A coalition of women’s groups in Kenya has launched a strike that has grabbed headlines around the world.    

The groups, known collectively as the G10, have undertaken a sex-strike to protest what they call  “poor and woolly leadership” and demand that the nation’s two political principals stop their fighting and bickering.

The one-week strike is a bid to “to oblige President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to settle their differences once and for all and begin to effectively serve the nation they represent,” the G10 explained in its press release, which is available online. The G10 is a Kenyan national women’s movement currently steered by leading national women’s organizations - COVAW, CAUCUS, CREAW, FIDA-K, TCI, WILDAF, AWC, DTM, YWLI, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake and NCWK. It has cells across the country from the local to the national level.

While people around the world have been making jokes at Kenya’s expense, the women groups argue drastic action is needed because the nation is becoming more unstable. When governments destabilize, women and children often are the first targets and victims, the women noted.

“The women of this country will not tolerate and or allow its political leadership to lead it back onto a slippery journey to the country’s deathbed, violence and absolute chaos!” they said in their release.

The strike has created internal tensions. Kenyan legislator David Musila told VOA this past week he agrees the current political feuding may result in violence down the line. However, he said the idea of the sex-strike - the women say they will pay prostitutes not to have sex - is appalling and “un-African”.

“It is a shame,” Musila said. “It is a shame that these women can make such a statement. First of all, in my view, it is un-African, and these are some of the things in Africa we don’t talk openly about, sex in front of children, and so on. And therefore, I think they are misguided and in any case, who is going to supervise and see that the boycott is implemented? It is just rubbish.”

The G10, however, is arguing that the strike already accomplished one of its major goals: It moved the internal strife and economic troubles of Kenya onto the world stage. The movement gained global publicity on May 1 when  Ida Odinga, the wife of Kenyan Prime Minister Odinga, announced she would join the sex-strike and the women’s movement.

“The women of this country are frustrated and most perturbed by the feuds, turns and twists of the coalition government, and particularly the lack of political leadership by its two principals - the president and the prime minister - who have continuously shown the Kenyan people the contempt card,’ the G10 said.

So what do the women want?

Well, they have put forth a number of demands including a request that “the two principals respect the people and nation of Kenya by ending forthwith the little power games that undermine the dignity, safety and democratic spaces of our country.”

The group said it intends to deliver performance contracts to the president and prime minister for signature. These contracts will outline its expectations as “women and as equal shareholders of Kenya.

“Failure by the two to sign will be seen as confirmation of the presumed lack of commitment, bad faith and contempt for the people of Kenya of these principals, the G10 warned.