SPORTING EVENT IN MAKUENI - EASTERN PROVINCE, KENYA

Using sports to create awareness on gender and governance issues, as well as encourage community members, especially women and youth, to register as voters.

On 24^th April 2010, Mama na Dada Africa held a netball tournament for women, and a soccer tournament for youth, as an outreach activity to engage community members in a discussion on gender and governance issues as well as to promote the ongoing voter registration. The tournaments, which were held in Wautu shopping center, saw teams from Wautu and Ndolo locations battle for championship.

The day started with a meeting held at the Wautu shopping center, where the CWCs (Community women caucus) and the TOTs (Trained trainers) gave their reports on the outreaches they have been conducting since they were trained earlier in the year. The CWCs and TOTs, who were trained on gender and governance issues, gave verbal as well as written reports. The 25 CWCs and TOTs had each reached an average of 118 community members with information on gender and governance with a total of 2273 women and 677 men reached.

 

The two groups cited various challenges they faced while carrying out the step-down trainings,  such as heavy rainfall, which made it difficult to travel to some areas. They also dealt with poor attendance of the meetings they had organized, caused by the heavy rainfall as well as negative attitude towards gender and governance issues. “Men were not responding very positively” one of the CWCs stated. “They fear for their positions as the head of the family if we empower women and encourage them to take part in leadership”.

 

The challenge of identity cards was reported by both groups as being complex. On the one hand, there is a large number of community members, especially women, who do not have ID cards and so could not complete the information on the registration forms during the step down trainings or forums organized by CWCs and TOTs. On the other hand, some were   apprehensive to give out their ID numbers during registration, suspicious of what their ID numbers would be used for.

In one of the CWC reports of a visit to Kaiti constituency it said “The ID problem is very acute, because as we were in the (chief’s) office, a lady came with her daughter’s ID which had her name and a man’s photo on it”.

The issue of ID cards and voter registration misconceptions was addressed by Rhoda Mwove after the netball and football tournament when talking to the over one thousand community members who attended the day’s events. She encouraged women especially to register as voters and take part in the upcoming referendum. She also clarified issues of old ID cards saying that they could be used in voter registration. 

Matolo, a youth and part of the TOT team, reiterated Rhoda’s comments and added “Although I am excited about the day’s events, I am disappointed that we did not have young girls participating in the sporting event”. He challenged the young women to be more proactive in community activities.

Jackson Mutio and Jeremiah Muthiani, IIEC (Interim Independent Electoral commission) agents collaborated with Mama na Dada to carry out voter registration on the day. They registered a total of 10 people, half of whom were women.

 

The event was also attended by Mr. Samson Akach the District Officer of Ilima Division, Mr. Robert Matano the Acting Chief of Wautu, Ms. Anastacia Makuta, the Assistant Chief of Ndolo, Reverend John Kioko of the Wautu ACK Parish, Mr. Masila Mutungi the former Councilor of Wautu as well as head teachers of the local primary and secondary schools. 

“I will not allow community members to intimidate women” Mr Samson Akach said after narrating an incident where two older women were being forced to pay over one hundred thousand shillings for collecting firewood from someone’s land.  Mr Akach said that the women had already sold one of their cows to pay the debt imposed by the land owner. “I will follow up on this case! These women are mothers and grand mothers and were collecting firewood to go and cook for their families” he said.Akach also encouraged women to apply for the posts of Chief of Wautu and Assistant Chief for Mbusyani by the 26^th of May.  “This post is not only for men” he said. “As long as you have the required C+ grade and necessary documents you are eligible to apply”.

After the DO’s speech, Angelina Kioko, one of the TOTs, approached the Mama na Dada team beaming:  “You have empowered me so much.  I have decided to apply for the post of Assistant Chief, and even my Mzee (husband) is supporting me”.  

It was an exciting day for the Wautu netball team who beat their rivals, Ndolo 15-Nil. But in good “sports-womanship”, the Wautu team decided to give one score to their rivals from Ndolo location, so that the final score was 14-1. “I think they eat too much sugarcane and arrowroots in Ndolo” commented Victoria Nzume, a spectator and supporter of the Wautu team. “You can’t tell that some of the Wautu women are over 50 years old from the way they are jumping on the field”. Indeed, the teams comprised of women aged from 30 years to over 50 years old, and it was a spectacle to see how fit they are. 

 

The Wautu soccer team was, however, very disappointed to lose on home ground to the Ndolo soccer team who beat them 5-4 after the teams went into golden goal and then penalty at the end of play time. The Ndolo team went home with a brand new ball for their victory. However, all teams were winners, as each team was awarded a set of uniforms for the team, subs and coach. The women’s netball teams were given a set of glasses and the winning team went away with a brand new professional ball.