Throughout her childhood, Mana Omar always heard women of Kajiado County complain of being raped on their way to distant water points.
This disturbed her a lot. As she went through her undergraduate studies in meteorology, she regularly engaged with the Maasai women and girls and realised their problems are mountainous.
She promised herself to return to the community to emancipate them.
But her approach would be different.
“Not to impose solutions but let the community initiate them and own them,” says Mana, now 28-years-old.
The time came. In 2019, she founded Spring of the arid and semi-arid lands (Sasal) soon after graduation, with that she started the journey to free the women and girls from not just sexual violence but also restrain to own land. She also started empowering them on the importance of going to school, making decisions on marriage and not to undergo female genital mutilation.
Early pregnancy
Since January, she has been implementing a model she calls Enkang’, which centres on promoting gender equality and climate resilience among the Maasai in Musenke area in Magadi Ward, Kajiado County.
The outcome of the initiative is to establish model gender-equal village where no man or woman fights the other. No girl drops out of school due to early pregnancy, or gets defiled as she manoeuvres through the bushes to the nearest borehole. Where women have equal rights to own land.
“This model is based on the willingness of the community members to change,” she says.
Gender equality
She adds that any local willing to join the village must sign an agreement which requires them to abolish patriarchy and join the gender equality movement as well as participate in land restoration.
Already, 63 households of 357 people have signed up to the model.
She says the community’s practice of communal land ownership makes it possible to execute the model as households have equal rights to land.
“The model involves settling the willing community members in a village separate from those yet to change heart,” she says
“We will drill a borehole to ensure women and girls have access to water.
The water will also help them to practice smart agriculture. The village will also have a training centre where we will continue to equip women with unique beading techniques such as making phone covers from beads.”
