WOMEN’S DAY: Reflecting on Struggle for Equality in Kenya

By Miriam Gathigah Reprint | | Print |

Miriam Gathigah

NAIROBI, Mar 7 2011 (IPS) - “It is yet another significant day in the life of women across the world in the struggle for gender equality and equity. It is for this reason that women look forward to marking yet another International Women Day,” says Janet Kanene, a gender studies university student.

It has been 100 years since the first International Women Day (IWD) was marked thus beginning a long drawn struggle for women towards empowerment.

“[International Women’s Day] is a time for governments and like-minded stakeholders evaluate and assess whether women, who constitute a majority of the population, have access to better opportunities and human rights,” Caroline Nyaga, a human rights activist.

Disproportionate suffering

The situation of women in Kenya, as is the case in many other countries in Africa, leaves a lot to be desired. Women remain the suffering face of HIV/AIDS in the world. Statistics from the Kenya Aids Indicators Survey show women constitute three of every five people living with HIV.

The issue of feminisation of poverty remains a reality for many women especially in the agricultural sector. According to Vision 2030, a government economic blueprint, five out of a total eight million households are engaged in agriculture. It is estimated that 80 percent of laborers are women.

“Yet women continue to be largely underrepresented in decision making positions within the agricultural sector in spite of their numerical majority in tilling the land,” says Muthoni Kanyi, a coffee farmer from Kiambu County, Central Kenya.

Politics of survival

There have been efforts by the government to address women’s needs, especially through the inception of the Ministry of Gender and Social Development.

“Indeed the Ministry of Gender has continued to be instrumental in gender mainstreaming within various key sectors but the impact of such initiatives is blotted by issues such as gender discrimination as well as the continued increase of gender based violence,” says Nyaga.

Her remarks are confirmed by recent studies of domestic violence. Four major regions in the country including Nairobi show that three-quarters of female respondents reported having been physically abused in their homes.

The study, conducted by the Federation of Women Lawyers, Kenya “confirms the facts that not only are women abused by their husbands or intimate partners but her in-laws who continue to perceive women as a piece of property.”

Gender friendly Constitution?

Kenya has passed a gender-sensitive Constitution which calls for gender representation in all spheres. However, recent events reveal that this is only good on paper.

Women have continued to be sidelined in key political nominations, says Melissa Oluoch, a political activist in Nairobi.

“Take for instance the three main committees that are meant to begin the Constitutional implementation process. The Constitution Implementation Commission, the Revenue Allocation Collection and Director of the Budget office: none of them are headed by a woman.”

Although the women’s movement expressed dissatisfaction with the composition of the committees in as far as gender representation is concerned, this did not stop the President from sidelining women in yet another batch of nominations for various judicial positions.

On Jan. 28, when the president read out the nominees for the positions of Chief Justice, Attorney General, Deputy Public Prosecutor and Controller of Budget, all the nominees were male. This saw a group of 10 civil society organizations move a petition to the High Court expressing their dissatisfaction with the nominations.

The Court duly ruled that the nominations were unconstitutional and ordered fresh nominations.

Not yet uhuru

“This however does not mean that women won. The constitution fails to explicitly mention what gender discrimination really entails and doesn’t prevent women from being ignored in future nominations,” says Oluoch.

The lack of gender representation in key decision-making positions in the executive, legislature and the judiciary deals the advancement and empowerment of women a big blow.

The current parliament has seen issues at the heart of women’s development discussed on the floor of the house, including unequal access to education.

Six girls schools managed to get into the top ten best-performing schools nationally in the recently released results of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). However, challenges remain towards narrowing the gender disparity gaps.

“Although we have many interventions to address gender gaps across all provinces, disparities in favor of boys still persist,” said Professor Sam Ongeri while releasing the KCSE results.

In keeping with this year’s IWD theme, equal access to education, training, science and technology, as a pathway to decent work for women has been a development goal in Kenya. It seems the country is still a long way to go towards realizing this goal.

This echoes the words of Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, U.N. Women, a newly formed organisation dedicated to gender equality. “I have seen myself what women, often in the toughest circumstances, can achieve for their families and societies if they are given the opportunity. The strength, industry and wisdom of women remain humanity’s greatest untapped resource. We simply cannot afford to wait another 100 years to unlock this potential.”