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Nancy Baraza, Kenya's most senior woman judge, allegedly threatened a mall's security guard with a gun on New Year's Eve
By Katy Migiro
When Kenya’s most senior woman judge popped down to the shops on New Year’s Eve, few could have expected the online storm over gender and leadership that ensued.
After Nancy Baraza allegedly threatened a shopping mall security guard with a gun on New Year’s Eve, some Kenyans have gone online to use the opportunity to slam women’s right to be in power.
“Kenyan women especially those who are financially stable or in positions of power have this despicable attitude towards poor people or low-level employees,” wrote one commentator online.
“I would rather have a thousand harsh men as my boss than one goddess-like-woman-boss who is all messy with misplaced pride.”
The commentator concluded by wishing readers: “Happy new year and far more less women bosses than we already have!!”
Baraza, was suspended as Deputy Chief Justice on Wednesday and will defend herself on Monday in front of a tribunal set up by President Mwai Kibaki.
As the first woman to hold such a senior post in the Kenyan judiciary, Baraza’s sudden tumble from grace has attracted remarkable venom from some Kenyans.
The incident was hotly debated on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook before finding its way into traditional media and the international press.
And Photoshopped images of Baraza as Lara Croft in Tombraider were posted online.
Here’s the juicy story:
On December 31, Baraza had been going shopping in Nairobi’s upmarket Village Market mall, the favourite destination for employees of the nearby United Nations and United States Embassy. When the female security guard, Rebecca Kerubo, asked to search her, Baraza apparently refused.
It has become routine for visitors to Nairobi’s shopping malls and public places to be searched after Somalia's al-Shabaab militants threatened to launch attacks after Kenya sent troops across the border last year.
"She pinched my nose at the security desk," The Standard quoted Kerubo as saying.
Kerubo said Baraza was incensed not to have been recognised as a VIP, telling Kerubo she needed to “know people”.
Kerubo has alleged that the judge then returned with a pistol and threatened to shoot her.
“I knelt down begging her to spare my life,” Kerubo told the newspaper.
GENDER IRRELEVANT
The Federation of Women Lawyers tried, in vain, to stem the barrage of condemnation.
“We need to realise that she is an individual; this does not in any way mean that women do not have the temperament to be able to be in leadership positions,” its executive director Grace Maingi pointed out.
Some argue that Baraza has come under attack precisely because she is a powerful woman.
“Sadly, it has been blown out of proportion and resulted into national debate on ‘Ngoma cia aka’ – Women madness,” academic Mary Kinyanjui said.
“They seem too quick to vilify and crucify Baraza and what her personality stands for – an elite Kenyan woman, who holds a high public office, and one who is not reliant on a man for survival.
“This is the image those who vilify her are reacting against and that is why the vitriol is disproportionately larger than her crime.”
Interestingly, there was far less of an outcry when the prime minister’s son pulled out a machete after a bus driver blocked his way on the road.
A SOCIOECONOMIC ISSUE
But the incident also touches on sensitivities over Kenya’s stark divide between rich and poor – the east African nation is one of the most unequal societies in the world. Local media were keen to point out that Baraza earned some 1 million Kenyan shillings a month ($12,000) – over one hundred times more than the security guard.
Kenyans may be eager to lash out at Baraza because she is an arrogant woman. But I suspect they also feel a sense of disappointment.
When she was appointed in May, after lengthy job interviews broadcast live on television, there was celebration that liberal reformers were being admitted to clean up the country’s notoriously corrupt judiciary.
Her likely departure underscores the fact that Kenya still has a long way to go in finding leaders who can fulfill the aspirations of its populace.
In Kenya, some people high up in politics and business abuse their powers, flouting traffic rules and using their names and networks to sidestep the rules that apply to ordinary citizens.
The solution is not to lambast women for being in power, but to close the chasm between rich and poor, removing the sense of entitlement and superiority currently enjoyed by many men and a few women in the moneyed elite.
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