Draft laws give women big boost

• Sweeping proposals to promote gender equality and tackle discrimination in elective bodies and public institutions
• If the draft constitution is adopted, women stand to be among the biggest beneficiaries. It guarantees them more Parliamentary seats and a bigger role in county governance

Women are emerging as the biggest beneficiaries of the proposed constitution with a raft of measures included to secure their rights in law.

The draft guarantees that at least a third of members of all elective institutions in which public policy is shaped will be women. They are also guaranteed representation in other key non-elective bodies such as the Court of Appeal.

If passed, the proposals will see Kenya on the way to attaining the levels of female representation enjoyed in some of the most equal societies on this score in the world including Rwanda (where 48.8 per cent of lawmakers are female), Sweden (47 per cent), Cuba (43.2 per cent), Finland (41.5 per cent) and Argentina (40 per cent).

Many leaders to whom the Sunday Nation spoke said this quota system would go a long way in ensuring that women play a central role in nation-building.

“As an organisation, we find the proposals in the draft that seek to address gender imbalance a noble idea that should be supported by not only women, but every Kenyan,” said women lawyers advocacy group FIDA chairperson Patricia Nyaundi.

Mrs Nyaundi said women should support these clauses as they mark a major step forward in the drive to secure women’s rights.

The United Nations has listed gender equality as one of the cornerstones of the UN Millennium Goals, which aim to halve world poverty by 2015.

The UN argues it has been proven that countries which offer women greater access to educational and employment opportunities and have more women in positions of political leadership experience improved levels of economic growth. Kenya has been listed as one of the nations in Africa lagging behind in attaining these goals.

Many proposals

Among the many proposals in the harmonised draft aimed at increasing the number of women in public office is a quota system under which not more than two-thirds of the members of elective bodies shall be of the same gender.

If adopted, gender activists say this measure would benefit both men and women since women are also not allowed to hold more than two-thirds of the positions either.

“The clause ensures that both men and women are finally recognised as equal in value and in their ability to contribute to national development,” Mrs Nyaundi said.

Esther Murugi, minister for Gender and Children’s Affairs, said although the effort to achieve gender balance was welcome, she would like the clauses to be much more specific and to apportion many more than one-third of positions to women.

Other pro-women measures include the establishment of a Human Rights and Gender Commission and the formation of a Judicial Service Commission that would promote gender equality in the Judiciary.

Although many women have welcomed the proposals, they say there is still some distance to go before the changes are finally enshrined in the Constitution.

“We have been close on several occasions, mostly through declarations by the Executive. But unless we see that these changes are retained until the final stages of the Constitution making process, we will not pop the champagne bottles,” the Fida boss said.

Affirmative action

Previous attempts to amend the Constitution and introduce affirmative action in representation failed as Members of Parliament could not reach the required figure of 148 (two-thirds) of sitting MPs that would have passed the constitutional amendment.

Others say inclusion of affirmative action in the Constitution would allow Kenya to finally catch up with other regional democracies in terms of recognition of gender discrimination as a stumbling block to development and national cohesion.

“Rwanda has made remarkable headway in under a decade in terms of women’s representation. This partly explains the economic and social development the country has made since the genocide,” said Mary Njeri, Executive Director of Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW).

Although the first female parliamentarian in Rwanda began serving in 1965, Rwandan women never held more than 18 per cent of seats in the country’s Parliament in the years before the 1994 genocide.

In the nine-year period in which the post-genocide transitional government held power from 1994 to 2003, women’s representation in Parliament (by appointment) reached more than 25 per cent, leading up to the adoption of a new constitution. But it was the first election after the genocide in October 2003 that saw women achieve nearly 50 per cent representation.

At its peak, the number of women in the Kenyan parliament has never been close to the numbers attained by either Rwanda or South Africa.

Even in their most successful bid in the 2007 elections, female representation stood at less than 10 per cent. Of the 210 elected MPs, only 20 are women, compared to 97 in Tanzania and more than 100 in Uganda.

This outcome stands in stark contrast to the fact that women form the bulk of registered Kenyan voters, a statistic that has led some to question why women should opt for a quota system in representation when they have the numbers to sway the votes in whatever direction they deem fit.

Left out

“If they have felt left out, why can’t they elect their own into Parliament? They have enough women registered voters to do so,” says Ndiritu Njoka of Maendeleo ya Wanaume.

But Ms Njeri has an explanation. She says the political parties system is not “generous” enough to allow widespread female representation.

“At the end of the day, it is their positions that are under threat. For now inclusion of such a clause in the Constitution is the only thing that will protect the rights of women,” she said.

But Mr Ndiritu said that giving a lot of leverage to women might endanger some of the country’s cultural practices.

“All along we have been fighting issues like land subdivision; now we want both sons and daughters to inherit land from their fathers. If a woman gets married to someone owning land, can’t the parcel be counted as hers, too?” he said.

Former assistant minister Kalembe Ndile told the Sunday Nation that although he supports including women in national matters, finding the right women for the right positions may be harder than many Kenyans think.

“How many women will want to stand up and be counted. It is a good proposal that needs time to sink into the psychology of Kenyans. Current issues may prove too hard to handle for many women,” said the former Kibwezi MP. Such a proposal already exists in the Political Parties Act.

Nominated Member of Parliament George Nyamweya said in the long run, affirmative action is what the country needs to ensure political participation of all citizens but in a manner that would not create new exclusions in society.

“It is in bad taste to create special regions for women candidates. Such a provision will only cause more separation of the women from society instead of integrating them,” said the PNU-nominated MP.

Additional reporting by Carol Wafula