Thread: Women political ‘trailblazers’ under KANU never did much to move the democratization agenda forward. Save for Chelagat Mutai, the rest were really a bunch of “flower girls” who enjoyed KANU tokenism. The case of Grace Onyango and Eddah Gachukia.

Grace Onyango was voted in multiple times because of the tribulations of her brother, the indefatigable Ochola Achola. Many don’t know but Ochola Achola was one of the early grassroots mobilizers with an ideological purity that scared the new KANU state right from independence.

In the mid 60s, Ochola Achola was picked by the Jomo state and laundered in detention without trial. Moi inherited him and maintained Jomo’s “Nyayo”. Even as he released Achieng’ Oneko, Dennis Akumu and Ochola Mak’Anyengo, etc, he never touched Ochola Achola. Man went insane.

When Koigi wa Wamwere raised the issue through a motion, despite Grace Onyango being his blood sister, and a senior parliamentarian; she never supported Kogi’s motion. Grace was then a KANU MP and deputy speaker.

That aside, the most interesting was Hon. Eddah Gachukia. She was nominated to parliament by Moi/KANU. In the early Moi years, then AG Charles Njonjo issued a shoot-to-kill order on robbers. Police, acting on this order, shot her son, then driving a family Benz on Mombasa Road.

When Koigi raised the issue of extra-judicial killings in parliament, and called government to end the Njonjo shoot-to-kill orders, she moved closer to Koigi and whispered to him to raise the issue of her son who was shot by the police acting on the Njonjo orders.

When Koigi asked her why she wasn’t raising the issue herself; she told him she feared losing her seat as her support for the motion to end extra-judicial killings would be seen as opposition to the government. It never mattered that her own son had been shot, almost killed.

Kenyans owe so much to Chelegat Mutai. I think part of the reason the “two-third” gender rule is dead on arrival is because of the “flower girl” history that the so called “women political trailblazers” set.

Lest I be branded a male chauvinist, let me exit this thread