Oral East Africa>How Genz baddies can turn street action into active politics, a conversation with Linda Ogweno At the hut of the story

Written by Oral East Africa

During the Gen Z protest in Kenya girls and women were at the front and center of the political activism in what is seen as the new era where Kenya may finally buck the trend of women's underrepresentation.

But what does it take to for women to actually vie and get elected?

Linda Ogweno who vied and lost for a member of county assembly for Migosi, takes us through her journey as a candidate and mother.

She tells us of how she had to stand firm when her parents disagreed with her decision, the mockery of being a divorcee, the impact on her children, and how Kenyan politics which is decided in the dead of night is disadvantageous to Kenyan women. Kenyan politics is also brutally violent, one of the main reasons why women keep away from politics.

Ms Ogweno said that while she was campaigning, some men, known to her stormed into her car and violently robbed her and her team demanding to be paid for listening to her campaign.

Politics is very insecure, I remember being attacked physically. We are in a country where people believe in tokenism, especially in Luo Nyanza, Yuko-Ojamna-what we call shaking the Ojamna tree. When you do not do that they do not perceive you to be a very serious candidate.

I had gone to campaign in a certain area, and these were people known to me, it is not like they are strangers, we had grown up with them.

I was in the car wash and after finishing the campaign I did not give them a token, so they felt that I owed them.

What they did was that they got in my car, and took anything and everything they could take, including from the people who were helping me campaign

It was one of those challenges we face, politics in Kenya is insecure but it affects women more because we do not like that violence which gets women scared to go through that.

Watch full interview here