Women in Kailahun District have recently disclosed they want to elect 18 Parliamentarians and 8 female Councillors in the upcoming 2018 Presidential and Local Council elections. This disclosure was made during the Kailahun Women in Governance Network (KWiGN) district executive election on Tuesday 14th February 2017, at the Kailahun District Youth Centre.
KWiGN is one of the strongest women’s group in the eastern region focusing on ensuring, promoting and protecting the welfare of women and girls in Kailahun for over eight years now. With funds from Christian Aid through the Social Enterprise Development (SEND) Sierra Leone, the Network was able to elect 12 female councillors into the District Council and one female Member of Parliament in 2012.
According to the Lucy Gondor, the President of KWiGN, since she took up the mantle of power in 2013, her executive members have successfully protected and promoted the affairs to another level in the district. She explained that with support from their funding partners, it was the Network that took the lead in ensuring the district elected 11 female Councillors in the district to contribute in the governance process
The KWiGN President stated that they also did a lot of negotiation and advocacy for the resident Magistrate to help fight violence against women and girls particularly on rape and domestic issues and providing support to orphans and Ebola survivors.
She urged her executive members to continue with their good work in providing good leadership for their people as “this is my second and final term in office, it is your responsibility to come up with project ideas for the development of your various communities”.
Gondor assured the Network members and the people of Kailahun that they will do everything humanly possible to convince the various political parties to give more symbols to female aspirants for the 2018 national election as a way of increasing the number of women in top governance positions across the country.
Speaking on behalf of the Traditional Leaders in the District, the Chairman, Council of Traditional Leaders in Kailahun, P.C. Cyril Foray Gondor, assured the women of their continuous support in empowering and protecting the affairs of women.
He maintained they are aware of the developmental activities carried out by the Network members in ensuring political stability, reducing teenage pregnancy, discouraging rape and other violence against women and girls.
According to the Local Unit Commander in the District, Chief Superintendent of Police, Francis Songu, he and his men will continue to protect and implement the laws on crime perpetrators, assuring the people of Kailahun that his campaign presently is, ‘zero tolerance to above the law’.
Speaking on behalf of the donor partners, the Country Director of Christian Aid, Jeanne Kamara, said, “The women of Kailahun are doing extremely good work in promoting and advocating for women’s participation in governance and other activities in nation building.” She assured them of her organizations continuous support towards the activities of the Network.
The new KWiGN Executive includes, Lucy C.F Gondor – President, Haja Alice Ngevao – Vice President, Theresa Satta Garber – Secretary General, Iye E B Mustapha – Assistant Secretary, Juliet Scott – Treasurer, Aminata Kenneh – Auditor and Isatta Ndoleh – Public Relations Officer.
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