BCP challenged to elevate women
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday July 28, 2025 10:31
Karua, who is a presidential hopeful in her home country, said with the BCP having 15 legislators currently, they should get ready to take over Botswana to great height.
She told the attendees that one cannot live without politics as it determines what kind of health care, education, infrastructure and whether one can enjoy their human rights.
“The earlier everybody participates in politics, the better for our countries, Africa and the world,” Karua emphasised.
She also called on BCP members to unite, and work together in the execution of their daily struggles. The lawyer further challenged the BCP women to sometimes team up with their counterparts from other parties to fight daily challenges.
Karua noted the low presence of women in the Botswana Parliament which stands at just 12%.
“It is time to think on how to improve on that. In Kenya, we have gender quotas in our Constitution but Kenya has not implemented it in over 50 years. The presence of women in Parliament is about 22%, but it should be at 34%,” she said.
Karua revealed that countries such as South Africa do not have gender quotas, but because of deliberate policies, of the largest party in the country (African National Congress), where they adopt a Zebra method that when they nominate a man, the next person on the list would be a woman that tends to be progressive. This she said led to South Africa having 44.5% women in Parliament.
Karua added said Rwanda also has a deliberate policy on women empowerment with over 60% women representation.
“Do not be discouraged as there are things you can do to increase the participation of women. The first thing is for women to accept and believe that their role is not just to cheer others in political parties.
“Yes we will join in cheering, but we must sit at the table too, by running for elections. And seating at a table means running for elections. When many women run, many women will be elected. When few women run, few women will be elected,” she said.
She said the performance of females in the last elections was due to low number of women contesting. She said had women contested in all 61 constituencies, more could have won.
“What if the BCP decides that for all positions, they will alternate men and women? What if the BCP offers 31 men and 30 women or vice versa?
“We will then have members who truly represent the party,” she said, adding that the party she is leading to the polls will have a 50/50 quota in nominating those to run.
Karua suggested the other way to increase women representatives would be to amend the Constitution and the laws for gender quotas that instead of having more men, it would be the other way.
She said it is a challenge as that would have to be done in a Parliament where men outnumber women.
Karua lamented that in Kenya, though there is the provision in the Constitution, men sometimes forget that the world is a shared space by the two genders.
“When women lead, they bring that unique natural component we have, of nurturing,” she said.
She called on the women of Botswana to bring their skills to Botswana through the BCP and become leaders. She further called on the BCP women to go back to their constituencies and recruit more women into the party.
Karua served as Kenya's Justice Minister from 2005 to 2009, and was the running-mate of former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga in his failed presidential bid in elections in 2022.
She launched her own opposition party, the People's Liberation Party (PLP), earlier this year.
Meanwhile BCP’s acting president, Taolo Lucas, had prior to the elections called on the party members to prepare for power better than the ruling Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
“Batswana know that change is possible. I always tell people that the way the UDC is ruling shows that they attained power unexpectedly. They do not even know what to do. As for us, we have to work hard to build our structures at all levels so that we are ready when power comes,” he said.
Lucas said the Women’s League should work hard and establish structures across the country adding that it was worrisome that women lead at cells and wards while men only start occupying senior positions within the party.
The BCP WL ushered in new leadership with Tshimologo Dingake defeating Kelebogile Kebaitse by 276 votes to 210 to retain her seat. Kebaitse has since expressed displeasure at the outcome.
She went on to lament on Facebook that a press release was issued by the party showing results while they had been told that outcomes would be withheld as the numbers were not tallying up.
In the said press release by the BCP Information and publicity secretary, Dr Mpho Pheko, only results were announced and those who participated were thanked with no mention of any queries.