The 2017 General Election will go down in history as a turning point in the participation of women in competitive politics.
In the August election, Kenya managed to get its first female governors with three women winning the top county seats out of 47 that were available.
Kenyans also elected women in 23 out of the 210 constituencies, with another five women winning the senatorial seats. Some 98 women were also elected as MCAs. Together with the 47 woman representatives, the number of women in elected political seats rose unprecedentedly in 2017.
Read: Kenya's first women governors: Ngilu, Laboso, Waiguru flying high after vote
Former Devolution CS Anne Waiguru beat ex-Governor Joseph Ndathi in the Jubilee nomination before flooring veteran politician Martha Karua in the Kirinyanga gubernatorial race. Her former colleague in the Cabinet Chairty Ngilu beat former Kitui Governor Julius Malombe and former Senator David Musila to triumph in the Eastern county. In Bomet, former National Assembly Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboro floored former Council of Governors chairman Isaac Rutto. Waiguru was recently elected the vice-chairperson of the CoG.
In the Senate, Margaret Kamar (Uasin Gishu), Susan Kihika (Nakuru) and Fatuma Dullo (Isiolo) all became the first women to be elected to the lower House of the bicameral Parliament.
In the 2013 election, no woman was elected governor, despite eight contesting for the powerful county seat. Another 19 tried their luck in the Senate. None was elected. Only 16 women were elected MPs then.
Related: 3 women win governor seats, shatter Kenya’s glass ceiling
According to a study by the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya, women in the 10th Parliament ( 2008-2013 ) comprised only 9.8 per cent. At the time, Rwanda’s Parliament was 56 per cent women, Tanzania had 36 per cent, Uganda ( 35 ) and Burundi ( 30 ).
But it was no walk in the park for the women politicians who won. There were many challenges.
Some 16 women from Murang’a and Nairobi recently narrated harrowing details of harassment, intimidation, bribery and abuse during the 2017 General Election.
Their stories, documented in a publication by the Community Education and Empowerment Centre, revealed massive patriarchy still entrenched in Kenyan society.
Read: Waiguru emerging as a political powerhouse in Central Kenya
Public Service and Gender Affairs CS Sicily Kariuki has often noted that women continue to suffer setbacks while seeking elective seats, despite constitutional provisions outlawing discrimination on the basis of gender.
While more women were elected, the 12th Parliament might be plunged into an unprecedented constitutional crisis for failing to meet the two-thirds gender rule.
No gender should be more than two-thirds of members. Currently, there are only 76 women in the National Assembly, 41 short of the 117 or one-third of the 349 MPs — 290 elected, 47 woman representatives and 12 nominated members.
Read: Three woman governors, 22 MPs a plus in gender parity
Kariuki blamed patriarchy and male dominance in Parliament that have defeated efforts to pass a Bill seeking the gender parity.
Calls by President Uhuru Kenyatta to have the Bill re-introduced and passed did not bear fruit.
FIDA chairperson Josephine Mong’are said there was lack of political goodwill to pass the legislation.
Elsewhere, the representation of women in boardrooms has gone up to 21 per cent in 2017, as compared to 12 per cent in 2012. This is according to a report released by the Kenya Institute of Management on board diversity in public listed companies. The statistics paint a positive picture of a country steadily embracing gender mainstreaming in corporate governance.
However, when it came to chairpersons’ positions, men outnumber the women by a ratio of 11 to 1, with female representation standing at 7.7 per cent. The statitics remained constant throughout the years in the studies conducted in 2012, 2015, and 2017. Out of the 52 companies sampled, only four had female board chairpersons.
Studies conducted globally have consistently demonstrated that institutions which have a reasonable number of women in their boards, whether private or public, perform better.
“Women bring unique skills and values to management building from their natural role as nurturers and caregivers,” reads one of the reports.
In the Cabinet, there are only five women out of 19 appointed by Uhuru. But women are hopeful that the President will observe the gender principle when he reconstitutes the Cabinet for his second term.
Apart from the CSs, the President and Deputy President William Ruto are men. Attorney General Githu Muigai is also a man.
In Education, female candidates performed better than male candidates in this year’s KCPE and KCSE exams.
In the Judiciary, women’s representation has grown with statistics showing that 53 per cent of chief magistrates are women. Women also make up 40 per cent of senior principal magistrates and 35 per cent of principal magistrates also women. Of the senior resident magistrates countrywide, 44 per cent are women, while 59 per cent of resident magistrate are also women. There are 56 female judges against 86 of their male counterparts, representing 39 per cent. This is a huge improvement from nine per cent in 2010.
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