women rejecting politics altogether or rejecting male-style politics as they lack political support from men and other women in the society. Political parties remain the main slaughter houses for women trying to entry into politics. Cultural practices constitute the substratum of gender disparity in the society. Cultural practices favor the boy-child by placing him on a pedestal where he has access to education, has the right to own and inherit land and be in a position of leadership at household, community and national level. Furthermore, patriarchal systems like the councils of elders, wherein culture is developed, are dominated by men who make key decisions for women. Culture further impinges upon the rights of women by denying women the right of access to education thanks to cultural practices like female genital mutilation and early forced marriages. Pursuant to retrogressive cultures, women are also denied the right to inherit land and the right to make decisions on their reproductive health rights. Matrimonial practices also objectify women through the system of dowry payments. Worse still, in some communities – for instance, the Maasai and the Islam communities – the right to participate in decision-making is affected by interference by women’s partners with their right to vote.
The patriarchal system entrenched by cultural practices
“Worse still, in some communities – for instance, the Maasai and the Islam communities – the right to participate in
decision-making is affected by interference by women’s partners with their right to vote.”
equates women to children who need to be led and should never lead. Leadership has therefore inevitably been the preserve of the male gender. The biggest challenge women face is poverty. The majority of women in Kenya and across the world are very poor. Poverty further exacerbates women’s chances to access opportunities like education by enhancing practices like: early forced marriages, forcing young girls into prostitution to meet the basic needs of their families, human trafficking, illiteracy, child labor and slavery and the
20 | The Parliamentarian | 2010: Issue Three - Kenya
recruitment of child soldiers. Slow implementation and enforcement of gender equality policies and legislation and insufficient budgetary allocation for gender equality work as well as weak partnerships among stakeholders also contribute little progress being made towards addressing women’s rights across all levels, as recognized in the Kenya Women Manifesto of 2005.
Electoral politics Most women in Kenya are not informed about the political system in the country as most of them do not have formal education. Thus their participation in politics is further constrained by a lack of education and access to information. The electoral systems of most democracies today, including Kenya, are based on the first-past- the post model. This results in a “winner takes all” situation with the effect of unduly escalating stakes in politics. The electoral process and participation is therefore made astronomically expensive. It follows that given the economic impotence of women, competitive politics becomes prohibitive.
Electoral systems, particularly in
Kenya, have over the years failed to stamp out election-related violence. Violence related to campaigns has been in the past employed as a tool against female candidates. Threats of harm in the form of rape against women
candidates are not unknown to politics in Kenya. Unless the electoral system addresses the problem of violence that precedes, accompanies and follows voting, many women are still likely to be cowed from vying for parliamentary seats. It’s also unfortunate that political parties, whilst considered as the vehicles of democracy, are themselves slaughterhouses to eliminate women from political contention. The electoral system needs to address itself to the ugly reality that political parties are actually boys’ clubs.
In modern democracy and
society, some degree of formal education is indispensable for one to effectively and successfully contend for a political seat. This is all the more so with an emerging generation of young and more enlightened voters. In Kenya historical injustices and imbalanced access to education has however ensured that a relatively smaller population of women are educated. The pool of political candidates is therefore starved of women. There are hardly enough women to compete on a level footing with the more and better educated male counterparts in many leadership and executive position across various sectors.
Strategies to increase the number of women in Parliament