Despite having a progressive Constitution in Africa and which exclusively anchors more participation windows in various classes that have suffered from prejudice by design or accident, more women with political ambitions have to contend with a playing field set against them.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has committed that women candidates will participate in the campaigns and elections without threats to life or property.
Elections are almost here and attention is turning to the disadvantaged participants and in this case, women and youth.
This is being considered against a backdrop of past challenges that in most cases inhibited more women from playing active political roles at the grassroots, boardrooms and at national levels.
Despite having a progressive Constitution in Africa and which exclusively anchors more participation windows in various classes that have suffered from prejudice by design or accident, more women with political ambitions have to contend with a playing field set against them.
Already there is increasing apprehension that major political parties may not offer safety nets for women aspirants.
It may not be a walk in the park for most women who will need to wade through party machinations and possible violence in the campaign trail.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has committed that women candidates will participate in the campaigns and elections without threats to life or property.
However, history reveals that such assurances have failed to placate and prevent outright rigging and violence on women aspirants and their supporters.
As the polls near, how do we ensure more women not only participate but have a say in political party primaries, secure tickets during nominations and became legislators?
Are our political parties accommodating women aspirants by choosing fair play?
We shall need to ensure more women feel and agree that any political competition will emerge free, fair and result in more rightful winners.
As the polls near, women's participation and a level playing field will be a major talking point in leadership parlances. For starters, our landscape will be compared. Internationally, Kenya must aspire to strengthen the pecking order for women.
At the global stage, we have a mixed bag on women's inclusion in the political matrix. Instead of firm strides towards their emancipation and participation, data shows growth but setbacks also abound.
For instance, according to the UN women’s Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) data released in January, the number of women holding ministerial ranks had a marginal increase from 21.3 percent in 2020 to 21.9 percent in 2021.
In reading, it means more political cycles in different countries are pushing more women from the political scene, thus contributing to more global inequities.
There is a danger that more African countries, Kenya included, are feeling more hit on this ranking thanks to the slow progress in meeting various charters.
According to the UN Women executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, more prosperity is achievable through equal participation. Exclusion hinders global prosperity.
“No country prospers without the engagement of women. We need women’s representation that reflects all women and girls in all their diversity and abilities, bold decisive action across the world. We need to bring more women into the heart of decision-making space in large numbers and as full partners”, she said.
In Africa, Rwanda leads the table of countries with more than 50 percent more women ministers.
In the same period, it is however Namibia that registered the biggest strides in sub-Saharan Africa by increasing the share of women ministers, from 15 to 39 percent.
Despite having more women ministers, a majority of them are assigned sports, gender, environment and foreign affairs dockets with more men on the “real” ministries such as finance, defence and national security.
In the Kenyan election cycle, there are more mountains to climb and the first will be ensuring that more women find real progressive and sustainable spaces in the political discourses, not as favours.
The real spaces for women will need to go past the current political tokenism, which is little anchored in and powered on real economic and political dispensations and drives.
Already, the ruins of Covid-19 as shown by studies in East Africa have led to more girls who have fallen into the trap of early pregnancies and motherhood.
This has denied millions of young dreamers a fighting chance in education and career progression against boys.
Benjamin Obegi, journalist and Oscar Ochieng, communication specialist
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
