Turkana: Female aspirants call for fair party primaries

As political parties prepare to hold their primaries ahead of the August General Election, female aspirants are worried that they may be treated unfairly, particularly by the mainstream parties.

Female aspirants in Turkana County have called on political parties to embrace fairness and equality during primaries set for April.

Speaking at a dialogue forum convened by the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (Kewopa) and attended by political party representatives in the county at a hotel in Lodwar, some aspirants, narrated how parties have previously treated them unfairly and locked them out during the usually combative primaries.

Lodwar Township Ward Aspirant Ruth Kuya, narrated how officials from her party treated her in the last General Election, claiming she was denied a chance to participate in free and fair primaries.

The aspirants cited favouritism where their male counterparts considered to be influential by parties, get an upper hand.

“Failure to hold free and fair primaries might have been the reason why Jubilee lost the seat to ODM. Now that I am in UDA, I believe all aspirants will be subjected to primaries so that the party gets the strongest candidate, while retaining those that don’t sail through, as loyal members and supporters," Ms Kuya said.

Angeline Lokaala, who is aspiring for the Lokichoggio Ward Representative seat, said they are pushing for equal representation in politics.

“Equality means better politics and a more vibrant economy,” she said, citing the patriarchal set up of the Turkana community as one factor contributing to unlevelled political ground.

“We don’t want our male counterparts to be favoured due to their financial muscles,” said Ms Lokaala - currently a nominated MCA.

She revealed that she was nominated in 2017 after she remained loyal to her party despite losing the primaries to a male competitor.

UDA primaries

She said she has learnt good leadership and networking skills at the County Assembly, which she believes will come in handy when she takes part in the UDA primaries.

Rebecca Lochoke, aspiring county Woman Representative said many women are interested in vying for seats that have been a reserve for men, and expressed confidence that Turkana will have many of them elected in the 2022 election.

Ms Lochoke called on women to unite and support the strongest amongst themselves to help build trust in women leadership.

Turkana Council of Elders chairman Charles Lorogoi, said some male politicians had performed dismally, shifting their residence to Nairobi or Lodwar once elected to office.

He regretted that even though Turkana has more women voters than men, they still record low representation at the decision making tables.

Kewopa’s Mercy Mwangi, said it is working on increasing the number of elected women in parliament and in the county assemblies.

"We have only 96 women elected as MCAs across the country. Through our sensitisation and training forums, we target about 500 women MCAs in the August poll.  Turkana has only one elected woman MCA out of 30, we are striving to have at least ten women elected," Ms Mwangi said.

Simon Anyona, a Leadership Governance and Management Consultant, said political parties should ensure equality in representation of women and people living with disabilities from primaries to polls.

Rhoda Loyor who has previously unsuccessfully vied for the county Woman Representative seat, announced that she is now ready to support her colleagues, despite their party affiliation.

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