“Every day we exercise the power of public participation.”
For Salma, this statement was a testament to the journey of Women with Power CBO that began long before we were ululating in-front of her newly launched office. As we cut the ribbon, Bina Maseno led the crowd in chanting “Long Live Women with Power”. Her team, in their bright brown and yellow deras danced to the tune. It was a celebration of how far the women had come, from grassroots mobilization to building a physical space they could call their own.
7 years ago, before the women even understood the power they held, in a tight-knit community in Muslim area in Kawangware, they were just a chama of women pooling resources to economically empower themselves. They then realized that a lot of their casual discussions were touching on environmental issues and GBV and that yearning to address those issues gave birth to a self-help group.
They were dreamers and wanted better amenities in Kawangware. The Muthiora region had a road, but their side, Muslim Road in Kabiro ward, remained untouched for years, and they had to navigate open sewers. There was no health facility in their ward since they were not included in county budgets. At the heart of Salma’s work is a simple vision, a world where women know their rights, have the power to exercise them, and are led by people who are transparent, accountable, and committed to good governance.
A few years later some of the Chama women Salma, Fatuma, and Terry would find themselves as political mobilizers for Beatrice Elachi in the 2022 elections. The understanding was that when she got into power, she would prioritize their ward, especially the road. They put their all into her campaign as her mobilizers because they wanted a candidate that would be inclusive. Because they were organized, the women had something many individual voters did not: collective bargaining power. They rallied Beatrice Elachi to make inclusion part of her manifesto, particularly around how resources and opportunities would flow through Kawangware and reach their ward. Within the first six months of Beatrice Elachi’s term as MP, she ensured the road was tarmacked.
Another big issue was a towering dumping site located on the road in Muslim area that had become a security menace. Tired of the insecurity that followed, because residents of the area were getting robbed and sexually violated, they lobbied the local MP once again. They partnered with lobby groups to write memorandums. They demonstrated and sang about the dumping site on TV, radio stations, public barazas, and to anyone who cared to listen until the dumping site was cleared.
It was these two wins that affirmed their power and push to launch their CBO office. Their name, Women with Power, came from that understanding that they were powerful in their own way and that they carry their community. They now needed a physical space, a place Women with Power could call home. There is power in having a safe space where potential partners can visit and witness the work in progress or where the community can freely walk in and get served. It’s the physical manifestation of the collective organizing that they had been doing for so many years.
The community at the office launch had greatly contributed to helping construct the office. Their three pillars, which are at the core of Women With Power, are environment, gender issues, and inclusion. When they started, they were, of course, looking to clear the dump site and the open sewers. The more they cleaned, the more they found bodies abandoned and dumped in the clogged drainages, and there was a tragedy in Salma’s life where her niece was raped and dumped in an open sewer left for dead. This is what informed their gender pillar. They want a world where women are safe and free from violence.
For Women with Power, public participation doesn’t start or end at the ballot box. It is organizing around the issues that affect their everyday lives, demanding answers from leaders, and staying engaged until something changes. As they hit the ground running with a dedicated gender desk to deal with all the emerging gender issues in the region, they are focused on empowering the community to elect leaders who bring good development to the county with their mantra Uongozi Bora si Bora Uongozi.
