Insiders Outsiders

How much do you need to run for elective office in Kenya? Hmmm…let’s just say it’s a significant amount. In this episode, our hosts crunch the numbers. Would they afford to run for office today? Guest Faith Allube, CEO of Kenya Land Alliance helps them to figure that question out.

Ask any woman who has run for an elective position what the toughest part of the process is and they’ll all say one thing  - Kuingia ground. It’s not just the grueling long hours in public rallies or the expectation to always be on your A-game, it’s that no matter the setting, women in politics always have one question ringing at the back of their minds; am I safe here?  Listener discretion: This episode contains discussions of extreme violence.

Sweetie, Mrembo, Msupa, Siste, Mathe, Auntie… it never quite ends, does it? Nyambura Maina joins hosts Jacqueline Kubania and Faith Oneya with stories from her 2017 campaign for the MCA seat in Kileleshwa ward where one thing seemed to excite voters more than her manifesto - red lipstick. 😐

Despite attempts by her ex-husband to make their divorce a messy, public affair, this nobel laureate refused to let this event define her career in politics and public life. In this episode,  host Faith Oneya shares how just like in Wangari’s case, it doesn’t matter how successful a woman is - that stubborn question will always follow -  wewe ni bibi ya nani? Whose wife are you?

In this episode we give Priscilla Ingasiani Abwao her flowers - the only black Kenyan woman at the Lancaster House Conference where Kenya’s independence was discussed. From Grace Onyango to Effie Owuor to Charity Ngilu and Martha Karua, these are the stories of the women who shaped women leadership in Kenya.

In recent impeachment proceedings against governor Kawira Mwangaza’s impeachment proceedings, the deep misogyny in Kenyan politics reared its ugly head once again. But as host Jacqueline Kubania explains, for girls who grew up in Meru, this type of misogyny was their everyday reality.

Being a woman is more than biology. Yet a lot of times, women are reduced to biology, and a degrading kind of biology where our anatomy is demarcated – what’s from the neck downwards matters, what’s from the neck upwards doesn’t. This is speaking in general terms. But let’s consider the specifics. Wherever women are – homes, boardrooms, public transport, public life, lecture halls, playing fields, bedrooms, churches, pubs, workplaces and so on – more often than not their presence, appearance, personalities, temperament, aura, tone, history, anything and everything in between are subject to verbal and nonverbal aggression, subtle and unsubtle critiques powered by assumptions, entitlement and stereotypes. So that women oscillate between being public property and private property. This voyeuristic, often misogynistic and discriminative lens zooms even closer for women in politics.  Debunk Media invites journalists Jacqueline Kubania and Faith Oneya to take us into the world of politics - where no matter how hard women work to level the playing field, they are almost always treated as outsiders.  Welcome to Insiders Outsiders.