KENYA: If the Draft Constitution Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It – Activists

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Oct 16 2005 (IPS) - The heated debate about Kenya’s proposed constitution, to be put to a referendum Nov. 21, has focused extensively on the powers the draft awards to the presidency, despite popular calls for the wings of the executive to be clipped.

However, the proposed constitution is also proving to be a sore point amongst women’s rights activists. They are demanding that the latest draft of the document be amended to include specific measures for promoting women’s participation in political life, as was the case for an earlier draft of the text.

This version was endorsed by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC), a body representing a cross-section of interests, which held discussions at the ‘Bomas of Kenya’ cultural centre just outside the capital, Nairobi.

The NCC document, dubbed the ‘Bomas draft’, stated that a third of decision-making posts across four proposed levels of government should be occupied by women – with this figure rising to half for councils in the lowest level of government. The Bomas draft also provided guidelines as to how this should be achieved, based on Kenya’s division into districts and regions.

“This was a way of ensuring that women actively engage in competitive politics. It would also provide a chance for society to consider women as being able leaders, therefore encouraging more women to take up even higher positions in politics,” Ann Njogu, a member of the Women’s Agenda, told IPS. The group serves as an umbrella body for women’s rights organisations.

Until now, culture and tradition have combined to ensure that politics remains largely the preserve of men in the East African country. Of the current 222 members of parliament (MPs), only 18 are women.

However, the affirmative action (AA) provisions in the Bomas draft have allegedly been compromised as a result of parliament’s decision to abandon the notion of a four-tier government. MPs were initially required to accept or reject the Bomas draft in its entirety, but later passed legislation giving themselves the right to amend this draft.

Certain politicians have argued that, at an estimated cost of over a billion dollars, the new structure would have been too expensive to implement.

The updated draft of the constitution, which will be put before voters, still provides for a third of decision-making posts to be occupied by women. But it does not specify how this would be achieved in the way that the Bomas draft did, say activists.

“Yes, the document provides for a third women representation in decision making posts. But, it does not stipulate the formula which will be used to get that third,” Akinyi Nzioki, executive director of the Centre for Land, Economy and Rights of Women, told IPS.

“Again, the constitution leaves it at the discretion of the male-dominated parliament to enact a law to create affirmative action programmes for women.”

Women’s lobbyists have little faith that a parliament which has shown scant interest in gender equality to date, will act with appropriate speed to increase women’s representation in government.

“Up to now, the sitting parliament has only tabled a few bills, none of them affecting women. How can we trust that it will come up with such legislation that will ensure that women take up positions in politics?” asked Njogu.

According to the Institute for Civic Affairs and Development, a Nairobi-based organisation which monitors parliament, the current legislature – now two-and-a-half years old – has yet to table a bill which deals with gender issues.

“(The Bomas draft) presented perfect opportunities which we lost, denying women key forums for influencing governance processes even at the very basic levels,” Daisy Amdany, advocacy coordinator at the Nairobi-based Women’s Political Alliance of Kenya, said in an interview with IPS.

“These were chances that would have ensured a critical mass of women in key decision-making positions. This would also have encouraged more women to vie for parliamentary seats.”

The debacle over women’s representation in parliament may come as no surprise to long-time gender observers in Kenya, where affirmative action for women has been a thorny issue for several years now.

Five years ago, an affirmative action bill was tabled in parliament amidst opposition from the Kenya African National Union – in power from 1963 until 2002.

The then head of state, Daniel arap Moi, refused to yield to pressure from female parliamentarians and the public to sign the bill into law. Instead, he 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.”

The bill, which sought to increase the level of participation in government by women and marginalised communities, was later shelved.

Women’s rights activists plan to stage a march to demand that the constitutional draft which will be put before voters next month is changed back to its earlier form, so that it will again set out a detailed road map for increasing women’s presence in Kenyan politics.

Organised by the Women’s Agenda, the Oct. 31 march in Nairobi seeks to bring together a million women from across the country.