Unknown to many here in the UK, Kenya is on the brink of a constitutional crisis due to a lack of women in Parliament.
In its 2010 constitution, the electorate voted to enshrine a principle that not more than two thirds of any elected or appointed body – notably Parliament – should be the same gender. Half a decade on, women make up less than 19% of the National Assembly and a mere 27% of the Senate; this target is far from realisation. Acknowledging this failure to make progress, the Supreme Court set a deadline of 27 August 2015 for Parliament to create a framework to achieve the ‘two thirds’ principle, and the pressure is now on to agree a mutually agreeable solution in an extremely challenging political climate.
The Kenya Women’s Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA), the caucus of female Parliamentarians, is at the heart of this debate, determined to secure a framework for progress before the deadline to ensure a positive result for women at the 2017 parliamentary elections. We have just returned from two-day roundtable in Nairobi with KEWOPA members, organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK and VSO, where we together with Kenyan and Tanzanian colleagues explored the various mechanisms for improving women’s participation in politics and securing workable quotas for representation.
Currently, three proposals are on the table. The first, a bill put forward by the Chair of the Kenya Parliamentary Human Rights Association (KEPHRA), would twin constituencies. Each constituency would elect an MP of either gender, after which as a pair they would elect one female MP, giving a total of three MPs for every two constituencies and at least a third of elected parliamentary seats occupied by women. The second, the mechanism backed by KEWOPA and introduced by its Chair as a Private Member’s Bill is a ‘top-up’ system whereby parties would appoint a number of women, proportionate to their share of the national vote, from lists to ‘top up’ the percentage of directly elected women. The third is to increase the number of female County Representatives in the National Assembly. The addition of County Representatives to the National Assembly was a measure originally adopted to increase the number of women in Parliament. The new proposal has however stalled, as these different factions have failed to find a common direction in which to steer the two thirds agenda.
Despite the plethora of options under consideration, a Constitutional Amendment Bill is now at Second Reading, far ahead of any of the other proposals, and is causing huge concern for advocates of the two thirds principle. This Bill would amend the constitution to make the two thirds principle a ‘progressive’ or aspirational target, with no deadline or specific mechanism. The suggestion is that it could be led by the political parties, which seems optimistic as they, unlike their UK counterparts, have thus far done very little to demonstrate leadership on improving women’s representation. Sadly, the Bill seems likely to pass unless decisive action is taken at the highest levels of government; as the majority of the Kenyan Parliament have shown little support for affirmative action, due to fear of losing their seats or the belief that increasing the numbers of female parliamentarians would increase the cost of running Parliament – a belief that has been comprehensively debunked by the Institute for Economic Affairs Kenya.
Over the course of the programme, we were struck by the urgency of the situation, and the extremely difficult environment in which female parliamentarians in Kenya have to work. The Kenyan media is particularly harsh on women MPs, frequently accusing them of everything from incompetence to promiscuity. . Finance is also a challenge; parties do not provide candidates with funding, and women candidates can struggle to attract financial support. In contrast, there is no limit on expenditure for candidates with more resources.
Not only are traditional cultural attitudes towards women in politics negative; female MPs are seen even by their more open-minded peers as ineffective. This is in part due to the fact that the majority of female parliamentarians hold their seats as a result of the current top-up system, where women hold ‘County Representative’ seats rather than being directly elected MPs. As they are wholly dependent on the political parties for their position, there is a natural reluctance to deviate from the party line – they tend to be cautious, lacking the empowerment provided by an electoral mandate to pursue non-partisan beliefs and agendas. This has hampered progress towards implementing the two thirds principle.
We were greatly encouraged, however, by the energy and determination of the MPs we met in Nairobi. KEWOPA’s Members are under no illusions about the size of the task ahead, marshalling political and civil society support for one of the two thirds frameworks and against the Constitutional Amendment Bill, but they also have the potential to be highly effective and influential, and will spare no effort in achieving it. We felt that our presence, voicing the UK’s support for the two thirds principle and for the integrity of the constitution as agreed in 2010, at least contributed useful learning from Westminster. Although we have not yet achieved the one-third target, the recent election has brought us to 29% in the House of Commons, and both of the major political parties have achieved great progress through different mechanisms in improving women’s representation. The outstanding commitment shown by party leadership has now filtered down to local associations, as they now realise women are electable and do as good job for their constituencies as men do. As demonstrated by the UK and many other countries, the only way is up for women’s representation; despite the obstacles faced in Kenya, we look forward to seeing two thirds become a reality.
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