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Rachel Keke
Keke in 2021
Member of the National Assembly for Val-de-Marne's 7th constituency
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 June 2022
Preceded by	Jean-Jacques Bridey
Personal details
Born	Rachel Keke Raïssa (1974-05-30) 30 May 1974 (age 50) Abobo, Ivory Coast
Political party	La France Insoumise
Spouse	Bobby Yodé ​ ( m. 2016)​
Children	5
Profession	Housekeeper

Rachel Keke Raïssa (French pronunciation: [ʁaʃɛl keke ʁaisa]; born 30 May 1974) is an Ivorian-born French politician and former chambermaid. A member of the National Assembly since 2022, she represents the 7th constituency of the Val-de-Marne department. ^[1] She is a member of La France Insoumise (LFI).

Early life

Keke was born on 30 May 1974 in Abobo, Ivory Coast. ^{[2] [3]} Her father was a bus driver and her mother sold clothing, until her death when Keke was 12. Her grandfather fought with the French forces during World War II. ^[3] At the age of 16, she began working as a hairdresser and other odd jobs. ^[4]

Keke moved to France in 2000 (following the 1999 Ivorian coup d'état that overthrew Henri Konan Bédié), taking up a job as a hairdresser in the hair salon of a relative, also finding work as a chambermaid and housekeeper. ^[5] She was naturalised as a French citizen in 2015. ^[6]

Career

Union leader

A CGT trade union representative ^[2] between 2019 and 2021, she was one of the leaders of a successful strike by housekeepers [ fr] at the Ibis hotel in Batignolles, Paris. ^[7] Twenty workers, employed as subcontractors, struck for better pay and improved working conditions beginning in July 2019, and signed an agreement winning the majority of their demands in May 2021. ^[8]

Keke began working as a chambermaid at the Ibis Batignolles hotel in April 2003, employed by a series of subcontractors. A part-time worker, until 2017 she was unsuccessful in seeking a full-time role. ^[9] She became a housekeeper in 2019. Her health was affected by her working conditions, and she went out sick in February 2019. ^[10] Her net monthly salary rose from 1,300 to 1,700 euros thanks to the success of the 2019-2021 strike. ^[11] She said that the job "destroys the body. There are carpal tunnel syndromes, tendonitis, back pain...". ^[12] In the course of her work, she also confronted racism and several attempted sexual assaults. ^{[13] [14] [9]}

2022 elections

In the first round of the 2022 French legislative election, Keke was a candidate for La France Insoumise (LFI) on the New Ecological and Social People's Union (NUPES) slate, the left-wing alliance of political parties. Running for the 7th constituency of the Val-de-Marne department, Keke finished first with 37.22% of the vote; Roxana Maracineanu, former Sports Minister and Olympic silver medalist swimmer, came in second, making the runoff with 23.77%. ^{[5] [15]} Keke's campaign focused on outreach to non-voters, while Maracineanu called for a "republican front against the far left"; this drew criticism from the NUPES who saw this as equating them with France's extreme right. ^[6] In the second and final round, Keke won by 177 votes, scoring 51.38% of the vote against 48.62% for Maracineanu. ^[16] A profile by France24 noted that Keke's election (along with other newly elected deputies such as Rassemblement national's Katiana Levavasseur) indicated a growing trend of elected politicians from lower economic backgrounds taking up office. ^[17]

She stood out during her first steps in the National French Assembly, denouncing the refusal of the members of the presidential majority to increase the minimum wage to extend the " prime Macron". She accuses them of not knowing what it is to receive only 800 euros a month, of despising essential professions and not knowing their suffering. ^[18]

Personal life

Keke has five children. ^[3] In 2016, she married Bobby Yodé, a zouglou musician.

References