Mama Mbegu eyes Mbeere South Parliamentary seat

Years of helping farmers and communities improve their food productivity is turning into a blessing for Jane Wanjiru Mbuthia, who is vying for the Member of Parliament, Mbeere South Constituency in Embu County.

While no woman in the sub-county has ever held an elective position, Ms Mbuthia who is vying on a Democratic Party of Kenya ticket, says the community wants a change maker, and they see that in her.

Popularly known as Mama Mbegu due to her certified seed program, Ms Mbuthia is celebrated as one of the people working hard to deliver Mbeere South from the clutches of relief food.

“The certified seed program supports women farmers to put food on the table and money in their pocket by reducing reliance on recycled seeds that are often characterized by low productivity,” the aspirant says.

“Women farm on huge tracks of land and I usually provide certified seeds, enough to support about a quarter of an acre per beneficiary. I also provide avocado seeds.”

She is now working with an estimated 75,000 households in Mbeere South to plant three avocado trees per household. After three years, one tree has the potential to produce fruits worth Sh30, 000.

The other gap she is addressing is the capacity deficit of women, especially in financial management, and changing their mind-set that even with small investments, they can turnaround their lives.

Water bodies

“I sensitize women to use what they have to get what they want. You can start a business using only one cow or even your small kitchen garden. Economically empowered women can make transformative decisions for their families.”

Access to water for farming, animals and drinking is another major problem. This is despite the sub-county being served by two major water bodies, Thiba River on one side, and Tana River on the other.

“Mbeere South is home to seven major dams that supply electricity to the entire country yet we have a serious water shortage. I was born and raised in Mbeere South, and I have never seen piped water, not even a broken one,” says Ms Mbuthia.

Over the years and through partnerships, she has supported drilling of boreholes and trained community members on how to manage them. But this is neither enough, nor sustainable to support farming irrigation activities for subsistence and commercial purposes.

Six villages

“Equally worse, we are the only constituency that does not have tarmacked roads. We do not have even a kilometre of tarmac. One road was earmarked, Wamumu-Machang’a, which is 42 kilometres long running between Makutano and Gachoka. The road was budgeted for 10 years ago but is yet to be finalized.”

She laments that for 15 years, she has had to maintain a 20 kilometre road that serves six villages due to poor leadership.

On education, she runs the Mbeere South Child Can mentorship program geared at improving the number of girls in her county transiting to university and other colleges.

She boasts of a rich experience that she believes will benefit the sub-county if she is elected.

A trained journalist from the University of Nairobi, Ms Mbuthia has worked for Tea Board of Kenya, where she is credited for developing the Mark of Origin concept.

She also worked with the New KCC as a corporate affairs manager. She later joined Murang’a County as the communication consultant and advisor to the governor.

“We transformed Murang’a County. Before Mwangi wa Iria’s tenure began, farmers were pouring milk on the road. It was sold at a throwaway price, but through an ambitious dairy program, dairy farming has never been the same again,” she says.

Character assassination

She now wants to use this knowledge and experience to improve things in Mbeere South. What is proving challenging for her is the patriarchal system and negative portrayal of women that is denying them access to political power.

Lack of financial and human resources needed to help run a successful campaign and verbal abuses, are the other challenges.

“Entering politics was a culture shock. The corporate world is a battle of ideology but in politics, it gets very personal. You are unmarriageable, bad mother, bad wife, aggressive, or loud. These are some of the labels attached to women to put them down.”

Ms Mbuthia says the character assassination and attacks that emotionally, physically and mentally drain women, are making some of them think abandoning politics altogether.

Still, she believes, women should never give up. For her, if it is not now, then when? She advises women to always have a main plan and a back-up plan to ensure they are not always the casualties of politics, especially the so called negotiated democracy.