WUNRN
AWID - Association for Women's
Rights in Development
22/08/2008
Kenya:
A Snapshot of the Situation of Women’s Rights in Kenya
A study[i] recently published by the Kenya-based Institute for
Economic Affairs shows that gender disparities in Kenya persist despite
numerous interventions. This comes as no surprise, but provides an opportunity
for introspection for the women’s movement in the country.
By Kathambi
Kinoti - AWID
Women’s
organizing in Kenya has been going on for decades, since long before the
country’s independence from colonial rule. The oldest women’s organization, the
Maendeleo ya Wanawake[2] Organization (MYWO) was started in 1952. Although it was
started by a group of white settler women, the organization has the widest
grassroots penetration in the country, with over three million members at
present. For a long time, MYWO’s main focus was economic. It aimed to build
women’s capacity to generate income and manage their households as a means of
alleviating poverty.[3] This approach, whether or not influenced by MYWO remains
pervasive and is reflected in the numerous small scale women’s savings and
credit groups and investment clubs or, as they are commonly called,
‘merry-go-rounds.’ These groups pool members’ contributions to provide credit to
their own members or make investments. The potential for using these groups as
catalysts for women’s rights activism has not been fully explored.
The Third UN
Conference on Women was held in Nairobi in 1985. This marked the beginning of
rights centred activism. A number of women’s organizations were born, right
after the conference including the Federation of Women Lawyers, Kenya (FIDA)
which gained prominence for its women’s rights advocacy. Today, there are
numerous women’s rights NGOs, many of which have aspects of the welfarist
approach.
Women in
leadership
One way in
which gender inequality is reflected in Kenya is in the dearth of women in
national governance structures. The current Parliament has fifteen elected and
six nominated women members out of a total of 222 members. However even though
fifteen elected women MPs may not seem like much, it does represent an increase
from the ten of the former Parliament.
Interestingly,
in the 2007 general elections, 269 women contested for parliamentary seats as
compared to 44 aspirants in 2002.[4] This, by any means, is a phenomenal increase.[5] Since the advent of multiparty politics in the country
in 1992, there have been concerted efforts, driven by women’s rights NGOs to
get women into parliament and local government. The increase in the number of
women offering their leadership to the electorate is likely to have been
influenced by these NGOs. Indeed, many women members of Parliament have at one
point or another been active in the women’s movement as members, employees or
board members of women’s rights organizations.
Apart from
cultural attitudes that obstruct women from vying for political leadership, and
people from voting from them, there are several factors that have prevented
women from making their numeric presence felt. The pre-election period was
characterized by violence generally, but disproportionately against women
candidates.[6] Political campaigns also cost a lot of money, and many
women are not able to raise the money needed to conduct a campaign.[7]
Women are
also underrepresented in the executive and judiciary. Although in the lower
courts, women are relatively better represented at between 38 and 44 per cent
of magistrates, in the higher courts, the percentage falls to 20 per cent. In
the highest court, there is only one woman judge out of a total of fourteen.[8]
Legislation
on women’s rights
The
constitution bars discrimination on the basis of gender. Generally, however, it
has generally been difficult to get women’s rights oriented legislation passed
by the male dominated Kenyan Parliament. Their patriarchal attitudes were
reflected during the battle to have a Sexual Offences Act passed.[9] A number of other pieces of proposed legislation
introduced to Parliament have failed to go through including an Affirmative
Action Bill and a Domestic Violence Bill. A draft of a new constitution that
would have, among other things, enhanced women’s rights to own land was
defeated at a national referendum in 2005. Although this was not the main
reason why the draft was rejected, opposition to women’s land ownership did
contribute to the sentiment against it. Organizations within the women’s
movement have been behind most of the attempts at legislative reform.
Kenya has
signed onto the Convention against all Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) and a number of other international conventions as well as the
Millennium Development Goals, but becoming a party to an international treaty
does not automatically mean incorporation of its norms into national legislation
or policy.
In many
ways, Kenya has made progress - however slow - on women’s rights. As However,
the formidable combination of patriarchy and poverty continue to relegate women
to second status.
[1] Institute for Economic Affairs (2008) Profile of
Women’s Socio-Economic Status in Kenya. Nairobi
[2] Swahili for ‘women’s development.’
[3] Kiragu, Jane ‘Is there a Women’s Movement?’ in Muteshi,
Jacinta (2006) Mapping Best Practices: Promoting Gender Equality and the
advancement of Kenyan women. Nairobi, Heinrich Boll Foundation.
[4] Note 1, p. 36.
[5] The overall number of parliamentary candidates rose from
1015 in 2002 to 2548 in 2007.
[6] See ‘Kenya’s elections: how did women fare?’ an
interview with Wangari Kinoti. http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Library/Kenya-s-elections-How-did-women-fare
[7] Note 1, p. 37.
[8] Ibid.
[9] See ‘Legislating against sexual violence: the Kenyan
experience.’ An interview with Njoki Ndung’u. http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Library/Legislating-against-sexual-violence-the-Kenyan-experience
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