison, Abantu’s mobilisation manager. “Those roles have brought about this relationship that is superiority versus inferiority.”

Women are expected to raise children and have fewer opportunities for tertiary education and professional advancement.

“Men have the money,” said Gbedemah.

At the elementary level, boys and girls are evenly represented in Ghana’s schools.
“But by the time we come to the tertiary level boys outnumber girls almost three to one,” Gbedemah said. She said that a study by ActionAid International found that the public perception of girls’ education, household chores and early pregnancy are all factors that have contributed to the disparity.

To increase the number of young women in Ghana’s tertiary institutions, a form of affirmative action is currently in place as the entrance requirements for women remain lower than those for men. It points to a long history of affirmative action in Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, set aside 10 seats for women in Ghana’s parliament in the early 1960s. Though that policy fell out of favour after he was overthrown by a coup in 1966.

“In India, and in the Nordic countries, we found that when you increase women’s representation they tend to focus on things like health, sanitation, education and social services,” said Gbedemah.

Issues that are specific to women, such as maternal mortality and domestic violence, also receive more attention when a country has a higher proportion of female decision makers.

The Department of Women and Abantu want to have nationwide consultations on the draft affirmative action bill by the end of the year, before it goes to parliament. While it will not be ready for Ghana’s December election, they hope to have affirmative action in place for the 2016 elections.

A nurse attends to an expectant mother at Walgak Primary Health Care Centre in South Sudan's Jonglei State. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

By Charlton Doki
JUBA, Jul 9 2012 (IPS)

One year after the formation of South Sudan, the country’s women say that independence has not resulted in the positive political, economic and social changes that they had hoped for.

Women activists worry that even after separation from Sudan on Jul. 9, 2011, when South Sudan became the world’s newest country and Africa’s 54th nation, the government has not done enough to improve the lives of its women.

But as people across the country celebrate the first anniversary of independence from Sudan, after a 21-year civil war, the year has been fraught with crises.

The country is in the midst of an economic crisis after South Sudan’s decision in January to shut down oil production, which accounts for 98 percent of the its revenue, following a dispute with Sudan over fees charged to use its pipelines.

There is also dire food insecurity here. In June, the United Nations World Food Programme said that more than half of the country’s 8.2 million people would need food aid by the end of the year.

In the country’s Upper Nile state, the Jamam refugee camp is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. The camp is home to some of the 200,000 refugees who, according to the U.N., have fled the conflict in Sudan’s Blue state.

However, Médecins Sans Frontières has warned that the mortality rate among children at the camp was 2.8 per 10,000 per day. This figure is above the emergency threshold of two per 10,000.

Amidst all of this both women leaders and activists admit that they had high expectations of the country’s first year. Some feel that the reality of independence has failed to live up to the hype and euphoria.

“We had high expectations, but I think they are not unrealistic and should not be pushed aside. Women are doing badly politically, economically, socially and education wise. The government needs to take measures to address the challenges facing women so that they can truly enjoy life in their new independent country,” Lorna Merekaje, of the South Sudan Domestic Election Monitoring and Observation Programme, told IPS.

Others disagree.

The Central Equatoria state Governor’s advisor on conflict resolution, Helen Murshali Boro, said that women’s concerns would be addressed.

“There is freedom of speech to allow women to express themselves and this means women’s concerns will not go off the radar until they are addressed in the coming years of our country’s independence,” she said.

Though the reality still remains far different.

“Like in the past when South Sudan was still part of Sudan, today women live in poverty,” said Lona James Elia, executive director of a local women’s rights agency, Voice For Change.

The National Baseline Household Survey (NBHS), conducted in 2009 and released in June 2012, indicates that over half of South Sudan’s 8.2 million people live below the poverty line on less than a dollar a day. The majority of the poor are women.

Elia added that South Sudan is still unable to provide maternal health services to the country’s women, especially in rural areas.

According to the U.N. Children’s Fund only 19 percent of births are attended by a skilled health worker. According to the NBHS, 30 percent of the population has no access to basic health services.

The few available health facilities lack supplies and qualified personnel to provide the required services. And in some rural areas women cannot receive maternal and antenatal care because they live too far from the nearest maternity clinic. Thirty-seven percent of poor households have to travel for more than an hour to reach their nearest most-used health facility, according to the NBHS.

“Women are still dying while giving birth. They are still not accessing maternal health services. A woman is not supposed to die because she is giving birth to a new life, a new baby. This is not acceptable,” Elia told IPS.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2011 the country recorded that 2,054 out of every 100,000 women died during childbirth. The high mortality rate has not changed much a year later, according to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

In June, Kate Gilmore, assistant secretary-general and deputy executive director (Programme) of the UNFPA, told reporters in Juba that maternal mortality rates in South Sudan remained the worst in the world.

“The latest evidence that we have is that using standard figures in every 100,000 births there are over two thousand women who die from preventable causes in South Sudan. In Afghanistan, which surely is one of the most troubled countries in the world, it is half that. Across Africa it is five hundred,” she had said.

Elia said the government needed to invest in maternal health services to ensure that women could participate in developing the country.

“A mother should not have to travel all the way from Gondokoro to Juba to deliver a baby because there is no hospital in her home city,” Elia said. Gondokoro is about 20 km from Juba and also within Central Equatoria state. She added that because the nearest health care centre was too far, some women died along the way.

However, government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said that the government had worked hard to improve living standards.
“We have initiated projects, including building schools and health centres, which will benefit all South Sudanese citizens, including women,” he told IPS.

In addition, the government has implement an affirmative action policy that ensures 25 percent women’s representation in all government jobs at national, state and county levels.

“You see after independence the president appointed six women to the cabinet and about nine to 10 assistant ministers. I think with about 16 women in the national government, the government has responded positively,” said Boro.

Currently there are four female ministers out of a total of 29, and eight female assistant ministers from a total of 27.

However, activists say that this has not directly affected the lives of the country’s women.

“When you look at the middle-class women and those at the grassroots they are still not in positions where they can make decisions that benefit women,” Merekaje told IPS.

Boro admitted that women still occupy low entry positions in the work field.

“Although these days you see more women coming to work in the morning, at the end of the day they go home with peanuts because they work in the less-paid, low positions,” Boro said.

Elia said that women were unable to find employment because the majority are illiterate and do not have the vocational skills required by employers. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 88 percent of South Sudanese women are illiterate. In addition, the U.N. says that only one percent of girls complete primary school.

“Women are the most illiterate and because, despite the independence of our country, women at the grassroots level still remain the most underprivileged segment of society as they have to depend on men for survival,” Elia told IPS.

Jerisa Yide is one such example. The 65-year-old grandmother earns a living breaking stones and rocks into gravel, which she sells to builders.

“I used to crash stones before independence to enable me to pay my grandchildren’s school fees. We are now independent, but we are even paying more fees for our children to go to school,” said Yide.

Primary and secondary school education are not free in South Sudan. And as a result of the shut down on oil production, the government introduced an austerity budget in January where it scrapped free university education.

Yide said that when she voted for independence she expected the government to provide better services, including education and health.

Selina Modong agreed that not much had changed. She said that the cost of living in Juba had increased since independence. As a result of the economic crisis, inflation has soared to a staggering 80 percent in May.

“I was eating one meal per day before independence. Today I still eat one meal per day and sometimes we hardly eat good food these days,” Modong said.

“I think independence has not changed anything for us poor people,” Modong concluded.

Elia said that everyone should participate in ensuring that the women’s agenda is addressed.

“If you want this independence to benefit everyone, the issue of women should not be for women alone. It should be for everybody. Let us ensure that our daughters have a bright future. That they will get the education they want, that they will get the employment they want and that they will get the health services they deserve to build healthy families for themselves,” said Elia.

Several dozen protestors who were arrested for taking part in a demonstration in the capital Luanda in November 2011. Credit: Louise Redvers/IPS

By Louise Redvers
JOHANNESBURG, Jul 6 2012 (IPS)

Preparations for Angola’s second peacetime polls scheduled for August are being overshadowed by allegations of electoral fraud, state media bias and growing concerns about a violent crackdown on activists and protestors.

Human Rights Watch has criticised the government for its heavy-handed response to street demonstrations by former soldiers demanding unpaid military pensions, and the lobby group said that it was worried about a series of violent attacks on youth groups known for their criticism of the government.

“The recent spate of serious abuses against protesters is an alarming sign that Angola’s government will not tolerate peaceful dissent,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director.

“The government should stop trying to silence these protests and focus on improving the election environment,” she added.

Meanwhile opposition groups are unhappy about how the elections, which are scheduled for Aug. 31, are being organised. Several parties who were on Friday Jul. 6 barred from taking part altogether – supposedly due to paperwork irregularities – are crying foul.

Of the 27 parties and coalitions who applied to run in the election, only nine have been formally approved by the Constitutional Court.

Among those rejected are the Bloco Democrático (BD), led by leading intellectual and former ruling party member Justino Pinto de Andrade; and Partido Popular, which was formed by respected human rights lawyer David Mendes.

“This is a symptom of Angolan democracy. They have deliberately blocked the parties who campaign for human rights and show solidarity to social causes,” BD secretary general, Filomeno Viera Lopes, told IPS.

The largest opposition party, União Nacional pela Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), has been cleared to run, but it remains highly critical of various aspects of the electoral process, especially around the allocation of tenders for services like the printing of ballot papers.

It is also asking whether it is really the National Electoral Commission (CNE) that is in charge of the election or the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA).

The CNE has refuted the allegations of wrongdoing and its president André da Silva Neto has said the vote will be conducted with “exemption, impartiality, transparency and fairness”.

The MPLA has also denied the fraud charges and accusations that it is targeting critical activists. Several senior figures, including President Jose Eduardo dos Santos himself, have publicly stated that the party was too big and too popular to need to cheat.

“From a judicial point of view, we have a lot of problems because the electoral commission is still violating the electoral law and we plan to formally complain to the constitutional courts about a number of issues,” UNITA spokesman Alcides Sakala said.

He complained about the state media bias towards the ruling party. He also cited a last-minute change to allow diaspora voting, despite the fact that overseas electoral registration had been restricted to embassy staff and MPLA supporters.

Sakala also expressed concern about a plan to allow police officers and the army to vote ahead of polling day.

“How will this process be monitored?” he asked. “No one will be able to control that and that raises a lot of concern from our side.”

While UNITA remains the largest party with 16 seats in parliament, it faces some stiff competition from new kid on the block Convergencia Ampla de Salvação de Angola (CASA-CE).

Formed just months ago by the highly regarded Abel Chivukuvuku, himself formerly of UNITA and with close links to the late war-time leader Jonas Savimbi, CASA-CE brings a new dynamic to the Angolan political scene.

Angolan expert Markus Weimer from London-based think tank Chatham House said that while CASA-CE could only hope to secure a few seats in parliament, its formation was ruffling feathers within the MPLA.

“I think the MPLA is worried by CASA-CE because it is an unknown,” he said. “The party has come seemingly from nowhere and from nothing and they are not quite sure how to handle them.”

Weimer said he was confident the MPLA, which has a firm grip on the country’s economy and media, both state and private, would win the vote. He added that it was crucial that the doubts over the voting process were cleared up.

“The process needs to be seen as legitimate by everyone for the MPLA’s win to be accepted,” he explained.

“The MPLA will be prepared to lose seats if it means the election is regarded as credible and legitimate.”

Angola’s experience of elections is limited, having only previously held two since the country’s independence from Portugal in 1975.

The 2008 poll passed peacefully despite widespread allegations of vote-rigging, but the election in 1992 was abandoned midway and triggered a second phase of the civil war that lasted until 2002. The first civil war began after independence in 1975 until 1991.

There are fears that if opposition parties do not feel the vote is conducted fairly, this could trigger protests and lead to unrest.

“We want to keep a positive approach and avoid this,” UNITA’s Sakala said.

“We will be insisting that the law is followed so that we can avoid other situations that can lead to other difficulties that are not good for the country.”

He said they had been encouraged by the Supreme Court’s June decision to uphold his party’s appeal against the appointment of MPLA member Suzanna Ingles to the presidency of the CNE despite only being a lawyer, and not a serving judge as the law required.

While this is a legislative election, the vote will also decide who will be Angola’s president because a controversial change in the constitution in 2010 means that the head of state is now elected from the top of the list of the party which wins the most parliamentary votes.

With the MPLA on course for what seems like another victory, Dos Santos, who has been in power for 33 years since 1979 despite never being formally elected, will be handed a new five-year term.

The length of the 69-year-old’s presidency, one of the longest in Africa, alongside widespread allegations of illicit enrichment by his family and inner circle, has been a driver for some of the recent youth protests.

Despite the country’s enormous oil wealth and impressive post-war economic growth, between half and two thirds of the population still live in poverty, many in slum-style conditions without access to running water, sanitation or electricity.

By Carlota Cortes
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 27 2012 (IPS)

Radhika Coomaraswamy has been the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict since April 2006.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, UNMISS, South Sudan Ministry of Defence and UNICEF sign action plan for the release of children from the SPLA and allied militias. Credit: Children and Armed Conflict

She has visited Uganda, Central African Republic, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines and Iraq among other countries to see first-hand the situation of children there.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: Last March, you visited South Sudan. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) signed a U.N. agreement to release the children in their ranks. This is one of the objectives of your office: to establish a dialogue with the different parties. How effective has this strategy been in the past and how effective is it expected to be in South Sudan?

A: We have been successful, we have had about 17 action plans signed and in 2011 several thousand children were released in the Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, South Sudan and Sudan, including through United Nations demobilisation efforts.

This is a Security Council-mandated process, so what happens basically is the council asks the secretary-general to list parties that recruit and use children as child soldiers as one of its categories. The SPLA was listed as such a party.

To get off the list you have to enter into an action plan… that verifies that you do not have children anymore, so basically that’s what we did. We signed the action plan with them to release the children.

The situation in South Sudan is different from that in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Many young people join (the SPLA) and get involved because of the lack of any other opportunity, and SPLA has a lax policy that allows them to come. Currently, many of the cases are not of abducting and recruiting as you had in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Q: In the latest U.N. report on children and armed conflict, the Syrian government forces are listed as a new party that kills and maims children and also attacks schools and hospitals. What would be the best way to approach the issue?

A: What’s very important in Syria now is to first stop the fighting, and to do that we have to try and quickly revive the political process and stop the confrontation between the two parties. After that one can think of peacekeeping or anything else that the international community decides.

Q: How much has been achieved so far?

A: Nothing in Syria. Absolutely nothing, and that’s the problem and it’s a real concern, a humanitarian concern. For the killing of children, for the maiming of children, the torture of children, the summary execution of children, nothing has been done and that’s why we are calling on the international community to speak with one voice.

The technical team (that was sent to Syria) could meet with the refugees, with people across the border, so they spoke to them and they met children who have been victims and take out their attestation from them without an adult’s presence. They assessed the credibility of those children and in some cases of torture, the physical marks were still on the children. They got a very good sense of what is taking place.

Q: In this same report, Nepal and Sri Lanka are no longer on the “list of shame”. What should be the next step in the process towards peace and reconciliation?

A: In Sri Lanka, for example, there were two parties listed, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP). With regard to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, they were all killed at the end of the war, there was no leadership so there was no question of listing them. The TMVP had entered into an action plan with the U.N. and finally this year a team went down and confirmed that all the children had been released and therefore these parties were delisted.

Now the humanitarian programmes, of course, will continue but the purpose of listing of course is no longer there.

Excerpt:

The traditional engagement ceremony of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza (r) on Dec. 26, 2009 created controversy in conservative Malawi. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

By Monica Tabengwa
Jun 14 2012 (IPS)

At a news conference shortly after she was sworn in as Malawi’s president, Joyce Banda announced her government’s intention to decriminalise homosexuality. It is unclear how she will achieve this, but the move is in stark contrast to the approach of her predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, who openly condemned it.

In a region in which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights have often been rejected in the name of traditional values, Banda’s stance is bound to attract attention. Hopefully, it will bring about some rethinking of policies that discriminate against LGBT people and often even criminalise homosexual practices.

In fact, Banda has taken a series of brave stands since she took office. Her refusal last week to host the African Union summit in July because the AU insists on having President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan there, despite his outstanding arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, is just one of them.

And amending LGBT rights is another indication of her determination to lead Malawi back onto the path of being a forward-looking democracy and a state that respects universal human rights and global bodies such as the ICC over and above parochial interests.

Banda, the former vice president, inherited a grim economic situation when she took office in April, the first woman to become a head of state in the southern African region. Soon after taking office, she announced that she intended to repeal repressive laws and policies, some of them passed under Mutharika’s rule, including the laws criminalising same-sex acts.

The repeal of these repressive laws would be good news for Malawi and for Africa. It would not only spare members of the LGBT community the fear of prosecution, but would also negate the legitimisation of violence, abuse, and discrimination based on sexual orientation.

It would also be the first time since 1994 that an African country has repealed anti-LGBT legislation, and would add renewed impetus to global efforts toward decriminalisation of same-sex conduct.

How then will Banda’s announcement be viewed by other African leaders? Coming as it does just before the AU Summit on Jul. 15 and 16, Banda’s decision may reignite the discussion of traditional values, in a desperate attempt by some to reverse progress made through years of activism and international jurisprudence. Such a move should not be allowed to take hold.

Under Mutharika’s rule, the situation in Malawi was quite different. In April 2010, Malawi authorities arrested and prosecuted Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a transgender woman, and Steven Monjeza, a man, after a local newspaper published pictures of their “engagement party.”

After an international outcry, Mutharika pardoned the two on “humanitarian grounds” but said the couple had committed crimes against Malawian tradition and culture. To underscore the point, in December 2010 the Malawian parliament extended existing laws criminalising same-sex acts between men to include same-sex acts between women.

Mutharika died in April after eight years in office that did little to address the corruption and poverty in Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest countries. During 2011, as the economic situation deteriorated and public grievances grew, the government became increasingly repressive. On Jul. 20, police fired on a demonstration, killing 19 people and wounding dozens more. Hundreds were arrested.

Multiple donors suspended aid programmes, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Norway, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank, citing bad governance and mismanagement of funds.

Although sanctions may be useful in seeking to secure and protect human rights, any attempts to single out LGBT rights in this process has backfired as politicians have used this to divert the people’s attention from their own corrupt practices. The government sought to blame the LGBT community for the cuts in donor aid, provoking increased homophobia and threats against known supporters of LGBT rights.

In part for this reason, the public perception of Banda’s motives in saying she intends to decriminalise homosexuality may be more contentious. Some in Malawi and in the region will see her move as bowing to international pressure.

The issue of donors imposing conditions on their aid has long been a bone of contention for African states, but the LGBT issue has spurred new debate. While good governance and respect for human rights should be core standards underpinning donor programmes, many African activists, including international human rights advocates, oppose the use of aid conditionality to promote protection of LGBT communities in Africa.

After British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened to suspend direct aid to repressive governments, especially countries that had laws, policies, and practices that subjected LGBT communities to discrimination and abuse, some African social justice activists wrote to him expressing their disapproval, saying:

“The imposition of donor sanctions may be one way of seeking to improve the human rights situation in a country but does not, in and of itself, result in the improved protection of the rights of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) people. They tend, as has been evidenced in Malawi, to exacerbate the environment of intolerance in which political leadership scapegoat LGBTI people for donor sanctions in an attempt to retain and reinforce national state sovereignty.”

But Malawi, South Africa, and others should stand firm against any effort to reject LGBT rights as human rights.

As Banda acts to rebuild the country’s economy and roll back the recent human rights repression, decriminalisation is an important first step. However, it needs to be accompanied by a real commitment to address public homophobia, and support civil society efforts to promote human rights more broadly — efforts that donors should support.

It will take more than the repeal of the laws to change public perceptions and attitudes. Banda’s efforts will need a holistic focus on rights and civil liberties for all Malawians, including LGBT individuals. Forming strategic partnerships with civil society organisations to prevent all form of discrimination — including on the basis of sexual orientation — will not only circumvent homophobic sentiments but also promote greater public participation and ownership of the reform process.

*Monica Tabengwa is an LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

There are two women among the 14 candidates contesting the first round of Senegalese presidential elections that will be held on Feb. 26. But according to several analysts, this overwhelmingly Muslim West African country is not ready to be governed by a woman.

One of the female candidates is Amsatou Sow Sidibé, a law professor at Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), leader of the civil society group Convergence of Stakeholders for the Defense of Republican Values. The other is independent candidate and fashion designer Diouma Diakhaté Dieng.

Sow Sidibé, 59, already has a modest track record in politics, while Diakhaté Dieng entered the race at the last moment, her candidacy catching many observers by surprise.

One of the female candidates is Amsatou Sow Sidibé, a law professor at Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), leader of the civil society group Convergence of Stakeholders for the Defense of Republican Values. Courtesy of Trust Africa

Even if some think that courage and gender go well together and could help the two candidates, others feel that Senegal’s electorate is not yet ready to entrust a woman with the reins of power.

The two candidates are well aware of the status of women in the country and the way they are perceived by men, and this is why they are seeking to break the taboo by winning on Feb. 26.

Sow Sidibé says that she has spent decades fighting to promot women’s rights and leadership, because there can be no democracy without the participation of half of the population: 52 percent of Senegal’s population is female, according to 2011 statistics.

On the question of education, she believes it necessary to “allow all young Senegalese to acquire skills that will enable them hold down a decent job, and to enter professional life early”, and this can be accomplished through a policy of education for all.

Sow Sidibé promises to fight against the high cost of living and to address health issues. “We intend to index pensions to the cost of living, to improve health care for soldiers with disabilities… or even to build social housing,” she told IPS.

“Impunity must end and corruption must be resisted. So much money comes into this country and I promise, if I come to power, to manage it as a good mother,” she said. According to her, “poverty concerns 80 percent of the population, and its eradication will happen through voluntary strategies which will target vulnerable people”.

According to Sow Sidibé, Senegal suffers from many problems and it is time to put the country’s destiny in a woman’s hands for equitable management of goods and resources. She adds that it’s necessary to give a chance to women and children to definitively resolve the conflict in the southern region of Casamance.

Diakhaté Dieng, the second candidate, 65, believes that the unemployed and women have not been accounted for in government’s policy and that it’s necessary to help unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 30 to get practical training.

She says that the difficulties facing the country are enormous, underlining the importance of confronting problems of youth unemployment, without ignoring the need for a definitive resolution of the Casamance conflict.

“Once in power, we must enhance the image of education for all. Schools will be restructured and rebuilt, teachers’ salaries will be revised upwards,” she said. “Nor will the energy crisis will not be ignored,  where we now have to count on private donors in order to assure customers and avoid power cuts that we have been living with for more than five years.”

Voters’ opinions of these women are divided. “We are very attached to our traditions. We may talk about equality, but leadership is not part of women’s role,” said Alioune Samb, a literature student at UCAD.

In contrast, his colleague, Issa Gning, says that is an unfair stigmatisation, because according to him, women know the needs of the people better – and act as mothers would. “I would not hesitate to vote for a woman,” he told IPS.

Astou Dieng, a Dakar-based sociologist, also thinks that Senegalese voters are not ready to see a woman in the country’s highest office, because tradition is a weight on their thinking that must not  be forgotten.

“Here in Senegal, there are still problems of caste. People still think of women as sub-human. Sure, there has been change, but this is only in Dakar; in the interior, women are still marginalised,” she told IPS, expressing her belief that the candidacy of the singer Youssou N’Dour was rejected simply because he is a griot – a member of an inferior social class.

For Idrissa Seck, presidential candidate, to have women candidates proves that the country aspires to real change. “I wish good luck to everyone. Presently, we hope for just one thing, the departure of Abdoulaye Wade. If this comes to happen thanks to the women, that’s fine,” he told IPS.

Talla Sylla, a member of the opposition coaltion “Benno Siguil Sénégal”, has asked people to vote for the women candidates.

“Women have played and continue to play an important role in our society. The two candidates should be supported. It’s true that here tradition is still alive, but with women ministers, legislators, and others, people are begining to be aware,” he said.

(END/IPS/12)

As Somalia’s transitional government and various stakeholders meet Wednesday to discuss the inclusion of the country’s clans in the new government, women politicians have called for a greater role in the leadership of this East African nation.

Most Somali women have to provide for their families as the country’s female politicians call for greater representation in parliament. Credit: Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar/IPS

The Somali government, regional autonomies, civil society, and the non-militant Islamist group Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a will meet in Garowe, Puntland state from Feb. 15 to 16 to discuss the composition of the country’s new parliament as the transitional period ends this August.

In exclusive interviews with IPS, the Minister for Women’s Development and Family Care, Dr. Mariam Aweis Jama, and the director for Women’s Affairs at the Presidential Palace, Malyun Sheik Heidar, said it was time that Somali women played a key part in the country’s leadership.

Jama said that in Somalia women are denied access to leadership and accused Somali men of not respecting women and preventing them from having a greater role in politics.

A woman has only ever held the ministerial post for Women’s Development and Family Care, and no woman has been appointed to other ministerial roles.

“As I remember, in the country’s history only the Ministry of Women’s (Development and Family Care) was always given to the Somali women. But that time was passed and we are going to have an equal share in the future cabinet,” Heidar said.

Both Jama and Heidar said they want to see more women in various ministerial posts and in the country’s other top leadership positions.

Heidar said that it was shameful that there is no regional female governor in the country, which consists of 18 regions and nearly 100 districts. “We only have one female district commissioner in Mogadishu, and that is unacceptable to us,” she said referring to Deqo Abdulkader, the commissioner of Wardhigley district in Mogadishu.

“Women are about 70 percent of the people and that is why Islam allowed that a man can marry four wives, so it is misfortune to neglect the role of women who are a majority in every community. We need (to be part of the) Presidency, we need a woman to become Prime Minister or Speaker of Parliament,” Jama said adding that Somali women are also lobbying to lead diplomatic missions abroad.

Jama said that according to Article 29 of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Charter, drawn up during the Somali National Reconciliation Conference in Kenya in 2004, women must comprise 12 percent of the transitional parliament. However, she feels they were cheated and not given enough posts in the current government.

Only 41 out of the 550-member Somali parliament are women – a mere seven percent. The Human Rights Committee is the only one of 27 parliamentary sub-committees chaired by a woman, Hawa Abdullahi Qayad.

However, women’s representation in the country’s 20 political parties has grown from five percent to at least 11 percent since 2004, although women mostly work in public relations and women’s affairs.

Women’s representation in parliament is also set to increase to 30 percent when the transitional period ends in August.

At a conference mapping out the country’s new constitution in Djibouti from Jan. 6 to 12, participants unanimously accepted a motion that 30 percent of the next parliament’s seats would to go to women. Somali lawmaker Sheik Jama Hajji Hussein, a moderate religious man and a long-time politician, said he had made the recommendation.

“In the era of Prophet Mohamed … women were teaching at Islamic schools, also the prophet’s wives used to teach some of his companions. So learning from this, women may have a big role in the community and it does not matter if they serve as politicians or a woman becomes the Somali Prime Minister or Speaker of Parliament,” Hussein said.

But Jama said that a 30 percent representation is not enough.

“We are not satisfied with 30 percent and I am telling you with a loud voice that after the transitional period ends we want 50 percent of parliament’s seats to go to women,” Jama said.

“There are thousands of educated women, including hundreds who have specialised in policy, so I am confident that Somali women currently have the knowledge and the power to lead,” she added.

For her part, Heidar wants to be chief of the country’s cabinet. “From now on nothing can prevent us from taking high posts in the country’s leadership and in the future I want to become Somalia’s Prime Minister.” The Prime Minister is the 2nd highest-ranking person in Somalia, after the President.

“In the years to come I will run for Parliamentary Speaker … I am sure someday that a Somali woman will lead parliament, or the whole country,” Heidar said of her plan to occupy one of the top jobs in Somalia.

However, women here still face resistance as Somali men have different views on women’s role in government. Most do not accept that women have a role in policy development or governance. Here, in this Horn of Africa country, religious and cultural zealots preach that women should not play a role in politics.

“Our Islamic religion tells us that those who are led by women will fail, so in accordance with Islam women must refrain from their ambition of leading a country and having representation in policy,” Ugas Abokar Islow Hassan, a well-known Somali tribal leader told IPS, adding that women must refrain from aspiring to political posts.

Sheik Farah Yusuf Mohamed, a fundamentalist preacher and Imam at Al-Huda Mosque in the capital, believes that a “woman’s mind is incomplete to lead a country” and that, according to Islam, they are only allowed to care for their homes.

But Ali Mohammed Nuh, the leader of the United Somali Republican Party believes that Somali women must be allowed to play a role in politics.

“In my party the representation of women has been expanded and I am prioritising that women have more membership in political parties—in my party we have a female deputy chairperson for public affairs,” Nuh said.

“Now women make up about 10 percent of our party’s members and I am very hopeful that the number of women in the United Somali Republican Party will increase in the years to come,” he added.

Mali’s political parties have jointly called on the government to hold a forum for peace and reconciliation as a way to end a Tuareg rebellion launched several weeks ago. The uprising has forced around 55,000 people out of their homes, the majority fleeing the fighting in the north of the country, but others are seeking shelter from ethnic tension and violent demonstrations in cities in the south.

Across the country, MNLA rebels have circulated images like these via cellphone. Credit: MNLA

The uprising by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) has claimed dozens of casualties since mid-January, including members of the army and the rebels, though precise numbers have not been established by independent sources.

In a Feb. 7 statement, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said it has sent emergency teams to countries bordering Mali to help meet the needs of around 20,000 refugees in neighbouring countries.

“In the past three weeks, at least 10,000 people are reported to have crossed to Niger, 9,000 have found refuge in Mauritania and 3,000 in Burkina Faso,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said in Geneva on Tuesday.

“Many of the new arrivals are sleeping in the open and have little access to shelter, clean water, health services and food,” Edwards said.

The Red Cross estimates that 30,000 others have been displaced within Mali since the first MNLA attack, against the town of Menaka, took place on Jan. 17, against the town of Menaka. The rebels have gone on to attack several other army garrisons in the north of the country.

Since then, popular anger over the attacks has grown in the south. Violent demonstrations took place in several southern cities including Kayes, Ségou, and the capital, Bamako, between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2. The marches were organised in reaction to what protesters view as a “timid” reaction by the authorities against the rebellion, but in many cases degenerated into rioting.

Modibo Diaby, a resident of the southern town of Kati, told IPS that he saw numerous businesses belong to Tuaregs – or people believed to be Tuareg – were looted; similar scenes occurred elsewhere in the south.

The Malian president, Amadou Toumani Touré, has called on Malians not to confuse the insurgents with Tuareg civilians more generally. “Those who attacked military barracks and other locations in the north must not be conflated with our other compatriots – Tuareg, Arab, Songhai, Peul – who live with us,” said Touré in a televised address on Feb. 1.

He highlighted military operations against the rebels. “The army has all that it needs to secure the safety of all our people. We will continue to send weapons and ammunition.”

Also seeking to ease ethnic tension, Mali’s Minister for Infrastructure and Transportation, Ahmed Diane Semega, the following day stressed that not all Tuareg are part of the rebellion. “Of the nearly 3,600 Tuareg in the national army, fewer than one hundred have deserted,” he said.

According to a military source, 300 Tuareg fighters – the largest contingent of Malian Tuareg soldiers who returned from Libya after the fall of Moammar Gaddhafi – have been deployed with the Malian army in the areas of Kidal, Tessalit and Gao, all in the north.

These fighters, drawn from the Imghad Tuareg community, have been placed under the command of Colonel Elhadj Gamou, a Tuareg who joined the Malian army in line with the terms of a 1992 peace pact that ended a previous uprising in the same region.

On Dec. 3, 2011, well before the latest uprising, two representatives of this Tuareg community – Colonel Waqqi Ag Ossad and Comander Inackly Ag Back – met with President Traoré and told him their group was ready to give up their weapons and serve the state.

According to Bamako-based journalist Cheikna Hamalla Sylla, the presence of the Imghad soldiers is the reason that an attack on the rebels’ main objective, the city of Kidal, has been delayed so far.

Notwithstanding continued military operations against the rebels, Touré has stated that the government still plans to hold presidential elections scheduled for Apr. 29.

According to Dioncounda Traoré, the president of the National Assembly and himself a candidate in the April elections, “(The president has committed) to putting everything in place to retire on Jun. 8, 2012 in line with the constitution, after organising credible and transparent elections.”

Leaders of Mali’s political parties want a forum on peace and reconciliation to be held from Feb. 17 to 19, and they have called on the Malian authorities to contact the governments of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger for assistance in opening a dialogue with the rebel groups.

They also want the government to speak to leading Tuareg and Arab figures who have left Mali for neighbouring countries; and to the ambassadors of France, the United States and the European Union for assistance in creating the forum for peace and reconciliation.

Deadly clashes between police and youth in the Northeastern town of Taza last week suggest that, far from bringing change and stability, Morocco’s new government is simply repeating mistakes of the past, stoking tensions and fuelling a spate of protests against the regime.

Demonstrators outside the court in Taza. Credit: Abderrahim El Ouali/IPS.

In an effort to keep its population in check during the Arab Spring, the regime launched a process of reforms last February and brandished what it called ‘the Moroccan exception’, boasting of relative calm during a period of intense regional turmoil.

A new constitution took effect on Jul. 1, 2011, granting wider powers to the executive of the new government while supposedly cutting back the authority of the monarch.

This was followed by general elections last September, which were snapped up by the Islamists of the Justice and Development Party (PJD), whose general secretary, Abdelilah Benkirane, was subsequently named the head of the new government.

But Benkirane, who presented his programme to parliament last month, has thus far failed to deliver on his election pledges.

For instance, the promise to completely eradicate unemployment, which currently touches 19 percent of the working population, evaporated soon after his appointment, giving way to a negligible decrease in joblessness of a single percentage point.

Habib El Maliki, president of the Moroccan Centre for Conjuncture (CMC), told journalists on Jan. 20, “The government’s plans to fight joblessness were not strong enough. The programme determined objectives without means, and any programme without means is doomed to failure.”

Public opposition to political procrastination has been swift and the streets of Morocco have become a veritable minefield of tension.

Following a violent police clampdown on a demonstration by graduates demanding jobs outside the ministry of education in Rabat on Jan. 21, a 27-year-old unemployed graduate named Abdelwahab Zaidoun set himself ablaze in the streets.

Once a rare occurrence, self-immolation has become a much more frequent tactic in the Arab world, after Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian vegetable seller, burned himself alive last year, igniting from his simmering remains the revolutions known as the Arab Spring.

Zaidoun succumbed to his burns on Jan. 24, his tearful 25-year-old wife told the Associated Press last month, adding, “I accuse the makhzen (the ruling elite) of killing him.”

Zaidoun’s death, five days after the government’s inauguration in front of the parliament, triggered a wave of protest throughout the country. In several cities, protesters have called for the abolition of the monarchy.

One of the most incendiary protests so far sprang up in the city of Taza, one of the kingdom’s poorest regions, located 340 kilometres Northeast of Casablanca, on Feb. 1.

Here, the new Islamic government exposed its true colours, lashing out savagely in a police-protester confrontation that left about 100 people on both sides injured.

Rahim Moktafi, an activist from the ‘February 20th’ movement, was an eyewitness to the events.

“At first, the protests were peaceful. The police surrounded the city. They blocked Internet connections and cut off the telephone lines before beginning to club everybody,” he told IPS.

“The police even entered the houses of citizens to club them,” he added.

Videos shared on social networks showed civilians claiming that they were threatened with beatings and rape in their own homes.

“Morocco has always been one of the most violent regimes in the world, and the Islamist government is the best mask for the regime to go on with its same old practices,” Moktafi said.

Far from bringing much-needed change, “This government will only extend the tyranny for five more years,” he said.

Anger against the “bearded government”, as it is referred to in the local press, does not come only from the fields of confrontation with police.

In Marrakesh, 250 kilometres south of Casablanca, where demonstrations were held in solidarity with Taza, public anger is no less palpable.

Abou Zahrah, a Marrakesh-based activist with the February 20th movement, told IPS, “The arrival of the Islamists in the government is only a political manipulation by the regime.”

Another of Benkirane’s election campaign promises was a guaranteed minimum wage increase to 3000 dirham, approximately 465 dollars.

Once promised by the king, the wage increase has now been postponed to 2016, leaving the current minimum wage at 2300 dirham, roughly 290 dollars, per month.

According to Rachid Abou Zahrah, “the Islamist government will have no positive impact on citizens’ lives. The only increase we shall see will be in the number of veiled women.”

He is not being ironic. The fate of women’s rights in the era of the bearded government is a major cause for concern across huge swathes of the population.

During the presentation of his governmental declaration before parliament earlier this year, Benkirane was overshadowing a protest by women MPs against the lack of female representation in his government. Despite the ‘four women’ quota, only one was allowed to serve in the last government.

“The government is crushed between a modernist pole, represented by the revolutionary February 20th movement, and the traditionalists,” Aziz Nidae, a political activist from the city of Fez, nearly 300 kilometres north of Casablanca, told IPS.

But judging from the government’s recent actions and according to the analysis of the local press, the government has shown that its allegiances lie with the conservatives.

In fact Akhbar Al Yaoum, a local daily newspaper, remarked that the word ‘modernity’ was completely absent from the new government’s programme of action.

The friends of slain Senegalese student protester, Mamadou Diop, say that the 32-year-old master’s student was against injustice and that is why he was protesting against President Abdoulaye Wade’s bid for a third term of office.

Since the start of the Jan. 27 demonstrations, protesting against President Abdoulaye Wade’s bid for a third term of office, four people were killed. Credit: Jedi Ramalapa/IPS

On Jan. 31, the opposition movement and local protestors, including students, gathered at the Place de Obelix to voice their anger at the Constitutional Councils’ validation of Wade’s bid for a third term. The incumbent president is 85 and has ruled Senegal since 2000.

The protests turned violent and one student, Diop, was killed. Diop’s best friend and classmate, 29-year-old Bacary Sejnane, told IPS that he saw his friend’s death on television.

“I saw a very big police car approach where the crowds had gathered, and we saw a man on the floor. He tried to get up but he couldn’t. We saw that the car ran over him,” said Sejnane. “When they said his name on television, it was Mamadou Diop, my friend.” According to Senegal’s Red Cross, the vehicle that ran over Diop was a water cannon truck.

Diop was completing his Masters in Modern Literature at the Sheik Anta Diop University, and was a devoted disciple of a popular section of the Mauride, a strain of the Muslim brotherhood with many followers in Senegal.

He had a wife and two young daughters. He loved to study and was a leader in his class and worked tirelessly to improve learning conditions at the university.

“He was against injustice,” said Sejnane reflectively, “That’s why he was at the Place de Obelix.”

Diop was a well-known student at the university, so when students heard of his death, they gathered in a group and marched to the hospital where his body was kept. The police stopped them and clashing ensued.

The avenue on which Sheik Anta Diop University sits saw scenes reminiscent of a civil war during the protest. Students barricaded parts of the avenue using whatever they could find; huge boulders, stones, and even wooden crates used as shop stalls by street traders.

Since the start of the Jan. 27 demonstrations, spearheaded by the June 23 Movement (M23), a movement of youth and civil society, four people including a police man have lost their lives and several others have been injured from clashes with police, Senegal’s Red Cross reported.

“I think that people are angry because they knew that President Abdoulaye Wade cannot take on another mandate,” said Chrystelle Ndaya a former student at the university, now an independent journalist. “President Abdoulaye Wade is old and he must go. He doesn’t have the mind of a young person. People want change.”

“It’s the first time we start to see students revolting like this,” she said almost it disbelief.

The Constitutional Council’s decision, which also invalidated international singer Youssou N’dour’s bid for the top seat in government, has many Senegalese angered.

In addition, during the last three to five years of Wade’s administration life has become progressively harder for many Senegalese. The cost of basic commodities has more than tripled. Bread, oil, gas, petrol, rice and sugar are now very expensive for most Senegalese.

Ndaya said these commodities have become so expensive that some families can only afford one meal a day.

But Mamadou Ba, who is completing his Masters in Sociology at the Sheik Anta Diop University, thinks the issue is beyond bread and butter. “I think it’s a moral issue, it’s about recovering some dignity and respect from a leader who has given us his word.”

Ba said that Wade had promised to step down from office, if Senegal’s citizens mandated him to.

“I think the students feel that if they let this one go by, without making sure that their anger is heard, it will be like agreeing to be lied to for the rest of your life,” he said.

“These protests were meant to give consciousness to the citizens, it is not calling people to violence,” said Ba, who has so far stayed away from the protests. “But I think they know that if they show pictures of the opposition behaving violently, it might change people minds about who to vote for. Senegalese are not violent people, they are very quiet.”

M23 has vowed to maintain protests until Wade rescinds his candidacy for the Feb. 26 elections.

But Sjenane does not believe these revolts, as he calls them, can be compared to the Arab Spring protests seen in Egypt and other African countries. Because he says: “Senegalese are not violent, we respect democracy and the rule of law.”

But it was the same rule of law that killed his friend. “Police are here to keep order, and it’s good that they do, but sometimes people also need to express themselves,” he added in response.

It was stones against tear gas in the Senegalese capital this morning as students protested the killing of one of their own on Tuesday evening. At least four people have died since Jan. 27, in wider demonstrations against the controversial validation of President Abdoulaye Wade’s candidacy for re-election for a third term.

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade' has been validated by the country's Constitutional Court to run for a third term, sparking protests. Credit: Paul Morse/Wikicommons

Protests broke out immediately following the validation of Wade’s candidacy by the Constitutional Court on Friday, and a young police officer died in Dakar after being struck by bricks in violent protests. On Monday, a 17-year-old student and a woman in her sixties were killed in Podor, near the border with Mauritania, when police opened fire on demonstrators. Radio France Internationale reported that some 10,000 people participated in Tuesday’s protests.

Several people have been arrested since the demonstrations began, among them human rights defender Alioune Tine, the coordinator of M23, the movement of youth and civil society that has spearheaded the protests. Tine, who is also the president of the Dakar-based African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights, was arrested on Saturday and released – without charge – on Monday.

Wade’s opponents argue that he has already served two consecutive terms and cannot stand for re- election on Feb. 26. The incumbent president, who has ruled Senegal since 2000, says that the 2008 constitutional amendment establishing term limits does not apply retroactively to his previous two terms.

“The validation of the candidacy of President Wade is a constitutional coup,” rival presidential candidate Cheikh Tidiane Gadio told IPS. A former minister, Gadio is one of 14 candidates running for president. “Wade wants to contest the elections, steal them, and then install his son as the leader of the country. The authorities continue to initimidate and arrest youth… The struggle will continue both nationally and internationally.”

Aïssata Tall, a lawyer and spokesperson for the Senegalese Socialist Party, promised to challenge Wade’s candidacy in other courts.

“The haste with which the Constitutional Council rendered its decision on the appeal is unconstitutional. If need be, we will go to international courts (to challenge it), because our country has ratified international accords on human rights,” Tall told IPS. “On the legal front, we are prepared to show that the candidacy of President Wade is invalid…”

Macky Sall, at one time Senegal’s prime minister under Wade, but now leader of the Alliance for the Republic party and a presidential candidate, condemned the violence and the aggression directed towards activists. “We have noted that Wade has given uniforms to individuals who have thrown stones. And the police have violently attacked demonstrators with water cannons. Wade is basing his candidacy on force.”

Another former prime minister turned presidential candidate, Idrissa Seck, told IPS that he had learned of the protest-related deaths with sadness and concern. The leader of the Rewmi Party (the name means “my country” in the local language, Wolof) condemned the decision of the Constitutional Court to accept what he called an illegal candidacy.

“It is a decision with grave consequences for peace, stability and security in Senegal. But beyond that, it is a surprising and disappointing decision for all democrats in Senegal as well as those in friendly countries…” Seck told IPS.

Ismaëla Madior Fall, a professor of public law, believes the Constitutional Council cannot ignore the legal force of a declaration by President Wade in 2007, in which he himself stated that he could not stand for re-election after his second term. “In constitutional law, one regards the president of the republic as one of the authentic interpreters of the constitution,” he told IPS.

“The statement, the presidential testimony on the meaning of these provisions is something which the Constitutional Council cannot ignore. A constitutional judge must also be attentive to the political class and anticipate the future,” Fall said, adding that people are left with only one option – to demonstrate.

Presidential spokesperson Sérigne Mbacké Ndiaye says it is out of the question to delay the Feb. 26 poll, whatever the current situation. “There is a will, on the part of certain individuals, to sow chaos in this country, but it is not is not an option to delay the poll, much less postpone it.”

According to Mbacké Ndiaye, the parties who are demonstrating appear unwilling to take part in the elections and that is why they are issuing “calls to insurrection and resistance”.

“The whole world is watching us,” Mbacké Ndiaye said. “We do not have the right to create a difficult situation in the country. My belief is that it is impossible to commit electoral fraud in Senegal because we have an excellent electoral register…” adding that the real and worthwhile battle is the one that is coming in a free, transparent and democratic election.