Women praise proposed law’s provisions on gender equality

• At a meeting in Nairobi to consider the draft, they say it hasn’t ignored them

Women political, regional and professional leaders on Friday gathered in Nairobi to audit each chapter and article of the harmonised draft constitution.

They had a consensus on each one of them, which they will present to the Committee of Experts as their official stand.

The meeting came against a backdrop of fears that most women across the country were not engaging in the discussions and debates around the draft constitution, yet they were some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged groups.

Provisions in the draft constitution, as captured by their audit, are expected to reverse past gender injustices and biases, hence the importance of women of all races and classes to own the process, the meeting said.

Speaker after speaker said that, this time around, the process should not fail, and that she would make it a win-win situation for every Kenyan.

The draft recognises gender issues and the marginalisation that women have encountered for many years in political, economic and social spheres, and spells out the steps to be taken to right the wrongs.

During the meeting, organised by the Kenya Women’s Political Alliance and attended by Fida-Kenya, Caucus for Women Leadership, CREAW, AWC, Maendeleo ya Wanawake, National Council of Women in Kenya (NCWK), the participants agreed that, generally, the draft captured some of their concerns, even though there were articles that contradicted the spirit of affirmative action shrined as a principle in the draft.

Taking the women through the draft, Prof Wanjiku Kabira, who teaches at the University of Nairobi, and also a former member of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, reminded them of the long journey they had made to make sure affirmative action was enshrined in the constitution.

“For the women, it has been a long struggle to see the issues they have advocated being reflected in the harmonised draft constitution,” she said.

Commenting on the hardline positions taken by some politicians on some chapters in the draft, Ms Deborah Okumu, the Caucus for Women’s Leadership executive director, said women this time hoped that a middle ground would be arrived at to give the country a new constitution.

Ms Wambui Kanyi analysed the draft clause by clause and article by article, bringing out the salient features of each. Under the national values and principles, the women expressed happiness that Article 2(1) guarantees women full participation in the nation’s political, social and economic activity.

Article 2 (j) provides that the government will use the principle that stipulates that not more than two thirds of the members of elective or appointive bodies shall be of the same gender.

In Kenya, where getting into political leadership is sometimes next to impossible for women, this is a positive step to realising the 30 per cent representation in all political and other decision-making organs.

On the section on citizenship, article 17 sections 1, 2 and 3 gives a woman the right to confer citizenship to her children, something women have been advocating for a long time.

There are cases in which women have found it difficult to get vital documents for their children if the father is not there, or if they present applications for such documents as single parents.