The Story of Laura....

Having lost her mother and sister to HIV, Laura almost lost the will to live, she tells us about the new challenges she faces.

Finishing my KCPE exams was the highest point in my life. I was very excited, I felt accomplished, as it had been a long struggle. Days and weeks passed, and I spent my time at home. It was really nice as I had time to relax and do a few things around the house.

Just about the same time, life did a three sixty on us and my father lost his job. It was so hard, without money, or even food. Right then I saw my dreams of ever joining secondary school fade right in front of my eyes. I wanted to join secondary school so badly. Christmas was approaching.

This situation was too hard for my family. My aunt came to our rescue by suggesting that I go and live with her. Without hesitating, I agreed. As we arrived at her house, I was surprised to see a big house with many rooms. I was taken to one of the rooms to use as my bedroom.

One night I sat on the bed staring at the clock, tears streamed down my cheeks. I couldn’t help comparing my family life and my aunt’s. I asked myself why my family was living in such poverty. There was neither food to eat nor clothes to wear. In my aunt’s house food was plenty, so much so that she would give some away so that it wouldn’t rot. This is when I realised that life would never be the same.

A month later, I returned home after the holiday. My results were already out and I was eager to know my grade. I was not happy with what I saw and felt completely shocked, but I still wanted to join secondary school. I wanted to become a journalist but my dad could not pay school fees and I felt that my bad health was going to be the downfall of my whole entire life.

My father started drinking alcohol. I could not help getting angry all the time. I mean he was drinking the money that he could save to take me to school. All my age mates are going to school while I am just at home. February is almost over and I haven’t heard anything from my father.

Nowadays I feel a lot of stress. This is because I don’t go to school. I am happy that at least I have Eneza Ujumbe. Through it I and my fellow writers can express the problems we face as young adults.

Eneza Ujumbe-Issue 3

Eneza Ujumbe-Issue 3

Eneza Ujumbe

In the past few months, I have been privileged to meet very lovely young girls and boys who live in Mathare slums, the second largest slum in Kenya. These are young people who have refused to be defined by their illness and instead have made up their minds to carry on despite the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. Born with HIV/AIDS they struggle to understand why them...and each time I listen to their stories, I break down and wish I could do more to these lovely people who have let me into their lives. They are the youth support group at the Blue House clinic, an MSF run facility in the slum of Mathare.

I have been teaching them how to write and also develop a newsletter, a tool that will help them share their stories and have their voices heard across the globe. They chose the name Eneza Ujumbe, meaning spread the word, so that all who care to read and hear them may be able to create a better future for others like them not only in Kenya but in the whole world. I bring to you the first two issues of Eneza Ujumbe.

Eneza Ujumbe
Eneza Ujumbe-Issue 2.

HIV Treatment: A powerful tool for prevention

Over a decade ago, Kenya was grappling with the HIV and AIDS epidemic. In 1999, the then president Daniel Moi declared this disease a national disaster. However, with the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2003, tremendous achievements have been made in containing the impact of HIV.

Since then, the HIV prevalence rate in Kenya seems to have decreased and stabilized at about 7.4 percent. That notwithstanding, new HIV infections are still high. According to the Kenya National Strategic Plan 2009/10- 2012/2013, Kenya records an estimated 166,000 new HIV infections annually, translating to 455 new infections daily. This is against the backdrop of the already 1.4 million Kenyans who are living with the virus.

While HIV continues to be a crisis in Kenya, there is new hope to further decrease HIV-related death and HIV transmission. New studies show that ART dramatically reduces sexual transmission of HIV. In order to fully realize the benefit of using antiretroviral medication as HIV prevention, testing and treatment must be scaled up to reach significantly higher numbers of Kenyans affected by the virus. This scale up will require additional funds from donors and the Government of Kenya alike.

Currently, only 38 to 45 percent of those in need of treatment are being reached. The coverage for children is much lower, at about 15 percent. Up to 300,000 people living with HIV (PLHIV) are still at the risk of dying, simply because of lack of access to treatment.

According to a recent article in The Lancet, a medical journal, ART reduces plasma HIV-1 concentrations to undetectable concentrations within six months on initiation. Seminal and cervicovaginal HIV-1 concentrations are also reduced to undetectable levels in most patients on ART.

The study – a prospective cohort study – conducted in Southern and East Africa included 3381 sero-discordant couples. Out of this, there was only one HIV-1 transmission event with ART use – a 92 percent reduction in transmission! The study also indicates that risky sexual behaviour reduced after ART was initiated.

This shows strong evidence that ART is both a treatment and extremely effective prevention exercise. It is probably the most effective prevention tool at our disposal now. Newer, less toxic ART makes the risk-benefit ratio to weigh in favour of treating at higher CD4, both for the individual patient as well as for population-level prevention.

Kenya can lead the way with bold new initiatives to use treatment as prevention and make Kenya a low transmission-zone for HIV. This will require increased commitments for funding and resources from government and donors alike.

Initial expansions could include ensuring rapid and universal adoption of Kenya’s new HIV treatment guidelines that provide for initiation with tenofovir-based regimens at CD4 counts of 350 as well as treatment for all TB co-infected patients. Additionally, programmatic and funding support is needed to achieve the goal of universal opt-out testing for all Kenyans 14-65 years old by 2013.

Additional potential interventions can include testing for viral load and initiating treatment for all those with HIV viral loads of over 50,000, regardless of the CD4 count. It has been established that a commitment to purchase enough tests for every PLWHIV in Kenya would quickly half the per-test cost, to less than $15(Shs1140) per test.

Of course, there continue to be major issues to address so that HIV treatment scale up can be successful. A reliable and consistent supply of ARVs is crucial as is strengthening human resources for health workers and ensuring clinicians providing ARV care are appropriately trained.

Further, increased numbers of patients on ARVs may foreseeably put pressure on the overall health system. In order to mitigate this potential roadblock, HIV treatment guidelines should consider monitoring simplification including providing a longer time between appointments for patients who are stable and doing well.

It is crucial that Kenya actively increase sustainable funding for HIV. Almost 70% of funding for HIV in Kenya is provided by external donors. Kenya must utilize donor money wisely and work with donors such as the Global Fund and PEPFAR to negotiate increased commitments for treatment as prevention programs.

However, there are also signs that government commitments are growing. This year, the government allocated 900 million to ARVs. This is almost double last year’s budget allocation to the same, there is still more that needs to be done. Kenya must also continue to pursue innovative financing measures such as looking towards the NHIF for outpatient HIV care and investigating airline taxes as ways to fund ARVs.

So far, vaccines pose a distant hope in HIV prevention. Vaginal microbicides have been ineffective, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases does not reduce HIV transmission in most settings. Only condoms, abstinence, or delaying onset of sexual activity are effective. But with current patterns of behavior, none of these reduce risks sufficiently to halt the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, besides all this, increasing ARV coverage may just be one of the key solutions needing attention.

The perils of Unemployment…

By Judy Waguma

He sat there, staring blankly at me. And I felt embarrassed. He still got his job. Age for age, responsibility for responsibility - the job was the only difference between us. But it was a big difference.

In a way I really missed my desk? It was comfortable. It had been part of me for so many years. It had brought in money - just enough - to keep things going. But now it was over. Chapter closed. I was on the scrap heap. Dumped.

Did I care? For a while I cared a lot, yes, then less. To be honest, I accepted the job that day he was willing to pay my bills. I say again, it was responsibility for responsibility. How then was my baby going to eat?

But, once out in the fresh air, somehow it just didn't seem to matter any more. The world seemed full of possibilities; unexplained, undecided and only just round the corner. The country air felt fresh in my lungs, the sun beamed down and my whole body tingled with anticipation.

I had not felt so good for years. In a weird way, I accepted my fate; I was going to have a man I barely knew fend for me. He said I was pretty, worth Gold and much more, if only I accepted his offer.

The heavy satchel on my unfit shoulders seemed light as a feather. I felt like I was in the movie, ‘Lady in red’, how else could I explain it. Last night I was eating in a dumpster, I was unemployed for heavens sake.

Today I was listening to songs from hidden birds in the hedgerow crowded by the country air, lifting me up, leading me on.

Just a small country lane - but for me it held the promise of new and better futures. Each stride pushed memories of bitter setbacks into the past and brought with it the promise of a few pennies in earnings.

"So what is it my rose bud, will you take my offer?" I froze, scared, but there in his hands was a bundle of very new notes, enticing me, making me salivate.

For one minute there, I appreciated having a job, and missed my old workstation. That very moment, I wanted to shout to everyone who has a paying job to be grateful, I felt like I was selling my soul to the devil.

He was my rich Uncle, my father’s brother, giving me an offer, to be his mistress.

His voice was low with a musical lilt, a trace of Ireland or Wales.

Completely embarrassed, I felt like a youngster caught pilfering. His look was quizzical, inquiring. But his demeanor was certain, like he knew he was torturing me.


And I looked on….thinking….wanting, was it worth it??
Ends

I lost my baby to Violence.....

By Judy Waguma

She lays exhausted on her hospital bed;oblivious of her surrounding-ward 17, at the provincial Hospital, Kisumu. She is alone in this big room.

Shortly the tea lady has arrives. Chai Chai, kuja Chukua chai! (Tea Tea Tea) but she just lays there. The tea lady moves on to the next ward. A Good Samaritan sympathizes with this girl and rushes to get her the tea.

She takes a deep breath, not interested in the tea either.“It was Thursday morning,” she says, almost like a whisper. I was at the displaced camp in Naivasha.

“A bus had just come to take us home, and I was overjoyed as I knew I was going to join my family again”.

Susan Akinyi says that she collected the little household goods she salvaged during the post election violence and was ready to go.

In her joy, the 17 year old stood holding her protruding belly, softly she whispered to her unborn baby, with a broad smile on her face, ‘home at last’

She says that the journey back to Kisumu began early.

In the bus, she sat staring out of the window, Susan could be heard humming a song, her joy profound, and even the rough road seemed like nothing.

All over sudden, her face hardens. She keeps quiet, closes her eyes and with renewed strength she continues to say, “I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, then another, then another”

She says that she panicked, and did not know what to do, since this was her first pregnancy.

“I tried so hard to hold it, I couldn’t, it was becoming unbearable, and then I started to scream, that made me feel a little better, at least it would get my mind off the pain,” she says.

In the bus, she says, a lady came to her rescue. The lady took her to the back seat and put her to lie on her back.

Her water broke, all she could feel was wetness. Unaware of what to do, she diligently relied on this lady to help her.

“The lady, told me that she had been through this before and could help me, she asked me no to worry or be scared”

To her amazement, the lady wore black rubber shoes, pressed on her buttocks, and prodded her to push.

I pushed, and pushed, and pushed, until we could see the baby’s head, she says.

Meanwhile the bus was moving, probably to get her to the nearest hospital as soon as possible.

With abated breath, Susan says that she was drained. “I was so tired, I could not push anymore, but we were lucky as I was rushed to Pap Onditi hospital”

However as they got to the hospital, the doctors there could not help the young girl; they did not have equipments to deal with her state and therefore referred her to the Provincial Hospital.

The baby could not move, and from the pain, she passed out.

At the provincial hospital, Dr Paul Mitei says that Susan had had an obstructed labour, the fetus was dead.

“She had also gotten infections, and therefore we had to remove the baby through cesarean section,” says Dr Mitei.

A week later, says Mitei, Susan developed more complications; she had severe pain in her stomach.

We had to take her back to theatre since she had sepsis, says Mitei. Sepsis is a medical condition characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state caused by infection.

Sepsis is broadly defined as the presence of various pus-forming and other pathogenic organisms, or their toxins, in the blood or tissues, says Mitei.

Susan’s condition had now worsened and Mitei says that they had to take her for surgery to remove the pus. In the process they also discovered that the upper part of her Uterus had been destroyed and so it had to be removed.

She was in danger of getting Fistula, but we have been able to save her. The doctors at the hospital had to maintain her for 14 days where she was under drugs and she was being monitored on her condition every day, says Dr Mitei.

The saddest part however is that Susan will never conceive again, she only has her lower uterus left.
But she is not moved by that.

“I knew that I would not come back after the second surgery, but I am alive. I don’t care that I cannot deliver anymore, because I never want to go through that pain ever again,” she says.

Sineno....

By Judy Waguma


Sineno has a round, smooth face. Her complexion is chocolate and her smile infectious.
The jolly girl greets us candidly as we enter the rescue center. She is lively, and speaks fluent Kiswahili.

The young girl looks in perfect condition and happy, oblivious of all the troubles she went through. Sineno is not just any other child. She has been robbed of her innocence. She was raped and now lives with the agony of seeing her perpetrator every single day.

Sineno, 11, comes from Taveta district, where she lives with her single mother and three siblings. At the age of nine, a man she knew only as a neighbor, attacked her and defiled her in a nearby thicket on her way home from school.

The little girl finds it hard to talk about the experience. Her face has changed. The former bubbly child has been transformed into a pouting and not-so-friendly person. She is fidgeting with her clothes as tears well in her eyes. The memory is unbearable.

“He grabbed me, pulled me into the thicket and defiled me,” she recalls. The 50-year-old man, after finishing his dastardly act, left her unconscious in the thicket, not caring whether she was still alive or not. The only thing Sineno says she remembers is that the man threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone about what had happened.

But she couldn’t care less; she was in too much pain. When she gained consciousness she stood up and walked slowly home. Her mother was livid with rage. Her first step was to report the matter to police, and the man was arrested. She then rushed her daughter to Coast General Hospital, but the medical staff could not handle her case. Her genitals were badly damaged. “Coast General Hospital referred me to Nairobi Women’s Hospital, where I was admitted for a week,” the little girl recalls.

Sineno has now recovered, but she constantly gets rashes and pain in her genitals. She does not know what the problem could be, but she has to be taken to hospital each time the rashes occur. She says her attacker’s case is pending in court. He was released on bond, but still goes to court for hearings. “However, he has threatened that if we do not withdraw the case, the whole family will perish, and that’s why I was brought to the rescue center,” she adds.

Joseph Okwino, the home’s director, says the girl has made tremendous progress. When she was brought to the center, where she has been living since, she could not stand seeing men. “The young girl would set out for school, but would not reach there, say that someone had threatened her on the way,” he points out.

“She would come back with so many excuses, until we figured out what the problem was and put her through a counseling session.”

Sineno is not alone; there are other defiled young girls at the centre. Nine-year-old
Rachael was left to take care of her siblings as the mother went to fend for them as a sex worker, says Okwino.
That night, Rachael says, a neighbor came calling in the pretext that he was looking for her mother. It is at this point that he attacked her. She is till in pain as she struggles to forget the day. She, too, contracted a sexually transmitted disease and has to seek medical attention every so often.
The centre is home to 14 other girls, each with a different problem. Initially, says Okwino, the place was meant for physically abused girls. But today, it receives all manner of cases, ranging from sexual abuse to domestic issues. It also houses teenage mothers.

But Okwino says the center is a temporary shelter, as the girls stay for some time as they get medical attention or counseling before rejoining their families. It is also home to girls whom, the administration, feels are at risk in their own homes. An example is Sineno who is still being threatened by her attacker. Action Aid brings in the children, gives them support by taking them to hospital, he explains. They are provided with food and medicine as well.

He explains that in the area, defilement is rampant. “We also girls who have been defiled by their fathers, strangers and other people known to them. “At the moment, we have a girl who was defiled by her father and she conceived,” Okwino adds.

“We took her in, and now she has gone back to school, we take care of her.”

Sauti ya Wanawake

By Judy Waguma



The wave of Sauti ya Wanawake in the coastal province is a force to reckon with.

Translated as the voice of women, this group has made a tremendous milestone in giving the women an accent into a society that is riddled by culture and religion, and so often do not allow much priority to the woman. They are also advocating for the girl’s right to education.

This group of women, one day sat, and reflected on their status in the society. Their major concern was the lack of involvement in development issues and also the schools drop out levels of the girl child.

After much deliberations and consultations, Sauti ya Wanawake was born, in 2001.

“We started with around 50 women, as a forum to help the women in various needs in Kisauni, a region in coast Province,” says Binti Ali, the chair lady of the group.

Binti Ali says that when they met, they discovered there was just too much that was not being discussed on women issues. “Our biggest concern, though, was to remove the silence, and give the women in Mombasa a unifying voice,” she says.

They discovered that the reason owing to their suppressed voices was due to the staunch culture and religion practiced in the area.

“We wanted to be free, to talk about everything that is of importance to us,” they say. The issues that concerned them the most were like politics, education, and other daily matters.

To them, they had had it. They were tired of adding their numbers to meetings and then being left out during times for key decision-making.
“We decided that enough is enough, because we also wanted to be involved in matters that affect us as the women of Mombasa,” adds Binti Ali.

Today Sauti ya Wanawake, boasts of over 1000 members and they are still growing. They have a steering committee that comprise of 36 members. Of that only 21 are active and have helped steer this movement.

Within their activities, they have sub committees that deal with health, advocacy and child and human rights as well as, HIV and governance.

The women say that their main mandates are on a number of issues. Besides creating awareness on women rights they ensure that they make follow ups on children who are defiled, give their parents support and assistance, to make sure that they have gone to the hospital and to report the case to the police and to the courts.

One of their major activities, of which they are commonly known of, is to keep the girl child in schools, and educate them of their rights to education.

Florence Gideon, a member of the group, says that looking at their different regions, they discovered that education among girls was low.

“We conducted research in the areas to establish what exactly the problem in these areas was,” she says.

Gideon says that they discovered that for instance out of the 400 girls who enroll in class one, only 200 go through to class eight.

“We asked ourselves, where these students go?” she says.

However, they did not have to ponder for long as the girls came forward to speak, she says.

The chairlady says that the girls confessed to them that they barely got the time to read. Their major concerns were that when they got home from school, they had to do the all of the house chores.

They had to go fetch water, wash the babies, and if the mothers did business they had to take over, to assist them until very late in the night. This they attributed to their lack of concentration in class and also not doing their homework.

Sauti ya Wanawake also say that, some of these girls also confessed that sometimes they are not given money by their parents, and due to peer pressure, others advice them to get boyfriends who constantly give them money.

At the long run, they say, the boys demand to have sex with them. It is here that the problem lies, after they engage in sexual behavior, the girl will either get pregnant, or the boy will take her in for marriage, and that’s where their education ends

That was our entry point, says Binti Ali, we felt that there was a problem and we needed to help these girls to finish their education.

It is through these tribulations that the girls’ forum was started. To make the girls understand what their rights are.

The need for the girls to be educated on the rights of a child, counseling, and also to build their capacity plus that of their teachers was important.

Now, the Sauti ya Wanawake can say that the girls have become the ambassadors of the others. While they cannot talk to their parents freely, they can find confidence in their peers and also be open to their counselors.

They also, report cases to either their teachers or one of the group members in case a girl is becoming unruly.

Action aid, has given the group support by taking them for professional counseling to be able to tackle issues effectively.

Most of the cases they have received are rape and domestic cases-which are not so many and the victims are mostly of the ages 9-12.

Sauti ya Wanawake says that they have created a lot of impact in these regions. A good example they say is the Ziwa la Ngombe primary where 20 girls got over 300 marks in the last Kenya Certificate of primary education.

The girl’s performances have improved, they say. Above all, there is that retention in schools, we see the girls not dropping out as they used to. We also have to make sure that they get to class eight and that if they are outside we report them.

The women have also made it their own initiative to follow their mothers, by going door to door and educate them on the importance of educating the girl child.

“We tell them that if we find a child out of school we will report them to the police, who have created fear to the parents and also helped in taking the children to school,” says another member of the group.

They all agree that the girl child has special issues and there is need to sensitize them more.

“Yes we have the girl’s forum but there is still more that has to be done for these girls. We need to get these girls on a one on one basis and figure best way to help them out,”

There are parents who demoralize the children, says Binti Ali, the chairlady of the group. She says that some parents abuse the children verbally, telling them they would do better prostituting and are not worthy of anything.

Their living conditions are not any better. The poor the say, suffer the most as all the family members sleep in one house. The girls have no privacy and this where the trouble begins. Sometimes the women who sell manzi a local brew and the patrons assault the girls all the time.

When a girl is facing all these problems, they find it hard to talk to people openly about them, says Florence Gideon, a member of the group. Adding to their problems, she says, is the fact that they cannot afford sanitary towels and are therefore forced to miss school close to one week.

The girls concerns are indeed many. The Sauti Group has thus made it their objective to also talk to the parents and educate them about the needs of the girls.

By Judy Waguma


Even the bravest of them all cry. In their moments of weakness they lie down and weep.

A man's ego is like a rock. Dumbfounded, I sat there and watched, as his shoulder moved up and down. He had his back to me so that I could not look at him in the face.

I touched him and told him that it was going to alright. That we were going to be together forever and we will find away through our problems. I was met by his cries, louder this time, and I lay there and cried with him.

It was a Thursday evening.

I had called him; I wanted to know if he had been to the doctor’s appointment, to get his results. His voice was jolly and happy as usual, he said, “honey, I am on my way there, I am sure everything is fine and will call you as soon as I am through”

With that I took off, went to my house, waiting to hear from the man I had loved for three years now. In my heart I was happy, because I knew that eventually our plans to get married were becoming real, and that I was going to be his forever. Finally he was going to be my life partner because I loved him with all my heart and soul.

Tick tock, time went by. I started getting worried. He had taken so long to call me. Maybe he had gone to be with his friends and forgot to call me, I thought. I gave him time. Then the text message came in. “hey hon, today it’s final, I will never be able to have babies, and this is the cruelest thing ever………”

Ohh no, I cried. I felt like someone had died. Ooh it couldn't be true. I read and reread the message, my heart beat so fast. Why I asked, why us, why now? There was no one to answer.

I remembered how we used to joke about the baby issues. We could do it all the time. We could say that if our babies came, he would be the good cop, and I would be the bad one because he felt I was too strict.

I remembered all the talks we had ever had about our babies. He loves babies. ooh he loves even the dirtiest babies. He picks them up and mellows when he holds them, and equally babies love him, they do not even squirm when he holds them.

I have watched the bond he has had with people’s babies, and in my heart I kept thanking God that I have a good man who will love my babies to death.

That dream was shattered.

I called for a taxi and went to see my devastated man. When he opened the door, he could not look me in the face. He was swollen all over from crying too much. I locked the door and followed him inside to the bedroom. He lay there and cried some more, I held him, not saying a word.

I did not know what to say. What could I say? That night we slept in each others arms, I held him so close. I wanted to feel him, and share in his pain.

Early that morning, he woke up early, left me in bed. He just sat there in the living room, staring into the empty space. My heart broke for him, and I went to him. Knelt by his side, and hugged him,but he did not hug me back. I told him that we would face this, no matter what, that we are both in it together. He turned, looked at me, and said, “Honey, I know I have lost you, it’s just a matter of time, what will u do with a useless man like me?”

And that’s the last I saw of him, or heard from him. He refused to pick my calls, he even refused to see me, that drove me insane…Today I ask myself, if he really loved me, did he want me to be his wife. Are babies the only thing to a marriage? I was ready to be in it, with my all; so long as he was in the same boat.

Was he selfish? Or was it for my own good? Or am I being the selfish one? How can men be made to cope with infertility?

Ends

All about Familly Planning Pills and Cysts

Akelle Waguma


I had just gotten to college, and I was putting up with my Aunt at that time. To cut it short, she was a liar, a big one, and crazy too- you can imagine that combination. Anyway she could make me laugh and cry too! But that is a story for another day.

One weekend her friends came to visit her at the house. I was in the kitchen preparing their meals. As the loud laughter kept renting the air, I decided to eavesdrop and listen to what was really making them laugh so loudly.

Apparently, one of her friends had gotten pregnant right after delivering. And she did not know about it way into her sixth month. Then my aunt's voice came, " I don't use contraceptives at all, I go the natural way, and I have managed to keep my children well spaced" I did not wait to hear the rest, this was clearly grown up talk.

A month after this, I got unwell, and went to her medicine cabinet to get drugs-this was not a very bright thing to do- but I did it anyway. I was really feeling nasty and wanted something to cool my pain.

The only drugs in the cabinet were some little yellow tablets that I consumed three at a go - Stupid huh!- they were tiny, and I figured out that just two would not work.

After taking the three, I cut like 6 more pills and kept them in my bag, just in case I needed to proceed with the medication.

I did not get to use the six as I got better soon after.

But I kept them with me. It was just about Christmas, and each holiday I had to travel home and spend time with my family.

During Christmas we sometimes go to the rural areas, and this was one such time.

So one day, as I was removing things from my bag, the pills that I had self prescribed from my aunt's medicine cabinet, fell down at my mothers feet. She picked them up and the expression on her face was grave.

Innocently I asked her for my pills back. She looked at me and asked, " Judy you are taking birth control pills?"

Okay that was a shocker to me too. One, I did not know that these tablets were contraceptives, and two, I remembered my aunt bragging to her pals that she does not use pills, she goes the natural way.

You should have seen me try to fumble with words trying to explain to my mum how I got the pills. Thank God she believed me. Not that using pills is a bad thing, but because I regarded myself so young as to start using family planning pills, besides I had heard a lot about the effects of the pills.

And my mum, drove in more fear of the pills in my head. She gave me a stern warning not to use pills that the effects are not so good.
That was not a topic I was going to get to with my mother so I shrugged it off, and have constantly remembered her word," don't use Family Planning pills!"

I am a journalist by profession, and still I am not sure whether pills are good or not.

This story has been sparked by my friends illness.

She is a very strong woman, and you will not know that there is a problem until you really probe. She calls me at 7 in the morning, I was nursing a terrible hungover. But the voice on the other ends makes me sober.

She is crying and sounds like she's in so much pain. I call a cab and rush to her place immediately. I find her bent, touching her stomach and in great agony.

Immediately I rush her to the hospital, and they find out that she has cysts -she has known for a while though- and it had burst, that's why she was in great pain.

I have known of cysts, but never really bothered to find out about them. Even when she came to me with her scans,which looked almost she was having a baby.

But what pushed me into searching for these cysts, is when she went to see her doctor again, and was told she had to use family planning pills.

I actually told her that she will grow fat, and have huge........that was my ignorance talking.

The much I know about family Planning is so negative, that nowadays I do not say anything out loud.

The reason why the doctor prescribed Family Planning pills to my friend is mainly to control her hormones.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a health problem that can affect a woman's menstrual cycle, ability to have children, hormones, heart, blood vessels, and appearance.

With PCOS, women typically have high levels of androgens. These are sometimes called male hormones, although females also make them, missed or irregular period and many small cysts in their ovaries. Cysts are fluid-filled sacs.

Functional cysts commonly occur around mid cycle, when a follicle destined to become an egg fails to mature. Instead of leaving the ovary in the process known as ovulation, it remains inside, floating in a tiny sac of fluid.

It is that sac that eventually forms into a cyst. Although rarely malignant, ovarian cysts lead to 200,000 hospitalisations in the US each year. For some women, the cysts develop cycle after cycle, previous studies have shown.

Because birth control pills block egg development and ovulation, they were used intuitively by doctors for many years as a treatment to stop the cysts from forming.

But the advent of the new, lose-dose oral contraceptives changed that presumption. While the new pills still contained enough hormones to block ovulation and prevent pregnancy, they were no longer potent enough to override the body's own chemistry involved in cyst formation.

For gynaecologist Dr Rachel Masch of New York University, the new finding is no surprise because evidence has been mounting for some time that low-dose pills do not affect cyst formation.

She adds, however, that because the study found a small number of women for whom the treatment worked, there remain some circumstances under which she might still prescribe birth control pills for this purpose.

"If a woman wanted to use a pill for contraception, or to help clear her skin, for example, and she also had recurring cysts, then it is still reasonable to give it a try as a treatment," Masch says. In most cases, though, other hormonal treatments are more likely to help. Therefore family planning pills can be of importance is various ways, when well prescribed by the doctor.

Is Africa ready to embrace free and open source software?

By Solomon Omondi

Africa is yet again at crossroads. This time around the dilemma is not whether or not to support the war on terrorism but how to deal with emerging issues at technological level.

African governments are now coming under immense pressure on policies regarding technology.

The benefits of information and communication technology have revolutionized activities around the world.

However, these benefits do not seem to have spread evenly around the globe to benefit everybody. Africa is a region where people are yet to reap the benefits that comes along with technolo

Until recently the debate on the potential economic benefits of embracing information and communication technologies (ICTs) by African countries,if they were to leapfrog development stages has mainly been at the infrastructural level, that is, the cost of hardware needed to access this technology at the expense of the intelligibility of the content of this technology to the user.

It has been argued that ICTs in themselves do not necessarily translate into development since the focus is on the technology rather than people. For example, how do rural women benefit from information on the Internet when they cannot read and understand what is on the computer screen?

Traditionally, computer software and hardware have been closed-source, controlled by a few large corporate organizations.
For instance, most of the common software applications are Microsoft based and these are closed-source, implying that their source code is not available to the general public.

Consequently, this software is shrouded in secrecy through stringent copyright protection to protect and maintain their privileged place in the global market.

More and more people are opting for open source software (OSS). OSS refers to software that is developed, tested, or improved through public collaboration and distributed with the idea that they must be shared with others, ensuring an open future collaboration. The best known example is the operating system Linux, which could be a possible threat to Microsoft’s Windows.

The majority of those who have adopted OSS cite their flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Open source essentially refers to freedom to access the principles and methodology to promote open access to production and design of goods, products and resources.

The term has mostly been used to refer to computer software generally availed to the public with either relaxed or non-existent Intellectual Property rights. These include operating systems like Linux and Mozilla among others.

Other benefits associated with OSS according to the proponents include the absence of defects and in case any are detected, these can be rectified with ease and as soon as they are detected since the source code is usually available to both the users and developers.

Given the fact that proprietary software is closed-source and therefore cannot be easily modified to be user and regional specific, this has in essence limited the extent to which these technologies can be used to empower the poor, particularly in developing countries.

While most African governments are currently rushing to embrace e-government to improve service delivery, they are also spending huge amounts of money to purchase operating systems software for their computers.

The scenario has drawn sharp reactions from critics who claim this is tantamount to global technological imperialism. At the heart of the debate is the prohibitive cost of software that has ensured most Africans effectively remain on the other side of the digital divide. For instance, the cost of proprietary software, mainly distributed by Microsoft remains the most prohibitive.

For instance, at the recently concluded World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi, technology was once again on the spot with activists bashing the continued capitalistic trends by a few software companies to lock out a big chunk of the world’s poor with intellectual property rights protocols.

“The challenges we are facing today is not just fascism, Nazism or terrorism but more increasingly global technological capitalism,” says Christophe Aguiton of France Telecom Orange recently during the WSF.

According to Christophe, it is time to challenge the established system of the world by fighting against the metaphor of methodology through which technological capitalism has been created to exploit the poor.

This sentiment was echoed by Alan Story, a senior lecturer in intellectual property law at the University of KentUK. He argues that “millions of people especially in developing countries have been forced to become ‘pirates’ because of the copyright laws imposed on them by a few monopolies in the West.” in

“If it wasn’t for the issue of copyrights, Bill Gates would be selling pencils in the streets of New York,” quips Story.

In large parts of Africa, the high cost of proprietor software is often higher than the per-capita income of these countries. This forces ordinary citizens into becoming “software pirates”. Interestingly, most of them are not even aware that they are operating copies of pirated software.

Indeed, it is the case that most people in developing world have found themselves operating pirated copies of Microsoft software without their knowledge. Recently , a Reuters article illustrated the story of a Russian teacher in a remote village who was charged with pirated software in the classroom. Led by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, appeals have been made to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for the release of the teacher arguing that he was unaware that he was violating Microsoft’s intellectual property rights.

Proponents of OSS have argued that such incidents need not happen if the world embraced OSS since it would cost far much less.

Kenya is currently implementing an e-government project that is supposed to make delivery of government information and services to the public efficient and promote citizens participation in government.

While this is a noble initiative, it has been argued that since most of the government run services on e-government initiative are still based on proprietary software applications, the government is forced to unnecessarily spend huge sums of money to purchase these. It would be wiser if the government adopted open source software.

Furthermore, not only are these commercial software packages costly, but they also do not come in local languages and neither can they be shared or adapted to meet local needs.

Critics have also argued that continued control of the software industry by a few global corporations is tantamount to stifling democracy and violation of consumer rights. By denying them the right to alternatives.

According to Anoop Sukumaran, an activist based in Indonesia working against proprietary software controlled by global monopolies, the right to information is not a privilege but a basic human right and taking away these rights is tantamount to killing democracy.

Anoop says: “Democracy is about alternatives. If there are no alternatives, then you cannot claim to be participating in a democracy.”

Currently, most African governments, including Kenya are still bound by stringent licensing obligations by the big software companies The question remains; are African governments ready to breach these licensing obligations and adopt open source software?

ENDS

Millenium Development goals

As 2007, is the half way mark of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the hopes of Africa ever meeting the MDGs by the set deadline continue to dwindle.

However, if African governments reverted their efforts, by localizing the goals to be fully owned by the people, then the 2015 target would be met, if not all then halfway.

The secretary general of the United and local government of Africa believes and is determined that if local authorities have enough resources and the capability to achieve the MDG’s.

Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi says that the resources exist within our governments, but only raises issue with the manner in which governments utilize these resources.

Local government is the sphere of government closest to the people. Many basic services are delivered by local municipalities and local ward councilors are the politicians closest to communities.

Even though development experts contend that there has been progress, slow though, there is still more that African governments need to do to ensure that the goals are achieved by the 2015 target.

The MDGs in question are an initiative of the United Nations and seek to rid the world off poverty. Eight goals were agreed upon by UN member countries in 2000 and they include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, promote gender equality and empowerment of women, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. Others are combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development, all these by 2015.

To put it in simple terms, “localizing MDGs means making sense of the global and national targets locally – understanding how these global objectives relate to local needs, checking where the community is vis-à-vis MDG targets.

Africa can still make more progress and it is in this aspect that local authorities come in, it is established that in Africa over 70 percent of the population dwell in rural areas, the chain of communication and exploitation of resources is tilted to the advantage of those in the urban centers and majority of urban dwellers are never involved consulted as to possible ways to improve their lives especially eradication of poverty.

Considering that over 70 percent of the resources in any government go to the Local governments the goals could fit in well with better expertise.

Although this accounts for only 5 percent allocated to Local authority, of the national budget in Kenya, Mumbi Ngaru, a former councilor of Thika town council says that the need to increase the resources to at least 15 percent would be more efficient.

On the other hand, Mumbi in every sense is right to say that this sector be endowed with more resources, but whether the councils have the capability to handle these resources is also an issue, but one that can be handled.

It’s a big set back that in our contemporary times, we are still losing women during child birth, and that there are people in the slums who still live without a decent meal, yet there are a lot of resources being mismanaged within our governments.

However, within Sub-Saharan Africa, there is quite varied performance and there have been some countries that have shown quite strong growth, with rising per capita incomes, while others have experienced stagnant or declining growth.

Country performance has been quite varied. The Global Monitoring Report, commissioned by the world Bank, shows that trends in income growth in recent years have been very encouraging in Sub-Saharan Africa, and there is evidence of poverty reduction in some African countries, not only in the more rapidly growing regions of East Asia and South Asia.

There have also been several countries in Africa for whom recent survey data reveals quite remarkable progress in the human development indicators. Madagascar is one of such countries, since 1997, it has experienced a 6 percent annual decline in child mortality.

That is a very rapid rate that is very encouraging. South Africa has been able to reduce the incidence of measles by 90 percent since 2000. Mozambique is another example where the poor are clearly benefiting from human development efforts.

Immunization coverage has improved by 18 percent annually between 1997 and 2003 among the poorest households in the country, which is four times as fast as the national average. So it is true that regionally Africa faces the most daunting challenges to meet the MDGs.

However, it is a diverse region, and many countries are achieving remarkable progress. We need to learn more from those examples and try to replicate this positive experience elsewhere.

For instance the Ugandan government stands out as an example in utilizing of the resources available, in that it sent resources down to the local and posted in community centers that the resources and amount of resources made available and quite rapidly that the amount went from 20 cents on the dollar to 90 cents on the dollar.

So this signals a number of different messages, the first is that global transparency in terms of getting resources used effectively. The second one is when the institutional arrangement functions effectively.

Then money can in fact pass through public systems and be used for poverty reduction, and indeed that strengthening public systems is key to scaling up the resource transfers because they are a cost-effective way if they work well.

Then that there can be real advantage in working in bottom-up service delivery approaches, for example, providing grants directly down to the lowest tier of local government's on some sort of formula basis or activities

Linking these goals with the local Government projects would be a noble idea, but the need for citizens to also own these projects first and stop focusing on the national level and go back to the level of the common man is paramount.

A large number of people still do not understand that their decisions matter in all the resources allocated to the municipalities.

On the other hand the law only guarantees political participation through civic elections, as is assumed that councillors effectively represent citizens,” Yet these councillors also rarely hold consultative meetings in their respective wards.

Mumbi sums the situation up as follows: “For in stance in Kenya the Citizens' participation in decision making in the local authorities has been elusive, except during elections when citizens participate in electing their councillors”.

Once this is done they are never consulted in any decisions that affect them. Indeed, the Local government Act also makes no reference to citizens’ participation.

It allows, but does not require the local authority to publish a summary of a budget estimates in a local newspaper, Mumbi adds.

Also, only for a fee must the local authority provide a copy of the annual estimates if requested.

Local citizen’s can only attend full Council meetings as observers. They cannot, however, attend any committee meetings as these are held behind closed doors as closed sessions.

Now for this to change, then there need to be that full participation of the people, and also to know what exactly these goals are, to be in a position to demand and dictate that particular projects be done in a manner to satisfy their needs.

Along with the political liberalisation, the shifting emphasis in development discourse and towards promoting more socially equitable economic growth and meeting the basic needs of the poor has created pressures for a wider participation of the people in decision-making.

Participation and decentralization are considered to have a symbiotic relationship, as successful decentralization requires some degree of local participation.

In relation to this, the Kenyan government required that the local authorities produce a Local Authority Service Delivery Action Plan (LASDAP) together with the local organisations, groups and associations.

In the first year of LASDAPs (2001/2002) more than 27,000 individuals participated in all together 900 meetings.

Participant groups included market and trader associations, women's groups, self-help groups, handicapped groups, neighbourhood groups, health and medical groups, churches and schools.

Elected representatives both national and local also took part, together with some government officials.
It also means that the people come up with ideas of how to achieve the targets that are important for the community, working together to implement these ideas and regularly looking back to ensure that the actions do indeed lead towards achievement of the common goals.

In addition to this, they should use MDG indicators as part of a situation assessment carried out during the initial planning stages to help focus and analyze local development potential on clear developmental targets.

This would also help generate relevant data that both allows establishing clear priorities for local development and expresses development objectives in MDG terms from the very beginning of the planning process.

For instance within their jurisdictions the Local Authorities in Kenya, are charged with the responsibility for providing services such as health, primary education, refuse collection, water and sanitation, and fire protection services among others.

However, over the years the service delivery capacity of local authorities has deteriorated to the extent that even the most basic services are not always provided.

Central government is forced therefore to fill in the gaps in service delivery when it comes to water and health services for instance.

The reasons for the poor state of service delivery by the local authorities are many, explains Mumbi.

Firstly, the existing facilities in most local authorities were not planned to cater for such an amount of people now residing in the municipal areas.

“The high population growth rates are mainly the result of the expansion in commerce and industrial development”.

Secondly, the local government capability to provide services is hindered by insufficient resource base, mismanagement, weak technical and institutional capacity to increase service coverage, and lack of planning and foresight.

Even with several cases of corruption and mismanagement within the local government set up, Elong Mbassi, still believes that such past cases of mismanagement of funds could in itself be a step, and that all Africans needed was to put up better mechanisms to monitor how the resources are utilized.

It is also of importance to train our personnel, and not to assume that every one understands what these goals are, and then we will know what we are dealing with,” he added.

In retrospect, the goals are achievable, but the need to also focus on results rather than meeting the target, if we do not meet the deadline of 2015, we can still look back, to say that indeed improved someone’s life.

School re-entry Policy

By Waguma Akelle

Despite the school re-entry policy existing in Kenya, the factors that hinder young girls from accessing it have not been pursued yet, leading to several drop out cases for girls with unwanted pregnancies.

What this leads to is the fact that many young girls will continue to either get married off at early ages or acquire casual jobs that can barely support them
The end result therefore is a cycle of poverty and denied opportunities for both the mother and child.

At 20 years old, Liz Mecha a house girl in Komarock estate, Nairobi, says that she would have been an engineer or even a teacher.

But that was not to be; she got pregnant in standard seven and had to drop out of school.

Her dreams of ever going back to school were watered down by her father, who had strong beliefs that she would get pregnant again and that would have been a waste of the meager resources that they had.

“As a single parent, I have to work hard to make sure that my little girl gets all that she deserves, because there will never be any other chance for me to get back to class, therefore the little I earn is all that she has,” she says.

Esther Mutheka also bears the same story, in standard six, still very naive and timid, her body started changing, little did she know that she was pregnant and had to drop out of school.

Also a house girl in Komarock estate, Mutheka says that it does not cross her mind to go back to school.

“I am too old at that, besides who will take care of my little one, she is the one who needs that schooling now not me,” she says.

The father of the baby, she says, was her class teacher. She learned later that he was transferred to a neighboring school soon after the head teacher learnt that he had impregnated her.

An unplanned pregnancy could mean shame for the family, an end to the girl’s education and rejection by the baby’s father.

The school re-entry policy was launched by the ministry of education in 1995 and stipulates that after delivery, the girl can go back to school; not necessarily the same school but somewhere within the district, says Steven Karaba, Director of basic education in the ministry of education.

Karaba says that there is need to revise the policy so that it addresses the head teachers and teachers and the measures to be taken when the administration does not re admit the girls, as it is currently missing from the policy.

According to a research commissioned by Action Aid Kenya, 76 percent of girls dropped out of school, of which 12 percent got married while nothing happened to the 32 percent of teachers who were recorded to have been responsible.

From these statistics, it is evident that the victims fared off worse than the perpetrators who as in the case of teachers, got off lightly by either being demoted or being transferred to other schools.

In some cases, as indicated in the report, young girls ended their lives due to unsafe abortions or during delivery.

Besides teachers, the report indicates that 43 percent of the girls were impregnated by fellow classmates and others by outsiders.

Clearly, prevention is better than cure in these instances, says, Rosemary Muganda the executive director of Center for adolescents study.

She says that young girls continue to drop out because they lack information, and that they are still not empowered.

The early onset of sexual activity, combined with a lack of awareness about reproductive health, appears to be creating the conditions for teenage pregnancy.

Muganda adds that, “yes they need to be given a chance; to come back to school, but the ministry of education has to do something to empower these girls.

Dr Sara Ruto, a lecturer at Kenyatta University confirms that there is a long list of female school drop-outs. In the long-term this situation hampers the benefits to society were these young girls to remain in school longer.

She adds that more can be done with the re-entry policy for school-girl mothers: “While it is good, more support systems are needed to enhance its efficacy and ability to reach out to needy girls.”

This form of sexual violence has the most adverse effects. Although the emotional and psychological disturbances may go unnoticed, the most obvious sign is pregnancy. The latter implies that sexual violence carries a bigger impact for girls as opposed to boys.

“Within the school environment, teacher-girl sex mainly occurs in the teacher’s house after evening preps,” adds Ruto.

She says that teachers who impregnate their pupils are still viewed socially as a better catch for their daughters by the parents.

While other perpetrators of sexual crimes against children will get away by making a pay-off to the affected families and the case ends behind closed doors.

Even as Universal Primary Education (UPE) tries to ensure that all Kenyan children eligible for primary schooling have opportunity to enroll and remain in school, to learn and acquire basic education and skills training, the re-entry policy needs to be reinforced.

Furthermore, there are many socio-economic benefits to delaying early childbearing with better opportunities to improved education, avoidance of repetition, reduction of drop-out rates and an increased chance to acquire skills and knowledge for the girl child and her family’s future life.

Young women with low levels of education and a poor economic state often experience restricted ability and motivation to regulate their fertility, resulting in higher rates of early pregnancy.

The cycle is further perpetuated as young women who are in school are forced to discontinue their education when they become pregnant, thereby greatly restricting their economic opportunities.

In Jamaica adolescent pregnancy has long been a serious concern. In 1977 the proportion of births to teen-age mothers rose to 31% of all births, often following a pattern of 3-4 children before the age of 20.

Since 1977 the Women’s Center of Jamaica Foundation started a quality program with the objective of motivating young mothers to choose education instead of continuous motherhood. They have since helped over 22,000 mothers return to the school system.

The key point since then has seen a higher enrollment of female children into the school system and this was later reinforced by the millennium development goals.

The target is 2015, to ensure that children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

More girls are enrolling into schools, but what can the government and communities do to make sure that these girls remain within the schools?

Ruto asserts that the re-entry vision should be made workable. “There is a need for a gender analysis too, to understand the issues that affect the girls, and in terms of access a lot has been achieved but the gender gap has not been closed,” she adds.

“Unless we also address the issue of patriarchy and the role of power decisions, the vision to keep the girls in school will not be seen,” says Ruto.

Ends

Shinning up Our Dreams

This is to my friends out there, both known and unknown, but mostly to those close to my heart-
Judy Waguma

Our responsibility is to prepare.Our responsibility is to believe.Better yet, our responsibility is to muster the courage to move forward in faith by the help of friends.

With Faith and determination that we can make it, then we have to trust the Guy upstairs to do his work, since it is our Fathers place to know the time and the season of our blossoming and success.

Ours must be the daily ritual of watching for our moment to come.We must be ready when the spotlight focuses on us ......and our moment will come.

What of missed opportunities?What of past disasters?What of past failures ?

Those are in the past;leave them there.They are closed doors, look to the open ones.The problem we constanlty have is that we dwell so much on the closed doors that we fail to see another door opening.

Born blind,Heller Keller, puts it more clearly,'When one door to happiness closses, another door always open,but we often stand and look so long at the door that closes we fail to see the door that opens'

The real challenge of life is to live in the now and to plan for the future.We must look up.

Our job is to stop whining and start shinning .

And as Churchill also told his comrades in the midst of world war II, "Lift up your hearts and All will come right"

Dr Benjamin Hays, son of former slave, and a native of Georgian continually challenged his students with these words, "It must be borne in the mind that the tragedy in life does not lie in not reaching your goal.The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream at all.
It isn't a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture.
It isn't a disgrace not to reach for the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for.
Not failure, but to aim low is a sin"

Ours is not to cry over spilt milk.Ours is to milk the most from everyday and aim high in the future.

Dr Robert Schuller also adds, "Set your goals by your hopes-rather than your hurts"

We can go for the max in our lives if we are determined to turn our scars into Stars!

Gender, power relations and Human right

By Waguma Judy

“The informal slogan of the Decade of Women became “Women do two-thirds of the world's work, receive 10 percent of the world's income and own 1 percent of the means of production.”



The gender commission of Kenya now calls for a formal recognition that women rights are human rights and that they apply to all fundamental freedoms.

Women's rights have not been observed in some countries as much as expected; in some places claims have been made that women's rights would be respected more, yet policies are sometimes not changed enough -- or at all, thus still undermining the rights of women.

Up to date a woman cannot be allowed to travel overseas with their children without the husband’s consent, says Dr Jacinta Muteshi, chairperson, national commission on gender and development.

Dr Muteshi says that women being the majority of Kenyans still live under the poverty line and some of these laws have had persistent and substantial inequalities on women.

Furthermore she says that women are still hugely affected by the social cultural values and practices that reinforce the unequal status between women and men.

The increasing incidences of violence against women, under-representation of women in key decision making, in public arena, parliament, local authorities and the burden of maternal mortality also indicate that governments are not living up to their promises.

Women rights it is said, is human rights and therefore every woman is entitled to it.

Kenya for instance has ratified the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDWA) that commits to incorporate principle of full equality in their legal system.

Also it establishes tribunals and other institutions to ensure the protection of women against discrimination.

However, Jacqueline Anam, chairperson of Coalition of Violence against Women (COVAW), says that the lack of political commitment and gender blind macro-economic frameworks in the country is the main reason that has continued to deprive the women.

“Women continue to sight unequal gender relations that leave them in a subordinated position to be the norm rather than the exception,” she explains.
Achieving gender equity requires more than equality of opportunity and resources, says Anam, it requires equality of outcomes for women and men.

“The way the society has been constructed it’s designatory against women and that’s why they have not moved on and they will not move on unless there are structures in place to support gender and this is in regard to the women”, says Anam

And for this reason, she says that the movement for gender equality has for decades been closely linked to the human rights movement, while the concept of women’s participation in governance on an equal footing with the men dates back at least to the fourth century.

“Women want to influence the decisions that affect their lives and the lives of their families, the political economy and destiny of their communities and nations, a well as the structure of the international relations,” says Anam.

Institutional transformations are needed to create the enabling environment for the economic and political empowerment of gender and especially women.

Gender hierarchies can be seen in a range of practices and ideologies that are both as a result and cause further unequal power relations

The laws are also disignatory, change of rules such like the immigration rules that does not permit a married woman to leave the country without the institution getting the authority from her husband.

Anam reiterates that institutions should revoke such rules because there is no need for the women to tag along their husbands to get permission to do certain things.

“In Gender and power relations, the women should move beyond their laptops to the ground to capture the real issues that affect them as women,” she adds.

Why are we still having the imbalance, Jacqueline posses, if we are having done everything right?

Laws and policies should embrace the imbalances that the women have in this nation and to ensure that the women’s right are human rights.

The translation of human right instruments include various policy makers and adoption and implementation of affirmative action measures wherever there is a perceived need, even in areas that appear to have little relevance to politics.

Dr Muteshi also adds that the concept of equality between men and women must be the bases of advancing rights in Kenya underpin all actions.

“Women and men must have equality before the law, as laws must prohibit and eliminate both legal and systematic discrimination on the basis of sex,” she adds.

Ends

The price of Education

By Waguma Judy

Margaret Nailantei now 17 remembers with nostalgia; how her parents separated in order to secure her education.

“My mother had to sacrifice her marriage and happiness, because she believed that girls also deserved a chance in education,” she says

Nailantei, a form three student at Ilbisisil secondary school, Kajiado district, says that, had it not been for her mother’s brave move, she would have already been married off.

She explains that, after undergoing her initiation rites, her father strongly felt that she was of the right age to get married.

“My life has been a very hard one since I was young, my father did not want me to go to school, but my mother worked very hard to educate me,” she says.

Following the completion of class eight, my dad did not want me to proceed with my education, she says; he wanted me to get married.

My mother refused and I had to repeat class seven and that when I joined Ilbissil girls.

During this time I read gifted hands, a book by Ben Carson, who has been an inspiration in my life, I almost recognize my life with his, and in future my dream is to become a neurosurgeon just like him.

Being a Maasai girl is very hard, in a culture where women are still viewed as slaves and young girls being married off at very tender ages.

We have to undergo circumcision, which according to me has no meaning at all in our lives, and also be married off to strangers without your consent.

Education is important, but it made my parents separate, but I do not regret it for one day, because I believe that a day is coming when I will be able to support my mother and our community.

Miriam Kaipason, 17 years old from Ilbissil girls, is of the same view as Naintaei, her dream is however to become a lawyer to be able to fight for the Masaai women, to get education and wipe off the FGM completely from the Maasai community.

Kaipason, says that she was circumsisded when she was just 13 years old. “It Was the most painful thins ever, it is my wish today that no other woman undergoes through this process ever again.

She is just one of the many Kenyan girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation after the passage of the Children's Act law. Passed by Parliament in 2001, the Children's Act outlaws various forms of violation against children, including FGM, for females 18 and younger.

About 14 other countries in Africa have passed similar laws against FGM. Djibouti joined the group on Thursday by ratifying the African Union's Maputo Protocol on female genital mutilation, which requires its member states to ban the practice. But activists in Kenya--sometimes identified as a leader in the anti-FGM campaign--say the country still has a long way to go.

Elsewhere Charity Namunyok Paitah, a secretary in a local school in Kajiado disctrict, has her father to thank for her education. “Today I can reason with my father and tell him that I also need a piece of his land because I also have a right.

“What bothers me the most is that my age mates, girls I grew up with, today have over four children and walk after donkeys, fetch water and work like slaves while they are pregnant,” she says.

Young girls drop out of school after they go to this ceremonies, then they get scared to go back to school, after that they get married off, she says.

A woman in the massai land is still taken as a slave, a worker, a wife to the community, therefore she has to work extra hard to meet the family’s demands.

Pregnant mothers, due to their ignorance, fail to take their children to hospitals after giving birth, and end up getting polio and many other diseases that can be prevented.

Our leaders have failed us; since they are only concerned with their own issues but not the issue that affects the Maasai’s.

With basic education, the women can support the community, the standard of living will also change and people will slowly realize development in this area, as their minds would now be opened up, says Paitah.

Despite all this, Hellen Nkaissrey, the wife to the local Member of Parliament believes that another world is indeed possible for the maa community.

We are pastoralist, says Nkaissery, and we believe that it’s very beneficial, and the world should focus on it as an income.

We would wish our culture to be of value to us, and not act as a factor that demeans us instead.

Therefore we will push for policies to focus on indigenous communities to a certain level, and as money is disbursed, we would also demand for a fair share.
Education is important in our community, and the women should be given an ample opportunity to even the most basic education, because they are skillful.

Ends