Women pursue peaceful elections for Kenya

Nairobi, 20^th February 2013… As the country gears up for the General elections, the Women of Kenya have come together to launch the Women Situation Room. The Women’s Situation Room Kenya is a process that aims at mobilizing, harnessing and employing the expertise and experiences of women in taking action to prevent or mitigate potential conflict that could emerge before during and after the elections.

The launch is the first step in the process that culminates in the setting up of a room that would comprise mainly of non-partisan female personalities who will sit, receive and analyze information before, during and after the March 4^th elections. It is also a process where all stakeholders including political parties, students, civil society, media practitioners and youths lobby and engage themselves to commit and act actively to promote peaceful elections.

The Women’s Situation room in Kenya also seeks to provide women and youth organizations a platform to strategize, plan and respond rapidly to election related issues in a timely manner through a coordinated and a consolidated response system linked to appropriate authorities including law enforcement and IEBC to ensure everyone can participate in the elections in a peaceful environment;

The Women’s Situation Room in Kenya is a concept replicated from the Women’s Situation Room (WSR) that was first implemented under the Angie Brooks International Centre (ABIC) during the Liberia Presidential and Legislative Elections in 2011 and has been successfully replicated in Senegal (Presidential elections of February 2012) and Sierra Leone (General Elections of November 2012.

The Women Situation Room in Kenya is made up of the Team of Eminent Persons (TEMP), consisting of neutral players, emissaries, and goodwill ambassadors who will serve as observers and expert mediators to provide their support and encourage dialogue among stakeholders, some of the members of this team are Hon. Beth Mugo, Hon. Zipporah Kitonny, Kiprono Kittony, Rahab Muiu , as well as  Prof. Wanjiku Kabiru.

WSR Kenya will also have a team of five international African Eminent Persons (AEP) comprising of First lady of Rwanda, Jeanette Kagame, Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior, Dr. Miria Matembe of Uganda as well as Gertrude Ibengwe Mongella, the first president of the Pan African Parliament. The WSR Kenya also comprises of the National Women’s Steering Committee, and is made up of several organizations in the women’s movement led by the Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organization, Caucus for Women Leadership and the Women Political Alliance.

Some of the essential activities to be conducted include the training of women and youth as observers, setting up of the physical room, deployment of elections observers, media engagement on the importance of the women’s situation room, recording of peace messages as well as the signing of the peace cloth by key stakeholders, the general public, as well as the political party leaders and their supporters as a commitment to peaceful elections in March 2013.