Sex Changes Things: Kenya's Sex Strike

Kenya's Women Declare 'Enough is Enough'

As if to take a page from the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata, the women of Kenya have decided to use the gifts God gave them to force political change. In a fascinating exhibition of activism, thousands of Kenyan women are protesting their government’s ongoing instability by denying their men that most coveted of treasures: their bodies. Yes, you read that accurately. Male Kenyans have been forced to go without sex for a week, their women outraged by an electoral crisis that has been going on since last year.

To be sure, this episode has its comic elements:

“This will accomplish nothing other than embarrass us," said Martin Kamau, a resident of Nakuru, a major city northwest of the capital. "We are being punished, and yet we are not the ones causing the problems."

Kamau plans to plead his case with his wife. "Seven days is just too much," he said.

Others were not so worried. "Seven days is nothing," one man (said). "I can wait a year."

More than comedy however, the sex-strike is a courageous and admirable step. Kenya’s women have taken destiny into their own hands, defying the status quo of a deeply conservative society that frowns upon sexually suggestive content:

“We cannot allow our leaders to argue over non-issues while relegating the issues that affect this country to the back burner. When this happens, women suffer the most… "

In addition to targeting politicians, activists say the campaign aims to draw spouses into the conversation and nudge them into demanding change.

Kenyan women must be receiving a healthy dose of Greek literature, reminiscent as this is of Aristophanes’ classic comedy mentioned above, Lysistrata. To summarize, the play features a group of women from rivals Sparta and Athens, conspiring to deny their men sex in an effort to draw The Peloponnesian War to an end. In doing so, they disregard their prior allegiances and defy a male-dominated society. The parallels to the Kenyan movement are fascinating.

Leaving no stone unturned, the leading activists have even offered to conscript prostitutes, offering to pay them for lost earnings. The wives of national leaders have also been asked to join the fight and abstain in the bedroom. Unfortunately, I think we can also expect there to be a rise in domestic violence throughout the strike, as it’s certain to exacerbate tensions for men who have also had to deal with the political strife. These women should be applauded however. They have declared they are fed up with the Kibaki/Odinga government and are willing to brave the social establishment’s wrath to change their lot.

The Economist recently ran an article on Kenya’s political situation, a very helpful guide for understanding the anger that has fomented among its people. Here are a few excerpts:

Among the foreign diplomats looking on, optimists refer to the squabbling coalition as an “unconsummated marriage”. The less charitable say Kenya does not have a functioning executive at all, just an unholy alliance of fierce rivals. A schedule of constitutional, electoral, judicial, security, land and economic reforms was laid out in the original agreement between the two parties. A domestic tribunal to judge those responsible for the post-election mayhem was supposed to be set up and a truth commission established. Yet more than a year later the ODM and PNU have failed to agree on any of these issues.

New corruption scandals, confined to no party, are regularly revealed by Kenya’s papers. With so many senior figures from the main parties co-opted into the government—which has 94 ministers and deputies, each earning over $15,000 a month—Kenya has become almost a one-party state. Ministers constantly squabble over pay, protocol, seniority and even who gets the best rooms at government get-togethers. The churches, NGOs and foreign diplomats are left to play the role of opposition, cajoling and threatening from the sidelines.

Apparently, this is not the first such sex-strike in Africa aimed at curbing a national tragedy. The 2008 documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell features the courageous efforts of Liberian women to put an end to that country’s bloody civil war, employing sexual abstinence as their weapon. Check out the trailer below:



The Young Turks also covered the Kenyan sex-strike recently: