Sophie Ngugi - A Child of the universe

“She must be the one to blame!” That is a common judgment that is used on women and girls, over and over again. the narrative seeks to establish how the victim contributed to what happened to her. In the recent past there has been several incidents of reported rape cases in Kenya involving high profile individuals or highly publicized incidents. Some are in the process of legal proceedings so I will not get into details. With social media such incidents are highly publicized and the ‘online experts’ immediately start giving ‘analytical input’ into the incidents. In one case, there was an immediate reaction on doubting if this was true and even how this was a “date gone wrong”. That caught my interest, a date is equal to saying yes to sex? In Kenya it is very hard to hear about date rapes. This is not because that does not happen but because there is an assumption that when you say yes to one thing, then it is a yes to everything else. If you did not intent to have sex, do not go o...

Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws. Barbara Kingsolver It has been a while since I blogged. A lot has changed over the last two or so years. As I type this, I am feeling like I am just taking a breath and exhaling, as I am middle-way in my few days of annual leave. The past year, has been an interesting period. Pregnancy and childbirth impact on one’s life. I recall that day, over a year ago when my older sister Susan told said “you are mother!” I looked at her and the little human being who was already throwing hands around, looked around at the different sisters (sisters by blood and others acquired), the medical staff around and …I had no reaction. There was no reaction. I did not know how to react, it was overwhelming, so I whispered “this is the day the Lord has made, thank you.” The days sort of rolled by and there were interesting and challenging moments. I have learnt several lessons: There is a space for patience in each one of us : the vi...

Why affirmative action? (Gosh its 2016 but we still ask). So why gender affirmative action? That has been the debate in Kenya more so in the last three days with all sorts of “social media” experts. I had vowed not to engage on the 2/3 gender rule debate in Kenya because some of ignorant comments are just too much for a sane mind. When you have been working on these issues for many years sometimes it is hard to just get why people don’t get it. And it is tiring. I will not go to parliament let me go to the village. I will just give this example. Some years back together with Hon Adelina Mwau and Nzungi we were working on some water project that would bring the much needed water closer to the people. Note: In our culture who fetches water? Who suffers when there is no water? We were working with the project in that community in consultation with the leaders. (By leaders I mean the current leaders take precedence – chief, village elders, etc etc – read male). We made it clear ...

As we ‘jumped’ the year and bid goodbye to 2015, I kept thinking, so what is new? Yes, we are crossing to 2016, but so what, what is NEW? Or have I become a pessimist? I started seeing ‘new year’ messages as early as 20th day of December 2015. I wondered if people are more optimists or taking much for granted, I mean some people died at 11.59pm on Dec 31.  I then started wondering why Christmas messages have to be tied with New Year; “Merry Christmas and a happy New year”.  May be it is the optimism that one will see a new year, and the anticipation. 12 months is a long period, and hence the much hullabaloo about a new year more than a new day or a new month. I saw comments on people getting quite annoyed at ‘happy new month’ comments…may be we may as well stick with New Year! At least a year is an assurance that you will have (or celebrate) a birthday, even those born on February 29. By the way how do you count your birthday when there is no leap year? A new year is a time ...