By IPS Correspondents
NAIROBI, Nov 5 2003 (IPS)

Kenyan women are challenging a report by a state-appointed taskforce which, they say, has ignored issues that have contributed to their marginalisation.

They say the ‘Report of the Taskforce on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission’ has failed to point out Affirmative Action (AA) as a solution to the gender inequality in the workplace. “This is injustice because lack of AA has contributed to great suffering among women in this country,” remarks renowned gender activist, Ruth Kibiti.

The report, launched Oct.15, is an outcome of a five-month public hearing held across the country by the taskforce to look into the viability of a ‘Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission’. Of the 18-member team selected Apr. 2003, only five are women.

Josephine Ojiambo, a taskforce member, says women were underrepresented in the hearings. Her efforts to bring up gender issues were shouted down by her male colleagues, she says.

“In some areas, as few as two women turned up for hearings, while men turned up in huge numbers. But my plea fell on deaf ears,” she told IPS in an interview.

“The voices of women were not adequately heard,” she says. “At one time we had to advertise in the local press, telling women to avail themselves in large numbers at the forums,” notes Ojiambo, who is also chairperson of Kenya Women Medical Association.

Ojiambo says women were afraid to speak out about deep revelations such as rape, for fear of being shunned by society. Culture also played a major role in preventing women from participating in the gatherings.

Women were not also sensitised about the hearings.

“If they are not sensitised, how does one expects women to turn up for something they do not know about?” asks Wambui Kanyi of the Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development, an organisation based in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

She criticised the methods of publicity used by the taskforce. “How many women read newspapers, listen to radio or converge at the chiefs’ meetings? Such messages should be brought closer to where women are, for example, in community-based projects where they are highly represented,” she suggests.

About 76 percent of Kenya’s women can read and write, according to official statistics. But the majority of them have no access to newspapers, radio or television due to poverty.

James Waititu, the taskforce’s spokesperson, says women’s claims of being underrepresented at the gatherings do not hold water. Women were not in any way treated unfairly, he says.

“They just did not utilise the available mechanisms. If they could not talk in public, they were free to develop memoranda and present them to the taskforce. I do not think they were ignored at all,” he argues.

“If women start asking for special attention, everyone will do the same,” says Waititu.

Affirmative Action has been a thorny issue in Kenya. Three years ago, an Affirmative Action Bill was passed in parliament, amid opposition from Kenya African National Union (KANU) party that ruled the East African country from 1963 to 2002.

Former President Daniel arap Moi was quoted in the local press as saying: “Those women who have made it do so because of merit. They are not favoured. You know I do not believe in AA for women. This, I have said openly”.

Another drama on Affirmative Action unfolded when Kenyan women parliamentarians and activists held a demonstration in Arusha, Tanzania, venue of East Africa Legislative Assembly inauguration in 2001. They were protesting over what they described as “unfair” nomination of women to the joint parliament of the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Kenya had nominated only two women to the assembly instead of the required minimum of three, out of nine nominees. Its counterparts had done much better, with Uganda and Tanzania each nominating four and three women representatives, respectively.

The ruling National Rainbow Coalition, which has been in power for ten months now, proposed a gender commission Oct. 9.

If adopted, the commission, together with gender-based organisations, will push for the Affirmative Action Bill to be made law, enabling voices of women and other marginalised groups to be heard at all levels.

“This shows the government’s commitment to put women at the centre of its activities. As we wait for adoption of the commission, we are campaigning that the AA Bill be entrenched in a draft constitution currently being discussed (by 629 delegates),” says Kanyi of the Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development.

So far, the new government of President Mwai Kibaki has nominated eight women to the house, bringing to 18 the number of women in parliament, out of 222 legislators. This is the highest number of women in parliament Kenya has ever had since independence from Britain in 1963.

It is also the first time in the modern history of Kenya that more women have been absorbed in the diplomatic mission. Of the 39 ambassadors, eight are women, according to Monica Omoro, a spokesperson in the ministry of foreign affairs.

Six women also serve in the cabinet, out of 51 ministers. This is the highest number of female ministers since 1963.

But campaigners say this is not enough. “We will continue pushing until we reach the required quota,” says Kanyi.

Women are demanding at least one-third representation in key decision-making positions in every government organ in Kenya.

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