Feature: Women from Kenya's minority communities eye seats during August polls

Kenya will hold the general election in August and female aspirants from minority tribes are prepared to fight huge obstacles to win coveted seats.

The constitution encourages participation of women in politics regardless of their ethnicity, religion or class though recent history indicates chances of them securing victory is littered with uncertainties.

Sarah Osasi, a grassroots leader from the indigenous Ogiek community is among thousands of women from marginalized communities who have declared interest in elective posts.

She wants to join the County Assembly of Nakuru where she intends to articulate the plight of an estimated 40,000 members of the Ogiek community who live in Mau Forest.

"The Ogiek community requires a visionary leader to advance their agenda and address challenges facing them like illiteracy and poverty," Osasi told Xinhua during an interview on Sunday.

According to Osasi, her quest for elective post is facing huge bottlenecks such as limited campaign finance and cultural stereotypes.

"It is even more challenging since I am a woman from a minority community. A man would automatically be a preferred choice based on cultural dictates," said Osasi.

In the last decade, the Ogiek community has grappled with evictions from the Mau forest as the state steps up efforts to rehabilitate the vital water tower that had suffered immense degradation.

However, Osasi believed she has the will to reclaim the land rights of her community and bring change to her people for they have lagged behind in poverty and illiteracy for many years.

"We live in an area rich in tourism resources and we have had international tourists coming to see how we lived in the forest and learn about our culture. That's an opportunity to capitalize on and expose the community to the whole world and bring great change to the people," she told Xinhua.

Osasi is lucky to have a supportive husband who has pledged to lend a hand as she campaign for a hotly contested ward representative post.

In many Kenyan communities where conservatism is deeply rooted, conflicts arise at home when a woman expresses interest to vie for a political seat.

Osasi's ambition to become an elected leader is informed by a childhood of struggles that inculcated ethos of hard work, resilience and empathy that are a boon to individuals seeking public office.

"One major problem facing our community is landlessness. The Ogiek live like refugees in their own land. Our people are very poor as a result of evictions. They lost everything. I need to address this, "she said.

She believed that having vocal leaders in key positions would emancipate the Ogiek community from underdevelopment.

Kenya's Ogiek community has reached out to international arbitration bodies to advocate for recognition of their land rights.

Osasi said that securing a seat in Nakuru County Assembly will provide her a platform to push for compensation of members of her community who have been displaced from their ancestral land. Endit