In my musings and crafting of citizenship rights for women in Kenya, I am reminded that the 'personal is political'. This feminist principle that came into being in the 1960s and 1970s has once again come alive in the current Kenyan consitutional debate and specifically on the issue of citizenship. A few days ago, I visited the Immigration Department at Nyayo house to renew my passport. One of my brothers happened to be applying for his passport at the same time. I noticed that the officer behind the counter had not accepted his documents and so I called him to the counter I was being served to find out what had hapened. He had been told that his documents were incomplete without our father's birth certificate, Kenyan identity card or a death certificate if he was deceased. I explained to the officer serving me that we are siblings and years ago when I applied for my passport, I did not have to use my father's documents because he is simply not there and was not there as we grew up. We were raised by a single mother and the explanation I provided years ago sufficed in processing my passport. That was then and may be I was lucky.

My experience at the Nyayo house brought to the fore the issue of body politics and the everyday negotiations of citizenship for Kenyan women. I raise the issue of body politics to make the point that citizenship is crafted in a number of ways and that it is always gendered and situated in places and bodies (Feminist Africa 13). The body politics of citizenship is negotiated in homes and local settings and in relation to the state and international contexts and agencies. I refer to body politics as an entry point for political engagement and to reflect on the impact of policies, (constitutional) reforms and interventions executed by different state institutions on women's bodies. Most often the concept of body politics has been used in reference to power and control over women's sexuality and health. I consider issues of sustainable livelihoods such as shelter, education, water, sanitation and security among others as important aspects of body politics as this is an obvious area that indicates the lived experiences of a person. The lived experiences of body politics are family politics which frame a woman's position in marriage, the control she has over her sexuality and fertility, and over her home (Ibid). The question that patriarchy continues to beg in denying women citizenship is, "how dare she?! How dare she decide when and with whom to have sex and how often? How dare she, choose when to have and not have children? How dare she, decide to be in control of her life? How dare she have a home without a man as its head? How dare she have children based on her choice to be or not to be in a union with a man as a husband/ father figure? ......how dare she? how dare she?...."

To cut a long story short, my brother's application was accepted but we had to go to several offices using my passport and documents as evidence that children of single mothers can have a passport and it is their right to do so. One of the officers had turned us away and simply said that where we do not have our father's documents, we should then produce those of our grandfather. In one upsetting moment, the Office Assistant to the Supervisor that we had to see, rudely turned us away and stated that it did not matter who we sought to see,  "... you must produce your father's documents and stop wasting the supervisor's time." We were assisted at last by the Immigration Officer in charge of passport processing. I immediately stated the case using human -rights- for- all language and that it was discriminative of children of single mothers if they can not be allowed to process and possess a passport using their mother's documents. All this time I knew that the current constitution does not recognise Kenyan women as citizens and that constitutionally, the officers were following the books in ensuring discrimination of women and their children. I want to say once again, that we were lucky- I know that thousands of women and men, girls and boys have their passport applications rejected on these grounds almost everyday - that their mothers are not considered citizens and therefore it is not automatic that their offsprings will have citizenship rights.

The rules and practices that determine Kenyan politics -essentially which bodies have access to which political contexts and resources -will change quite dramatically if the proposed constitution is passed as law. Kenyan women (actually all African women under colonial rule) were affected differently from men on matters related to citizenship. Their bodies only allowed them to access certain spaces and resources simply by playing a secondary role to that of the colonized man- by serving the man in one way of the other. Women were only allowed in towns such as Nairobi as wives of employed (male) workers, but not as workers themselves except for instances where such women served as domestic servants in the homes of white settlers, in which case it was still a man's home. In most African countries, the colonial labour policies, were designed to supply mines, plantations and cities with male working bodies and to keep women's bodies in rural areas to take care of the reproduction of labour force (Feminist Africa 13). In Kenya, the Mau Mau movement was successful in pursuing and delivering Kenya's independence though there were many other regional uprisings and resistances to the colonial rule such as that led by Mekatilili of the Mijikenda. Of course, our history has fallen short of the objective of educating all Kenyans on what happened by leaving out women's stories, struggles and contribution towards independence. This is part of the patriarchal game point in crafting citizenship as an aspect of life that only men have fought for and struggled for sovereignity. Women supported men in the struggle - even through ensuring supplies to those in the bush- supplies without which those men would not have survived. Although the freedom fighters/ movement for independence maintained patriarchal structures there were exceptional women who joined and fought for national and bodily independence, and not just by providing support services to the men.

Fast forward to independence and the post independence period- customary law, as it developed in an interaction "between colonial power and traditional male leaders, determined the position of women as perpetual dependents" (Feminist Africa 13). A Kenyan woman 'is a citizen' with restrictions. She is a citizen because of the citizenship of the man in her life- either father or husband and where neither of the two are available then it has to be her grandfather. The demonization of single women's sexuality that existed during the colonial times was carried forward to the post independence Kenya. Thus, for all women especially if you are a single woman (worse if you are young- you are up to no good unless your unbridled sexual body is controlled by a man!), the state policies that are put in place determine your agency (ability to act) in certain spaces, whether or not you have access to those spaces and resources that you may enjoy. I am also aware that education and social positionality are definitely new avenues for exerting agency and thus the discriminatory laws do not affect all women in the same way. There is simply no such thing as universal citizenship or rights for all due to citizenship. For those who are blindly saying "NO" to the proposed constituion there is an assumption of equal opportunities for all citizens which is also blind to the gendered conditions created by our everyday lives and the division between public and private sectors.

In a nutshell what I am saying is that the proposed consitution will offer women citizenship as a constitutional right. Although this does not immediately address discrimination based on societal attitudes, beliefs and practices, it is a stepping stone into ensuring that women's public participation, entry into public spheres and access to resources is not limited or restricted on the basis of gendered dynamics of citizenship. A quick look at chapter three of the proposed constitution- the chapter on citizenship expressly states the entitlements of a citizen one of which is the right to have a Kenyan passport and any other document of registration or documentation issued by the State to citizens. It also outlines matters of retention and acquisition of citizenship one of which is citizenship by birth for as long as either mother or father is / was a citizen at the time of birth of that person. This of course, is a right that Kenyan women have not enjoyed for decades- just being content that one is recognised as a citizen and may effectively pass that on to her children.

The question of citizenship is not just political but very personal. This is why I continue to say, the personal is political and that body politics have been used to continue to deny women their human rights for equal treatment as citizens of this country.