Women’s Participation in Constitution-Making Process in Kenya (S.3, Part 6)

Abstract

This 1hour 17minutes 27seconds-long video was recorded in 2018. Prof. Eddah Gachukia is a senior citizen who was born in 1936. She underscores the significance of a head start in education for children to succeed in education. She had a head start in education from her mother who used to teach them how to write. Her mother enrolled her in school at an early age. Her father was also supportive of her education. Her mother passed on when Eddah was six years old. This disadvantaged her as a child. She feels this was unfair and that no mother should die before her youngest child is sixteen years old and she/he can cope with life and survive independently. She passed the common entrance examinations and went to primary school. She used to walk 10 kilometres to a school where she was the only girl in her class. This gave her the courage to fight different forces including nature as she had to brave many challenges including rains during the rainy season. Initially, Prof. Eddah did not take education seriously and so she had to repeat her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). It was the visit of a former student who was in high school in her school uniform that awakened her interest in education. She admired her school uniform and from then henceforth she started working hard in her studies. She passed her exams and joined African Girls High School where one of the female teachers was from Makerere University. She longed to study at Makerere University. She was eventually admitted and graduated with a diploma in education. She returned to Kenya and started teaching. She later went to pursue her post-graduate studies at Leeds University. She took the lead in the development of a curriculum that was contextualized to African Languages which was useful in giving children a head start in the early years. She quickly realized the challenges women have in education and started incentivizing teachers to become gender sensitive and pay attention to both girls and boys. She also contributed to promoting girls’ education in non-traditional subjects such as doctors, law, architecture, and engineering among others. She later went through gender training and sensitization with other specialists. This was useful in joining the team of gender specialists and equipping her with relevant skills. Eddah was elected as vice president of Maendeleo ya Wanawake (MYWO) in 1967. In 1974, she was nominated as a member of parliament, by the late H.E. Jomo Kenyatta, to represent women’s interests becoming the third woman in Parliament. As a member of parliament, Eddah travelled all over Kenya supporting women. She feels that when women get an opportunity to work for women as nominated women members of parliament and members of the county assembly they should use the opportunity to support women in their respective jurisdictions. Being in parliament gave Eddah national and international platforms to influence women’s and children’s issues. Eddah notes that reviewing the parliamentary Hansards, she realizes she was able to address women’s and children’s issues in all parliamentary debates. In 1978, she was again nominated to parliament. This time, she worked closely with three other women parliamentarians. This was instrumental in enriching her contributions to women’s and children’s issues. She led the Kenya women’s delegations to international conferences such as Mexico in 1974 and the World Conference on Women, held in Nairobi in 1985. With a lot of local and international exposure, she carried out a lot of research with factual data. Equipped with skills and a local and international platform, Eddah became a key trailblazer in promoting girls’ education in Kenya and the Africa region. She was among the founders of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) whose focus was African women’s education. In addition to preparing concept papers for international conferences, she mobilized women ministers of education and university vice-chancellors in founding FAWE. The institution was founded in Italy and Prof. Eddah became the founding Executive Director from 1992 to 1997. In 1994, she was able to influence the inclusion of male ministers of education and vice-chancellors at the conference in Mauritius. The male members were included as associate members of FAWE to promote girls’ education. FAWE has been very instrumental in promoting girls’ education in 35 Chapters, equivalent to 35 countries, in Africa. One major area of note has been the retention of pregnant girls in school in an effort to break the cycle of poverty. Her passion to pursue the girls’ education almost cost her the doctorate but with support from Prof. Micere Mugo, she was able to graduate. Prof. Eddah Gachukia underscores the significance of uniting women to support a common agenda to have a greater impact on development. To effectively do this, women should map out their resources, in terms of skills, such as legal, mobilization and, research, among others, and use them in promoting the common agenda.