Kavinya Makau- the feminist strategist

Kavinya identifies as an African feminist and is an Interim Co-Director of Policy and Communications at Womankind Worldwide. She’s been at the fore front of challenging structures and systems that perpetuate discrimination against diverse girls and women for over 17 years.  Based on her work and activism currently and in various organisations such as UAF-Africa, Akili Dada and Equality Now, she’s contributed to this through public policy advocacy, feminist participatory action research, intersectional feminist movement strengthening and strategic litigation.  

Where would you cluster yourself in the feminist space? Are you an igniter, disrupter, defender, front-liner or sister? 

I have been all the above based on how I’ve shown up in various stages of my feminist journey and activism. Currently, I view myself as a strategist. This is in terms of thinking through the implications of our activism and work, and how we progressively deal with the systemic discrimination and oppression girls and women deal with daily. Based on an interrogation of the same from a feminist lens, it is about generating ideas and co-creating solutions that address the same.  

 Would you share with us some of your milestones and contributions in the feminism movement? 

There are several. I’ll focus on two recent highlights.  

 In 2022, I worked with Dinah Musindarwezo and Marie-Claire Price to co-lead the process and thinking that led to the development of Womankind’s Influencing Strategy. It was co-created with partners, movement allies and colleagues and is powerful articulation of our aspirations on a transformative advocacy that is decolonized, that centers collective and contributes to feminist ways of influencing change for girls, women and people of other genders. 2 years in, it is one of my most memorable contributions and I am happy about the ways it continues to progressively inform our approach. I can’t wait to reflect on what we’ll have collectively achieved when we evaluate how far we’ve come in the context of Womankind’s 2030 Strategy.  

 When it comes to movement strengthening, I was part of Akili Dada’s East African Young Women’s Leadership & Mentorship Initiative (EAYLMI) in 2018-2020. EAYLMI brought together feminists from 20 organisations in Kenya and Tanzania with a focus on intergenerational conversations on how to sustain the African feminist movement given our diversity and how we are positioned.  It is one of the most fulfilling experiences of my feminist journey as it left me with powerful lessons. I recently had a conversation with Joy Zawadi (ED at Akili Dada) on some of these. EAYLMI created a space for young women to chart their own personal and profession growth based on their unique interpretation of feminism in ways that acknowledged and respected their agency.  It also fostered a feminist mentorship model that promoted cross-learning, sisterhood and solidarity centered on an interrogation of power at different levels. It’s been profound to witness the growth and contributions that several young women who were involved continue to make. For example, Shyleen Momanyi who is YWLI’s Executive Director was part of EAYLMI and she continues to make powerful contributions to feminist organising in Kenya.  

 What are you celebrating on this Africa Day? OR Who are you celebrating on this Africa Day? 

 I am celebrating all the African feminists who continue to engage actively in their contexts and across the globe despite all the discrimination they face and the rollback in rights gains that we are witnessing.  

 What would you like to reiterate in this year’s Africa day in relation to gender equality? And what’s your ideal Africa when it comes to realizing gender equality 

 I applaud all the work that has been done by activists, women’s human rights defenders and movements because it has led to significant change. As we continue to witness massive rollback in gains made across Africa e.g. rising cases of femicide, shrinking civic space with debilitating consequences for LBQT individuals and the repeal of Gambia’s FGM Law, my aspiration is to see a continent where women, girls and people of all genders exist and thrive without having to justify their humanity, why the deserve equitable opportunities and a life devoid of violence. I am looking forward to a time when we do not have to have conversations on why discrimination and stigma exist.   

 Any special quote from feminist sisters or feminist respected leaders that you’d like to highlight on this Africa Day? 

“We need to recognise that the choice to love rather than despise each other is a political act. We need to keep expanding the feminist embrace.– Jessica Horn

 This quote reminds me that we’ve achieved so much as feminists. Yet there’s still so much personal and collective work that we need to do consciously within and across movements so that we are all free.