Omar is a native of Lamu, a conservative region near the Somali border known for its preserved Swahili culture and for being a UNESCO heritage site.
“If we are to address the challenges we are facing as women, youth and Indigenous communities, we also have to take on the political battle,” she tells CNN.
The 39-year-old is Coastal County’s first female candidate for the top position. She is among the record number of women running for office in Kenya’s August 9 general election.
She says running for office comes as a natural progression after seven years of providing a “band-aid solution.” for poor healthcare.
“Being able to really dig our teeth into the root causes of rural challenges certainly drives us into politics,” says Omar.
even if women wear makeup nearly half Number of registered voters, Kenya still has Least elected female leader in East Africa,
But this choice may be different.
‘Kenya ready for women at all levels’
If opposition leader Raila Odinga wins, Martha Karua, 64, of Kenya could have the first female vice president.
When she ran for president on her own in 2013, Karua received less than 1% of the vote, finishing sixth from five men.
This is the closest to the top seat in the 25 years since a woman has run for Kenya’s presidency for the first time.
Karua was asked if Kenya is ready for a female president like neighboring Tanzania.
“This question suggests that women should not be on the ballot, because I never had a question whether Kenyans were ready for yet another man. So the question itself is discriminatory,” said Kenya’s former justice minister Tells CNN.
“I think Kenya is ready for women at every level.”
Her nomination energized the Odinga campaign and excited many women, some of whom compared her to US Vice President Kamala Harris.
In her three decades in Kenyan politics, Karua has earned a reputation as a principled politician and nicknamed “The Iron Lady” – a moniker she detests.
“That name speaks to the misogyny within society. Shakti is not treated as a woman, Shakti is perceived as a man,” Karua told CNN, adding that it was first used by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. who came to power in 1979.
“It speaks to the misogyny and patriarchy ruling the world,” she says.
‘Systematic boycott of women’
Although the number of women entering Kenya’s political arena has grown over the years, only 23% of seats in the previous parliament were held by women. This includes women representative posts specifically reserved for them – 47 out of 349 seats are currently reserved for women in this position.
“We are seeing more and more women running, which tells us that it has never been a problem for women who want to participate in politics,” says Marilyn Kamuru, an advocate and author on women in politics. says. “It remains a problem about the systematic exclusion of women.”
That exclusion includes financial barriers to competing in notoriously expensive campaigns that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and regular violence against women and even those already serving in office. For example, in 2019, a Kenyan MP was arrested for allegedly slapping a female colleague and calling her name.
“It cools the atmosphere for women, it makes women think again, hold back,” and consider running for lower positions or abandoning their campaigns altogether, Kamuru says.
“We have some major, mind-boggling character assassinations that we’re dealing with with the Safari Doctors, but we try not to be distracted,” says Omar.
She laments the publicity used against her in the race, including taboo charges such as LGBT “recruiters” or drug dealers, to derail her campaign.
“There are some cultures that don’t even give women the right to have their voter card, so you need a man’s permission,” Amdani said. She added that in negotiation situations where elders determine who runs for office, they also harm women and they are “more common than you might think.”
Despite the constraints of political office, Kenyan women persist. “As long as we remain non-negotiable players, the system will have to accommodate us,” Kamuru said.
a long shot campaign
While everyone in Lamu who spoke to CNN knew she was running, some men felt she was punching above her weight and should have been vying for a less powerful female representative county-wide parliamentary seat. .
But Constance Kadzo, 24, a small grocery stall owner, told CNN she was inspired to see an indigenous Swahili woman running for the top seat.
“I’m voting for her because she’s the only woman brave enough to go up against men and I know she’ll fight for us.”