We need more Amina Mohameds in leadership to achieve gender equality

A young girl called Amina Mohamed was born in a modest family in Kakamega as the eighth child in a family of nine.

Her parents encouraged her to complete her education and pursue her dreams.

And now, Amina is now the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade. She is also the first woman to chair the World Trade Organization. Amina is credited for enhancing Kenya’s global image.

Through sheer grit and determination, Amina has gone ahead to achieve so much. She has demonstrated that women must persist to break gender stereotypes and other barriers obstructing them from reaching their full potential.

GENDER EQUALITY

On August 13, Kenya celebrated 30 years since the fourth world conference on women that brought together gender and women affairs ministers from across the continent to take stock of the progress made in the African women movement since the conference.

“The Constitution imposes a duty on the State to use legislative and other measures, including affirmative action, to realize gender equality,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said during the opening of the Nairobi +30 conference.

A debate around the issues of gender and governance is currently going on, primarily focusing on increasing the number of women in Parliament and political parties.

The Constitution provides that not more than two thirds of members of elective and appointed bodies should be of the same gender.

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

Yet the issue of how to realise the two-thirds gender rule is still being debated, well past the deadline set out by the Attorney-General and could plunge Kenya into a constitutional crisis.

A Commonwealth report shows that Kenya trails her neighbours as far as the number of women in the Cabinet, top parastatal and civil service jobs is concerned.

The global average of women holding parliamentary seats remains around 20 per cent, well below the 30 per cent target set in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action and in the MDGs.

Rwanda has highest number of women MPs in the world, currently at 60 per cent.

Kenya has drafted the National Action Plan for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolution on gender.

The plan recommends enforcement of laws that promote gender equality, inclusion and engagement of women in prevention, management and resolution of conflicts at all levels of decision making.

RECONFIGURE POWER RELATIONS
As President Barack Obama said during his visit to Kenya, one half of the team has been left out of the game for too long. It is time to reconfigure power relations to transform traditional perceptions of manhood.

Is time to engage fully the other half of the team that has been left out of the game.

To fully involve women, they should start enjoying equal rights and equal access to justice, power, resources and opportunities with men. When women and girls must be freed from violence and discrimination.

They should be allowed to make decisions about their bodies, health, sexuality and reproductive rights. They should also get equal pay with men doing the same jobs.

We need to get rid of practices such as FGM and child marriages, in accordance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Devolution, with its emphasis on inclusiveness, has also provided a perfect opportunity for women empowerment. We must also emphasise peace which is a prerequisite to development and attainment of gender equality.

This will improve education, health and economic prosperity.

The huge population of women which could also bolster Kenya’s GDP per capita 12 times higher than the present.

But we need to identify and address barriers to gender equality, including some cultural practices.

Women form more than half of Kenya’s population and are the engines of economic growth.

Ms Zebib Kavuma (@zkavuma) is the UN Women Country Director to Kenya. Mr Siddharth Chatterjee (@sidchat1) is the UNFPA Representative to Kenya