BLOG: Why Kenyan Women Perform Below Par in Elective Politics
It was Ghanaian leader and pan-Africanist Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah who, paraphrasing Matthew 6:33, said, “Seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you.”
This principle must have guided the many women who vied for various elective posts in the first General Election under the 2010 Constitution. Yet in the end, of the 290 MPs, only 16 women were elected.
Granted, the Constitution provides for 47 women representatives from the counties. But even with nominations from the main political parties expected to add to their numbers, the anticipated 68 women in the 349-member Lower House are still far short of the 117 needed to satisfy the one-third gender rule.
That said, women's performance in the recent polls cannot be discounted, given that it accounts for some 25 per cent of the 67 women who have been elected to Parliament since 1963. The 11th Parliament, therefore, brings on board the largest number of women to have ever sat in the House.
Serious questions
The vast western region of the country elected just six of the 16 women MPs — four of them from Rift Valley. It raises serious questions about why almost 30 years after Kenya hosted the third UN Conference on Women and nearly two decades after the famed Beijing conference, Kenya continues to perform so poorly in the all-important area of women in political leadership.
Nyanza and Western provinces performed particularly badly, sending only two women to the National Assembly. They are former nominated MP Millie Odhiambo, who won the Mbita seat, and newcomer Mary Emaase of Teso South.
Centre for Multi-Party Democracy executive director Njeri Kabeberi is concerned that even with the guaranteed 47 women representatives, Kenya has not met the constitutional threshold of no more than two-thirds of public office holders being of the same gender.
“...we are far short of the 117 [women required] and we are aware that the House shall be unconstitutional,” she said.
Equally worrying is that no woman was elected to the high-profile positions of governor and senator. The CMD boss notes, however, that two women — former Central Bank deputy governor Jacinta Mwatela and Ms Naomi Sidi — have petitioned the IEBC over the circumstances under which they lost their bids for Taita Taveta governor and Kilifi senator, respectively. They plan to file petitions if the electoral body does not resolve the issues out of court, the Sunday Nation was told.
With women accounting for slightly over 50 per cent of the voters, the question is: why do they continue to fare so poorly in elective politics? Why does Kenya lag behind East African Community partners like Tanzania that has 126 women in their 350-member Parliament; Uganda (135 out of 386); Burundi (32 of 105 Lower House and 18 of 41, Upper House); and Rwanda (45 of 80, Lower House and 10 out of 26 Upper House)?
Not for lack of effort, Ms Kabeberi avers. Women have done everything they could to enhance their numbers in politics. “They stand, they campaign, they have the right credentials — they just don't get elected,” she said, adding, CMD has been supporting their increased representation.
In the recent polls, for instance, the centre encouraged and trained women candidates, exposed them to the media and lobbied for their election.
On why women won so few seats, the Sunday Nation interviewed two losers from Western Province, which sent only one woman (Ms Emaase) to Parliament.
The tale of University of Nairobi don Shanyisa Khasiani, who stood for Kakamega County senator and lost to former Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale, illustrates the odds women have to overcome in their quest for political leadership.
Prof Khasiani, who campaigned under the ODM banner, watched in disbelief as her party scuttled her bid for senator at the last minute by openly declaring support for Mr Cyrus Jirongo of the Federal Party — a Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) partner.
This, she told Sunday Nation, was after attempts to have her step down for Mr Jirongo on claims that he was a stronger candidate failed. A party functionary even went on radio to announce she had stepped down for Mr Jirongo. They both ended up losing to Dr Khalwale of the Amani coalition.
What Prof Khasiani suffered is not uncommon among women seeking political office in Kenya, as revealed in a study titled The Participation and Representation of Women in Management of Political Parties: An Unfinished Agenda in Kenya by The Women Shadow Parliament – Kenya, which was conducted after the 2002 General Election.
Affirmative action
Women's bids for higher political offices are disadvantaged from the beginning because they do not hold important positions in the mainstream parties.
Prof Khasiani could have vied for women representative — she is certainly qualified: academician, researcher, women's rights activist and grassroots development worker-cum-mobiliser. But she felt the seat was not for her. She also felt she did not qualify for governor as her management skills are not up to par, so the senator post was next in the pecking order.
“I had already mainstreamed myself, and the women representative seat is [meant] to bring women to where they ought to be,” she said.
Ms Pascalia Makonjio, who vied for the Nambale MP slot and lost, also felt that the women representative seat was not for her. “I felt that the position of MP carried a bigger profile — the whole country. I wanted to represent all people — men, women and young people, not just fellow women,” she said.
Like Prof Khasiani, the youthful Makonjio was repeatedly asked to go for the women's seat and leave Bunge for men. In both cases, the gender bias in favour of men is evident. To date, only three women — Wangari Maathai, Charity Ngilu and Martha Karua — have stood for the presidency. They have all performed dismally in a country where the gender ratio is nearly 50:50.
According to Ms Kabeberi, this pattern is not likely to change soon, and that is why drafters of the Constitution legislated affirmative action and made it unconstitutional to not have women in leadership positions.
“Everything good in this country has been fought for with tears and blood,” she said, adding this should stop. “... it is time the women of this country as well as all citizens began to enjoy the fruits and labour of those before us or among us.”
The CMD boss is disappointed with the Supreme Court ruling on the two-thirds gender rule, accusing it of prioritising expediency. “The fact remains that the majority in the Supreme Court erred, and it is our hope that the new Legislature will correct this error by passing a law that will allow for affirmative action to reach the required numbers.”
CMD Kenya also wants the East African Community to step in “because we are also bound by the East African Treaty that requires State Parties to meet the one-third threshold.”