Since independence, Kenya has had leadership issues with women being sidelined. As a matter of fact, Kenya has the least women representation in parliament in East African Community with Rwanda leading.
It's only with the new constitution that more women have got the chance to get into leadership roles courtesy of the two-thirds gender rule. However, men continue to dominate in leadership roles both in politics, public sector as well as private sector.
The primitive myths about a woman's place in the society being the kitchen are yet to be properly addressed. Women who vie for political positions continue to face hostility from their male counterparts. This is despite having great women leaders in the past such as Martha Karua, Charity Ngilu and the late Professor Wangari Maathai whom we have all admired.
In the 2017 general elections, we saw more women than ever emerge victorious probably hinting that the future of women in leadership in Kenya is bright. This time, however, we never had a woman aspirant for the presidential position.
If we take the basic unit of the society, for instance, we see that women are great managers at the family level. What if they had an opportunity to lead this country? Definitely, we would hear less of corruption and more of progress.
One, women make the best leaders once they get an opportunity and they never take it for granted. We have had several women in leadership in Kenya but fewer women have been caught up in scandalous situations compared to men. No woman wants their image tainted and they will do their best to make fellow women proud and to show the world that women too can make good leaders.
Once we have a woman as president, more women will also be leaders. Our little girls will have someone to look up to and emulate, and more women will be encouraged to take up the leadership roles without fear of victimization. As a result, all the fallacies about women not being good leaders will be forgotten.
Also, no woman wants to see other women suffer. A woman is the only person who can properly champion for women's rights. Violence against women, gender inequality, financial exclusion and all the other rights that women are denied today will be a thing of the past if we have a woman president.
The result of this shall be a country where everyone feels important and appreciated with no one feeling superior to the other. And when everyone feels important, all work in togetherness towards developing our country.