Farouk and the broad based women: Victims or partners?

A few weeks ago, Farouk Kibet, President Ruto's personal assistant, ignited the ire of Kenyans at a public event in Lamu. He called MP Sabina Chege to the podium and asked her to turn around and show her backside and then dance. The united view was from the lens of gender parity.

The line that made people sad is not even asking Sabina to turn around and dance. After cutting short her speech with a pat on the back, he complimented her looks and prowess in bed and not for what she had said.

According to him, if you have Sabina in bed, you will wake up the day after tomorrow. People saw Farouk as demeaning the stature of women in politics to dancers and sex objects.

The following day, a meme went into circulation purporting that Sabina Chege had come to the defense of Farouk. She said the issue had been blown out of proportion; it was a light moment, a casual joke. She said that if she was offended, she would have said it loud herself. The people who were wailing more than the bereaved recoiled and let it pass.

Last Saturday at another empowerment forum in Western Kenya, Farouk Kibet was at it again. This time it was the self-declared Bad Girl of Kenyan politics, Millie Odhiambo, involved. He asked her to dance again after asking the crowd if she is beautiful. Millie went ahead to shake her body accordingly before addressing the crowd.

Social media went abuzz immediately, calling out Kibet for gross misconduct and Millie as well for playing along. Our forefathers were right when they said that you must castigate the mongoose for eating your chicken but call out the chicken for being careless.

It did not take long for Millie Odhiambo to come out and state that she danced voluntarily because she loves dancing and will not hesitate to dance again.

The above incidences reminded me of a joke I heard a while back. First of all, politics is all about seduction. Politicians seduce the public for votes and support daily. If they cannot do it with words, just like some men may encounter challenges in the dating game, they pour money. This is the reason why I am never bothered by the sex scandals that are common in our political circles.

In a rural setting in Kenya, if you are a jobless villager, don't attempt to flirt with a lady. She will react harshly and call you a troublesome miscreant and smack her lips at the end of it. She won't hesitate to tell her friends how you have "hard eyes."

When an urban based man comes along dangling his car keys, she will behave differently. The man may tell her the same words you told her but she will react differently. You will see her smile coyly and lower her gaze after lifting her eyes briefly. She will then tell him shyly, "Baba Liam, you love joking a lot."

Pinch of salt

Stories are subject to power dynamics. Ladies in political space may come out to acknowledge that they have the choice and power to say no in the face of sexual humiliation. This is far from the truth. The reality is that before someone speaks against someone in power in public, a lot has gone on in her mind. In this case, Farouk Kibet is the surrogate of the president. He is the most powerful man in these public functions despite not holding a political office.

Power changes how we define people and contexts. The perspective of the boss will always prevail. It doesn't matter if it is false or off in terms of weakness in form and substance.

That is the reason I will take the responses from Sabina Chege and Millie Odhiambo with a pinch of salt.