Coast women have been urged to vie for leadership in next year's general election. Former acting Kenya Airports Authority MD and Giriama elder Naomi Cidi Kumbatha said time has come for women to take up the leadership positions as stipulated in the constitution.
Cidi, who is currently eyeing for the post of the senator in Kilifi, said women were never part of the violence adding that if given a chance, there will be no more violence in the country. She said the ongoing constitutional transition should also go hand in hand with the change in leadership for women. "The culture of the Giriama, or Mijikenda at large everyone is ware that women can bring change as they are the ones who were in leadership long time ago," she said.
The former Acting KAA MD said Mekatilili was a very important woman in the Kenyan history being the first woman to lead the Mijikenda and the country in the fight against the colonial dispensation. She said it was Mekatilili who also managed to bring peace in the country by leading the war and helped in bringing the country to independence since the MAU MAU later came and went on with the fight. Her sentiments were echoed by Joseph Karisa Mwarandu a Kaya elder who said the elders would support the women particularly in Kilifi County to take the leadership position if they turned up in large numbers.