TULITANDIKANA SANA, MARTHA KARUA SAYS

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya deputy president candidate, Martha Karua, has said that for the first time in Kenya’s history, the upcoming General Election will present Kenyans with the opportunity to elect people who have actively fought for the country’s liberation.

Speaking at the Catholic University of East Africa on Saturday, during the ‘Million Women for Martha’ initiative launch, Karua said she and Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga are prime examples of politicians who have fought to liberate Kenya from oppression in terms of advocating for gender inclusion and equality.

“In this country, people who have fought for liberation have never occupied the presidency. At Independence it is not those who fought in the forests who occupied. After the 2002 liberation, it was not those who were in the trenches that occupied it; we went into government but we were not in the presidency,” she said.

Taking a walk down history, Karua gave an example of how Odinga championed for women rights, referencing a time when she, alongside other Members of Parliament, Odinga included, attended the United Nation’s fourth world conference of women held in Beijing, between August and September 1995.

The aim of the event was to advocate for women’s rights and challenge gender inequality worldwide.

According to Karua, apart from a handful of female politicians such as herself, nominated Senator Beth Mugo and Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu only one male MP brought back motions from Beijing and tabled them before Parliament for deliberation at a time when advocating for women rights was not the norm. That MP was Odinga.

“But then there was one man who brought a motion seeking to establish a gender commission and that man was Raila. The late president Mwai Kibaki used the motion to establish a gender commission way ahead of the 2010 Constitution.

“Raila didn’t just think of women because it was a campaign season; it is something he has done before. He has supported motions by women politicians and this is something I remembered when he named me running mate.”