'''Ruth Habwe''' (died 1996) was a Kenyan activist and politician.
== Early life and career == Habwe was a pioneer among those working to advance women's causes in Kenya. Trained as a teacher at the Kabete Teacher's Training College, she later attended the Jeanes School alongside Margaret Koinange and Muthoni Likmani.<ref name="Jr.Akyeampong2012">{{cite book|author1=Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.|author2=Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong|author3=Mr. Steven J. Niven|title=Dictionary of African Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA525|date=2 February 2012|publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-19-538207-5|pages=1–}}</ref> She was an early leader of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, which she chaired from 1968 until 1971. During her tenure the organization passed resolutions calling for such things as more women on the faculty of the University of Nairobi and for equal employment conditions.<ref name="Sheldon2005">{{cite book|author=Kathleen E. Sheldon|title=Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=36BViNOAu3sC|year=2005|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-5331-7}}</ref> Habwe ran for parliament in 1964, one of few women to challenge the domination of men in that body. The decision was not without controversy;<ref name="MurungaNasong'o2007">{{cite book|author1=Godwin R. Murunga|author2=Shadrack W. Nasong'o|title=Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IIvKKlhWY80C&pg=PA180|date=15 March 2007|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-84277-857-9|pages=180–}}</ref> she failed to receive support from her political party, the Kenyan African National Union, and so ran as an independent. This so incensed party leadership that she was expelled from its rolls. She was told, furthermore, by other MPs "to go back to the Kitchen and cook for Mr. Habwe's children".<ref name="Berger2016">{{cite book|author=Iris Berger|title=Women in Twentieth-Century Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48DgCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100|date=26 April 2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-51707-2|pages=100–}}</ref> Habwe was a member of the Luhya tribe.<ref name="Sandler1970">{{cite book|author=Bea Sandler|title=The African Cookbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SP_gRfciSkwC&pg=PR5|year=1970|publisher=Carol Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8065-1398-0|pages=5–}}</ref> She had five children.<ref name="Jr.Akyeampong2012"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Habwe, Ruth}} Category:Year of birth unknown Category:1996 deaths Category:Kenyan women's rights activists Category:Luhya people Category:20th-century Kenyan educators Category:20th-century Kenyan women politicians Category:20th-century Kenyan politicians Category:Kenya African National Union politicians Category:20th-century women educators {{Kenya-bio-stub}}