Breaking the combat glass ceiling: Kenya's all-women Haiti mission marks historic shift in security sector
Police officers from the Kenya Airports Police Unit march during a past drill competition at the GSU Training College in Embakasi, Nairobi.
What you need to know:
- One benefit of including women on security missions is that they contribute significantly to confidence building – enhancing acceptability among the beneficiary communities and improving rapport with the intervening forces, hence better collaboration for greater success.
- Kenya’s efforts to mainstream gender in the security sector is further demonstrated by the appointment of women to senior positions. An example is Dr Resila Onyango, Deputy Director of Planning in the Office of the Inspector General of Police and the first female police officer to attain a doctorate.
On October 17, the media reported that Kenya was sending anall-women contingent of police officers from the Special Weapons and Tactics team to join the international mission seeking to free Haiti from the shackles of gangsters.
Advocates of gender equality see this as a significant step in fulfilling the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 Article 1, which “urges Member States to ensure increased representation of women …(in)…mechanisms for the prevention, management and resolution of conflict”. This has been domesticated in Kenya’s National Plan of Action to implement the instrument.
Already, Kenya set a precedent by deploying women from the Kenya Defence Forces and National Police Service to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, formerly African Union Mission in Somalia, to neutralise al Shabaab, reinforce local security forces, promote stability and facilitate economic independence.
Examples are Major Daina Naker (combat helicopter pilot), Sergeant Faith Mwai (communications and documentation expert), Corporal Maureen Njoki (heavy construction machinery operator), Lieutenant Stella Waigwa (defensive strategies coordinator), Captain Valary Shikuku (community economic empowerment specialist) and Dorcas Andabwa (armoured vehicle driver).
In terms of Resolution 1325, India pioneered in 2007 when it sent an all-women force to Liberia under the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Last year, it deployed its largest contingent of women peacekeepers to the disputed mineral-rich Abyei region in the border of Sudan and South Sudan as part of the United Nations Interim Security Force. The contingent is tasked with providing relief and assistance to women and children, alongside other security-related duties.
One benefit of including women on security missions is that they contribute significantly to confidence building – enhancing acceptability among the beneficiary communities and improving rapport with the intervening forces, hence better collaboration for greater success.
Much more specifically, inclusion of women improves attention to and handling of sensitive and gender-specific issues such as sexual violence in armed conflict, which inordinately affects women and girls.
The presence of women also has a significant role-modelling effect on local women and girls as it sends a message that these roles are not naturally exclusive to men. Of course, it also enables women to benefit economically from the resources dedicated to such missions, gain experience and showcase their capacities.
When the tenure of UNMIL peacekeepers ended in March 2018, the 125 Indian policewomen were recognised to have been “role models … triggering a fourfold increase in the number of Liberian women applying to become police officers”. According to an official United Nations statement, the mission had “prioritised the empowerment of women to vote, run for office and join the police and other rule of law institutions,” thereby “making policing more representative of the whole community”.
Kenya’s efforts to mainstream gender in the security sector is further demonstrated by the appointment of women to senior positions. An example is Dr Resila Onyango, Director Corporate Communications and National Police Service Spokesperson. In 2013, she became the first female police officer to attain a doctorate.
In the military is Fatma Ahmed, the pioneer Kenyan woman to become a Major-General and commander of the Kenya Air Force effective 2018. There is also Brigadier Joyce Sitienei, Director of the International Peace Support Training Centre since 2021.
Not to be forgotten is Monica Juma, the National Security Adviser to the President, Raychelle Omamo, former Cabinet Secretary for Defence (2013–2020) and Roselinda Soipan Tuya, current holder of the same portfolio. And for the first time, a woman (Lt Colonel Faith Mwagandi) commanded the joint guard of honour of the Kenya Defence Forces during Mashujaa Day. Mwagandi is the first East African woman to be a Warship Commander (2019–2022).
These developments indicate that the security sector is abandoning gender-biased misconceptions that women can only serve in the service corps. They are creating more career opportunities for women and increasing competition and complementarity, which, according to the feminist John Stuart Mill, harnesses the best from human capital.
They serve to dismantle “perception barriers” – beliefs that one is not suited to a particular role or profession – and reduce the imposter syndrome – the incessant feeling that one is in the wrong place merely because of being in the minority. They also contribute to shattering the glass ceiling – the practice of not allowing women beyond certain ranks.
The developments show that sectors which have traditionally marginalised women based on stereotypes about masculine and feminine roles are slowly acknowledging that skill and experience have little to do with biology. They should inspire more women to seek whatever they are interested in and capable of. Most importantly, they demonstrate that gender equality must be deliberately and systematically pursued; it does not emanate.
The writer is a lecturer in Gender and Development Studies at South Eastern Kenya University ([email protected]).
