The Role of Clan Councils in the Participation of Women in Elective Politics: a Case of the Borana Community in Isiolo County

Abstract

Communities that have strong traditional governance structures are conflicted about enforcing their long held and proven convictions about leadership in the face of emerging needs for inclusion. Clan Councils in Isiolo have become an important playground for political leadership yet as structured, they are an exclusive men-only club designed to functionally exclude women from all forms of decision making and leadership. Modern society has demanded that women are included in decision making and leadership. This exploratory qualitative research used the Gidden’s structuration theory to explore the functioning of the clan councils and how women seeking leadership navigate through the clan councils. Four Clan council leaders were interviewed for insights into how the clan councils operate. Four Key Informants were interviewed to share their experiences about what it is like for women to navigate through the clan councils. A focus group discussion was conducted with the umbrella clan council to enrich the data from the interviews. The findings point to a well-structured organization of the Borana community starting with a supreme assembly at Gumi Gayo in Ethiopia, an umbrella council of elders, clan councils and sub clan councils. Women are not members of any clan, and therefore cannot become clan council members and neither can their political support be organized around clan councils. The rules of membership and engagement relegate women to peripheral roles like cooking and dancing. Women are required to prove themselves first before they can be trusted. Therefore, those women who have had an opportunity to serve the public usually leverage on their achievements as an entry point into leadership, unlike men who leverage on their gender and clan support. The study recommends that women be provided with affirmative action opportunities for leadership since their success has the biggest impact on a community’s skepticism on women abilities. Also, because of many years of disenfranchisement, it is necessary to build the capacity of women as a way to prepare them to take up upcoming opportunities and to succeed in performing their tasks. This is especially necessary for communities that have strong traditional governance structures that do not have spaces for women’s participation.