Embrace women candidates, Sabina says

Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege has called for support for women who are vying for various seats in next year’s election.

 Chege said women face discrimination in politics that makes many of them shy away from running for seats.

She said political parties should also have structures that protect women candidates from being harassed. “If anyone bullies a woman in the political field, they should not be given a certificate or ticket to vie for any position,” she said.

 “This is a democratic country where everybody is entitled to equal rights and politics is no exception,” she added.

The legislator said women should be given space to sell their agenda and vision to the people who will then decide if they will vote for them or not.

She also warned parties against being used as a tool to fight women adding that every individual has a right to political affiliation.

 “We can belong to different political parties but this should not make one to be discriminated against. We can agree to disagree but not fight,” she said.

She was speaking in Murang’a during the launch of 16 days of Zero Tolerance to gender based violence where she said more efforts need to be made to protect women.

“Women are the majority of gender based violence victims and we need to create more awareness to end this trend,”she said.

 Chege said she is in talks with partners from India to have a rescue center for the GBV victims set up in the county.

She observed that most women have nowhere to run to when they are assaulted and some of them end up being killed.