Also present in the interview was Dagoretti North MP Beatrice Elachi who underpinned Lesuda’s claims arguing that female politicians are dreaded in Kenya because they deliver satisfactorily
By Lavin Atieno
Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuda has shed the spotlight on how her marital status affected her electoral bid in the just concluded general elections. Speaking during an interview with a local TV station on Tuesday, she disclosed how her marital status affected her bid during both the 2017 and the 2022 general elections.
“In this election, my opponents said that now I am married, why don’t I go and vie in Baringo where I am married? So, the other time I said I was single it was a problem and now that I am married it was a problem. With women, it’s never enough.” she said. Also present in the interview was Dagoretti North MP Beatrice Elachi who underpinned Lesuda’s claims arguing that female politicians are dreaded in Kenya because they deliver satisfactorily. According to Elachi women perform better than their male counterparts in service delivery.
“It’s because Kenya also fears women that when women get these seats men will never get them back again, that women perform better.” According to the National Gender and equality commission, Kenyans elected 30 female MPs during this year’s general election up from 23 in 2017. In Nakuru county, Susan Kihika, who is a former Senator of the county unseated former governor Lee Kinyanjui with nearly twice the vote while Tabitha Karanja took Kihika’s seat as Senator making the county the first to have both the senator and governor as women.
The country now has seven female governors in total up from three in the 2017 general elections: Susan Kihika (Nakuru County), Gladys Wanga (Homabay County), Cecily Mbarire (Embu County), Wavinya Ndeti (Machakos County), and Fatuma Achani (Kwale County), Kawira Mwangaza (Meru County) and Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga County).
