Dr. Kerubo Abuya – a story of Utu-Ubuntu-Obomwanyabanto, strength and collective allyship  

Dr. Kerubo Abuya is a force to reckon with as a feminist passionate about the power and agency of rightsholder communities in Kisii County, Kenya, Africa and other parts of the world. 

She is a volunteer and founding member of the Tabaka Ward Uongozi Wa Utu (TAWUWU) community-based organisation as well as the Utu Coalition. TAWUWU was founded as a direct outcome of her 2016 doctoral research that focused on developing women’s capacity to lead transformative change for the realisation of women’s rights in Kenya.  

The Utu Coalition is a conglomerate of over 45 human rights and civil society organizations as well as individual activists in Kenya and other parts of Africa. It was formed after Dr. Abuya reached out to various civil society organisational leaders and requested them to come together to respond to the lynching and subsequent murders of four women (widows) in Marani, Kisii County in October 2021, following accusations that they were witches. 

‘’TAWUWU and the Utu Coalition essentially partner with communities to lead transformative change and enable cultural transformation. This also includes striving to eliminate cultural and other practices that initiate, perpetuate and sustain acts of violence that violate women’s rights,’’ she says.  

Centred on a value-based leadership approach that utilises Dr. Abuya’s Uongozi Wa Utu framework, TAWUWU is grounded on the principles of Utu (Kiswahili), Ubuntu (Nguni) or Obomwanyabanto (Ekegusii). ‘’Simply put, the essence of what it means to be human through the embodiment of our interconnectedness .A commitment to uphold our collective dignity and recognition of our shared humanity where honoring all peoples’ liberty is the norm – especially for marginalised groups such as women, children, persons living with disability, and older persons,’’ she says. 

‘’TAWUWU convenes women as well as men and the youth to address issues such as female genital mutilation, sexual gender-based violence and the lynching and killings of older persons’ – predominantly older women who are widows,’’ she expounds. 

In her opinion, the biggest threat to feminism today is the lack of understanding of what feminism is. ‘’There are those who think feminism is about women who want to dominate men. I define feminism from the mindset of advocating equality for all. This is also respecting women as leaders and not treating them as second-class citizens,’’ she says. ‘’Feminism is also about creating spaces and cultures where we all thrive and recognising intersectionality,’ she adds.  

The rise of authoritarianism across the world is also another threat to feminism. ‘’Some of these authoritarian leaders are reinforcing colonial practices rooted in patriarchy and capitalism which are interconnected systems of oppression that cause social injustices to women and other vulnerable groups. We are increasingly seeing women’s rights being branded as a non-issue by these regimes – if the funding cuts are anything to go by,’’ she says.  

In the broader context, she points to these unprecedented times as a critical moment where there is need to examine how lasting systemic and transformative change can be enabled. ”We need to start with ourselves by embodying ‘Utu’, ‘Ubuntu’ or ‘Obomwanyabanto’ and cultivating a deeper sense of community – especially in today’s rather hostile and volatile environment to the advocacy and realisation of women’s rights,’’ she says.  

While TAWUWU and Utu Coalition have not been significantly impacted by the global funding cuts since they are project-based and volunteer organisations with no operational budgets, she notes that some aspects of their work have slowed down or been put on hold due to lack of funding.  

She also noted that essential services such as healthcare have been cut off affecting communities around them massively. ‘’For example, some women living with HIV/AIDS now fear that their medical supplies will be cut off following the closure of USAID. Some women have resolved to go back to sex work to salvage their livelihoods following the shutdown of economic empowerment programmes. The impact of these sudden changes could be quite catastrophic – if not addressed by local and national governments swiftly,’’ she says.  

For continued allyship and solidarity, Dr. Kerubo calls for intentional collectiveness, building community and sustaining generative dialogue to navigate the difficult funding landscape and ongoing efforts to restore women’s rights. ‘’I’ll be honest, I’ve been in spaces where people pit against each other for funding in the competition for resources. We need to avoid this because we are not competitors but allies. This moment calls for upholding our collective dignity and the very values that brought us together as feminists in the best interest of all,’’ she adds.  

In her call to courage, she encourages supporters, enthusiasts, women’s rights activists and human rights defenders to keep the momentum alive. ‘’Let us ‘re-member’ who we are in the Unity of Oneness and embody empathy, compassion, love, joy, gratitude, and peace as we carry on with this work. I call on all leaders and citizens to operationalize the values of ‘Utu’, ‘Ubuntu’ or ‘Obomwanyabanto’ as we challenge each other to grow and stop relying on foreign aid to fund essential services and meet basic human needs. The question becomes, how can we show up for ourselves fully, differently and in self-sustaining ways?’’ she says.  

‘’Let’s take time to reflect upon how we can stand together during these times of uncertainty. An African saying reminds us, ‘if we want to get there faster, we should walk alone but if we want to go further, we must walk together’. This is a moment of self and collective leadership, choice and standing together in solidarity and community so that we can keep moving forward with hope despite what’s going on,’’ she adds.