IN SUMMARY
Today’s First Lady is faced with two pressures:
- First, she can no longer claim ‘female exclusivity’ to the president’s ear in influencing public policy; and
- Second, she cannot stray too far from the image of the progressive and sophisticated woman — the matronly, self-deprecating ‘Mama wa Taifa’ looks outdated next to the sharply dressed power women in Cabinet.
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| In East Africa, the role of the First Lady has been evolving over the years. Illustrations/Joseph Nyagah |
By
CHRISTINE MUNGAI
Inevitably,
to become a First Lady is to step into a role that is subject to public
scrutiny; whether that role is formal or informal.
Some
First Ladies have found themselves in the news for all the wrong reasons —
lavish holidays and shopping sprees abroad, corruption and/or doing everything
possible to ensure their husbands remain in power.
Imelda
Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippines for example, was infamous for her
glitzy display of wealth, collecting more than 1,000 pairs of shoes, and is
even quoted as saying: “I was born ostentatious. They will list my name in
the dictionary someday. They will use Imeldific to mean ostentatious
extravagance.”
Despite
facing numerous corruption charges in the Philippines, she is yet to be
convicted and continues to wield considerable power even after her husband’s
death; her knack in surviving personal and political challenges has led her to
be nicknamed “The Steel Butterfly.”
Elena
Ceausescu’s legacy too, is a subject of debate. A First Lady in communist
Romania, she was chief of the Party and State Cadres Commission, which enabled
her to promote and demote individuals in the party apparatus and the
government. By the mid-1980s, Elena’s national prominence had grown to the
point that her birthday was celebrated as a national holiday, as was her
husband Nicolae’s.
There
is even a First Lady wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes
against humanity — Simone Gbagbo, wife of former Ivorian president Laurent
Gbagbo. The ICC indicted her for four counts of crimes against humanity
(murder, rape and other sexual violence, persecution, and other inhuman acts)
committed in Côte d’Ivoire between 2010 and 2011, in the violence that followed
a disputed election that pitted her husband Laurent against Alassane Ouattara,
who eventually emerged victorious.
But
what really is the role of the First Lady? The world over, there is conflict
over her precise role — unelected, yet wielding substantial power, her job is
to accomplish two things at once: “Project buoyant enthusiasm and an air of
dignity; know how to be girlish and how to look serene in a gown,” write Andrew
Burstein and Nancy Isenberg in an insightful piece on Salon.com.
Strong
First Ladies also attract resentment, they write, drawing from Bill and Hillary
Clinton: “... Nothing helped Hillary’s image so much as the sympathy she
garnered when Bill’s bad private behaviour was confirmed. Then she
appeared appropriately vulnerable.”
And
the demure, suburban, country club woman is still derided as “Ms Perfect,
someone easy to dislike.” It’s a delicate balancing act.
In
East Africa, it seems, the role of the First Lady has been evolving over the
years, from “mama wa taifa”
(mother of the nation) — the silent, matronly types by the Big Man’s side,
essentially reinforcing his role as the ultimate embodiment of the patriarchal
establishment — to a more forward-looking one; a microcosm of shifting dynamics
of the modern-day African society. Mama Ngina Kenyatta, the widow of Kenya’s
first president, in particular, wore the tag.
In
Uganda, critics have often described former First Lady Miria Kalule-Obote, as
“low-key with barely a career to talk about.” She, however, surprised many when
in 2005, she returned to Uganda after 20 years in exile, to bury her husband,
and announced she would vie for the presidency during the 2006 General
Election.
Today’s First Lady
Today’s
East African First Lady is not the unassuming, silent type. She is educated,
vocal and often powerful in her own right.
She
is championing 21st century causes such as early childhood education, the fight
against elephant poaching and even confidence-building for the youth by
promoting debating contests and toastmaster clubs.
And
as women become a common sight at the African political high table, and they
are not just trophies — they are urbane, sophisticated, educated and often have
some international experience — there is a need for the First Lady to measure
up.
This
list of the urbane, sophisticated, educated women includes Tanzania’s minister
for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Asha-Rose Migiro, a former deputy
secretary-general of the United Nations. Also included are Anna Tibaijuka,
Tanzania’s minister for Lands and Housing, who is the former executive director
of UN-Habitat; Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Defence, Raychelle Omamo, a former
chair of the Law Society of Kenya who previously served as ambassador to
France; and Uganda’s minister for Gender and Social Services Mary Karoro
Okurut, who had an illustrious career as a writer and literary critic prior to
joining government, and was the founder of Femrite — Uganda Women Writers
Association.
This
means that today’s First Lady is faced with two pressures: First, she can no
longer claim “female exclusivity” to the president’s ear in influencing public
policy; and second, she cannot stray too far from the image of the progressive
and sophisticated woman — the matronly, self-deprecating “mama wa taifa” looks
outdated next to her sharply dressed power women in Cabinet.
Perhaps
no other country has witnessed this solid shift towards the composed and
sophisticated type more than Kenya.
Mama
Ngina Kenyatta was the quiet, unassuming, typical “mama wa taifa.” Then for 24 years under President
Daniel arap Moi, Mama Ngina retained the official status as First Lady as
President Moi was estranged from his wife (now the late) Lena.
When
Mwai Kibaki came into power in 2002, his wife Lucy strode boldly beside him
into the public arena, and before long, had become the talk of the town for her
alleged aggressive outbursts. One bizarre episode is when President Kibaki
called a rare press conference in 2009 to clarify to the public that he had
only one wife, Lucy, apparently irritated by media references to a speculated
second wife.
Still,
Lucy had her fair share of achievements — she had programmes to fight HIV/ Aids
and breast cancer, credited as a founder member and initiator of the Starehe
Girls Centre, a leading girls high school in Nairobi.
Then
in came Margaret Kenyatta, the current First Lady, who is the complete
embodiment of the 21st century woman.
East Africa's First Ladies
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| JANET MUSEVENI |
JANET MUSEVENI
Age: 65
Education: Bachelor’s
degree in Education; Diploma in Early Childhood Education
Number of children: Four
Years as First
Lady: 28
Style: Short hair
(popularised as the ‘Janet’ hairstyle); pearls
Janet Museveni is perhaps the best illustration of this
evolution of the role of First Lady in the region. She is East Africa’s
longest-serving First Lady. When she came into office 28 years ago, Uganda
faced two major challenges — it was just emerging from years of civil war, and
many children had lost their parents or had been child soldiers.
The
country was also coming to terms with HIV/Aids, which was leaving thousands of
children as orphans. It was thus natural that she started off her career as
First Lady by founding Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (Uweso), a relief
agency late 1986, which she said was shaped by her experience as a refugee.
Fighting HIV/Aids was a core mandate of the agency.
As
a result, new HIV infections in Uganda plummeted from 31 per cent in 1992 to 6
per cent in 2002, and the country was lauded for setting the standard in the
continent’s fight against HIV/Aids.
By
2005, the threat that HIV/Aids posed to Uganda was diminishing. The First
Lady then repositioned herself as the guardian of Ugandan family values, and
moral leader for the country’s youth — heading a campaign for prayer and
abstention from sex as a new approach to dealing with the lingering threat of
Aids. But that hamstrung with the image of a hectoring matron, so she shifted
gears.
Her
next move is a lesson in reinvention. She announced that she would vie for the
Ruhaama parliamentary seat, in western Uganda in the 2006 elections, a radical
move considering that Ruhaama was where she was born, not where she is married
— African culture expects that a married woman “belongs” to her husband and his
people, and she should “eat” where her husband is.
The
easier route would have been to have her husband nominate her to parliament.
But she ran, and won, and was even re-elected in 2011, becoming a political
powerhouse in her own right.
In
2009, Mrs Museveni was appointed State Minister for Karamoja Affairs and in
2011, she was elevated to Minister for Karamoja Affairs, and was now not just
First Lady, but an elected member of parliament and a government minister. She
capped it with a remarkably frank autobiography, My Life’s Journey, further
setting out her stall as an independent First Lady.
Janet
Museveni’s rise to power coincides with President Museveni’s expanding of women
in high-level positions — his 1986 Cabinet had just one woman, Gertrude Njuba,
one of the few founding members of the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Today, women make up 36 per cent of the Cabinet.
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| JEANNETTE KAGAME |
JEANNETTE KAGAME
Age: 51
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business and Management Science
Number of children: Four
Years as First Lady: 14
Style: Shumshanana (traditional Rwandan dress for women)
No
other First Lady in East Africa, has had to deal with the additional challenge
of her husband’s international profile, as much as Jeannette Kagame.
Paul
Kagame is unique in the region in that he is more than the president of a small
African country — he is in many ways a global icon. His international fan club
is as fanatic as is its Hate-Kagame global industry. He is the only African
leader who gets invited to Fortune 500 meetings.
Mrs
Kagame’s initiatives thus reflect a sharp, progressive forward-looking and
future focused thinking, while sidestepping the international and regional
battles her husband seems to relish.
Although
her Imbuto Foundation covers health and other socio-economic programmes, some
of its biggest initiatives are focused on empowering the youth, and not through
just the conventional means: Imbuto Foundation hosts Reading Day campaigns,
scholarships for secondary education, Celebrating Young Rwandan Achievers
(CYRWA), and Rwanda Speaks!, a public speaking initiative done through
toastmasters clubs and debate contests.
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| DENISE NKURUNZIZA |
DENISE NKURUNZIZA
Age: 45
Education: Higher Diploma in Pastoral Studies
Number of children: Five
Years as First Lady: 9
Style: Short hair; umushanana; kitenge
Burundi’s
Denise Nkurunziza embodies the conservative type, having being ordained as a
reverend in 2011. She perhaps gets the least mention of the East African First
Ladies, reflecting the reality that Burundi is still a country coming out of
the shadows after years of a bitter civil war.
Her
sports-loving husband Pierre Nkurunziza is also deeply religious, and both the
president and First Lady preach at crusades and in church.
Her
Buntu Foundation works to support refugees, widows and orphans, and in 2012,
opened the Professional Training Centre, Buye at Ngozi, in northern Burundi
where students are trained in various practical skills.
But
like Salma Kikwete, her approach to health care is decidedly modern — in 2010,
the Buntu Foundation signed an agreement with Fortis Healthcare, an Indian
medical services network, which seized an opportunity to tap into the need for
specialist healthcare in Burundi. Under the agreement, Fortis Healthcare trains
Burundian specialist doctors and nurses in India.
Doctors
from Fortis Healthcare also hold free medical camps for the poor, and citizens
who cannot be treated in Burundi can be transferred to India for
treatment at a subsidised fee.
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| MARGARET KENYATTA |
MARGARET KENYATTA
Age: Unknown
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Education
Number of children: Three
Years as First Lady: 1
Style: Pearls; short grey hair
Kenya’s
current First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta is the complete embodiment of the 21st
century woman. Wellborn, articulate, composed and photogenic, she lends
much-needed class and glamour to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s image.
Her
first major initiative as First Lady was on wildlife conservation, launching
the anti-poaching campaign ‘Hands Off Our Elephants' mid last year.
In
a country where wildlife conservation is largely seen as a “mzungu” thing
(Western concept), the First Lady’s endorsement is a testament to her
connection with 21st century sensibilities.
Recently,
she launched another initiative, “Beyond Zero” focusing on maternal and child
health, that saw her raise money by running a half marathon in March.
Marathons
are a decidedly urbane and chic way of raising money, a departure from harambees (fund
raiser events) or the ordinary conferences or talk-shops.
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| SALMA KIKWETE |
SALMA KIKWETE
Age: 50
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Education; Diploma in Early
Childhood Education
Number of children: 5
Years as First Lady: 9
Style: Kitenge with headscarf
There
is still room for the traditional in East Africa — Salma Kikwete, Tanzania’s
First Lady, who regularly wears kitenges in public, and has the most “motherly”
image of her counterparts in the region.
Her
WAMA Foundation (Wanawake na Maendeleo) has four major programmes — girl child
education, which draws from Mrs Kikwete’s 20 years experience as a teacher,
women empowerment, orphans and vulnerable children and health promotion.
Last
month, the foundation joined five other NGOs under the Coalition for Prevention
of Cervical Cancer in Tanzania, highlighting the growing threat of
non-communicable diseases in the region.
Source: theeastafrican.co.ke
