In Kenya, a sex strike for change

Women in Kenya, fed up with the country's lack of political progress, have organized a sex boycott - hoping to get Kenya's men fed up enough to break the nation’s political impasse.

Kenya's government has basically ground to a halt over Prime Minister Raila Odinga's demands that he have a leading role in government affairs. Odinga, who in early 2008 entered into a power-sharing agreement with President Mwai Kibaki after a bitterly contested election that sparked widespread riots, now says that his rival has basically sidelined him. The political feud between the two camps has essentially shut the government down.

So last week women's groups in Kenya proposed withholding sex until the men in their country start working together. And if this all sounds like the plot of the Greek play Lysistrata - then you were paying attention during Literature class.

The boycott has gotten the support of at least one of Kenya's most powerful women, Ida Odinga, the prime minister's wife. In addition to possibly ending the political impasse, Mrs. Odinga also hoped the boycott would bring attention to issues of gender-based violence. "There are many women who are suffering rape, there are many women who are suffering hunger. And yet the leadership is not thinking about the common person," Mrs. Odinga was quoted as saying by the BBC.