“During Elections They Do Not Refuse That We Exist!” Urban Borana Women, Structural Violence and the 2017 Kenyan Elections

Often silenced within the broad category of ‘woman’ are other dynamics such as class and ethnicity. In this paper, I examine how Borana women who live in Kiamaiko ward in Mathare, one of Nairobi’s most marginalized constituencies, participate in electoral politics. As part of an ethnic community who have to struggle even to get national identity cards, I am interested in tracking their ideas about and practices for the 2017 elections. Three main questions guide this work: What do Borana women in Kiamaiko think about elections and mainstream political processes? What spaces do they use to intervene in both constituency-based and national politics, if at all? How do situated experiences of poverty, patriarchy and ethnicity impact their political practices? The answers to these questions can inform future scholarly and policy work directed towards enhancing inclusive electoral practice and representation. This chapter brings to the fore voices of a demographic often made invisible by categories such as ‘woman’ and ‘North Eastern, ’ in order to convey their political agency within and beyond normative electoral spaces, and the impact this has in their marginalized urban communities.