As the race to the August 9th general elections in Kenya enters the home stretch, women parliamentarians have launched a campaign to help curb online abuse and harassment of female politicians.
Through their caucus, the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KeWoPa), the women are using short video campaigns to sensitize the public against ills that have been commonplace, especially during the election season.
The short video campaign has recordings of several leading female politicians and leaders serving the nation in different capacities. They include Prof Margaret Kobia, the CS for Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizen Affairs and Special Programmes; HE Rachel Ruto, the Spouse of the DP William Ruto; HE Anne Waiguru, Governor, Kirinyaga County; Hon Gathoni Wamuchomba, Women Representative, Kiambu County and the Chairperson of KeWoPa; and Hon Martha Karua, the NARC Kenya Party Leader and the Azimio Coalition’s DP Nominee.
The campaign is taking place under the #HesimuDada (respect women) hashtag. According to, KeWoPa, members and women politicians have been empowered with online safety tools and skills to help them mitigate the impact of online bullying and harassment.
“Members have also been trained on how to use Harassment Manager, an online tool which reviews tweets based on hashtag, username, keyword or date, thereby enabling users to detect toxic and harmful comments and mute or block perpetrators of harassment and hide harassing replies to their own tweets.” A statement sent to TechtrendsKe says.
Hon. Hon Gathoni Wamuchomba, the KEWOPA chairperson said, “KEWOPA has been mobilising its members, partners and resources to build the capacity and resilience of its members and to inspire up-and-coming women leaders to deal with these challenges as we go into the General Election on August 9.”
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