Woman rep: From ‘tokenism’ to critical mass in 2022 and beyond
Female candidate illustration.
What you need to know:
- A record number of women were elected in the last general election to serve as governors, senators, members of Parliament and in the county assemblies.
- The 2017 election saw 172 of the 1,883 elected seats occupied by women, up from 145 after the 2013 General Election.
Never before have so many women held so much political power in Kenya.
A record number of women were elected in the last general election to serve as governors, senators, members of Parliament and in the county assemblies.
The 2017 election saw 172 of the 1,883 elected seats occupied by women, up from 145 after the 2013 General Election.
Despite the tremendous gains made by women in the last elections, they are still grossly underrepresented. Women account for just 22 per cent of the National Assembly and Senate—a figure including the seats reserved exclusively for women county representatives.
The role of a woman representative has been the subject of contention and the relevance of this position has been incessantly debated in political circles.
Created by the 2010 Constitution as an affirmative action strategy, the importance of the position has been relegated to token symbolism and proposals have even been tabled before Parliament to scrap it all together.
Contribution
Some opponents of the woman rep position have argued that it has contributed negligibly to the political landscape and that holders have done little to effect change in the country.
This is a rather unfair analysis, seeing how women account for less than 25 per cent of all elected positions. For women’s impact to be felt, they need more numbers. Here’s where critical mass comes in.
In social dynamics, critical mass is the sufficient number of adopters of a new idea in a social system so that the rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining and sparks growth.
Research has proved that it takes a minimum representation of 30 per cent before the minority, in this case women, are able to make a significant difference in politics.
Almost across the board, if there’s less than 20 per cent representation of certain groups, outcomes don’t change. As we’ve witnessed here in Kenya, either the women don’t speak up loud enough or the men simply refuse to listen.
Party nominations
The importance of women representation in politics cannot be overstated. For women to overcome tokenism, they must attain critical mass and one crucial way to make this happen is political party nominations.
The Political Parties Act states that a party cannot be fully registered unless there is gender balance among its members, and its governing body, and not more than two thirds of that governing body are of the same gender.
It is in fact the political parties that control the nominations, not primarily the voters who decide who gets elected.
If these parties claim to represent the interests of women countrywide, nominating more women to run for office would help attain the critical mass needed to effect change.
The Constitution’s Article 27(8) of the Bill of Rights states: “The state shall take legislative and other measures to implement the principle that not more than two thirds of the members of elective or appointive bodies shall be of the same gender.”
Since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2010, Kenya has yet to realise the above-mentioned provisions. This has been the subject of litigation for a decade now.
Implementation of the two-thirds gender bill will change the political landscape of the country and see to it that women attain the critical mass. Let’s take a chance on women at the ballot this year.
Onwards to critical mass.
