The Kenyans elected twenty-six deputies, seven governors and three senators. Despite these real advances, parity is far from being won over.
Le Monde with AFP
The Kenyanas carried out a historic breakthrough during the general elections of August 9, notably winning 26 seats of deputies on the 351 that the Parliament has, synonyms with an additional step towards parity. The campaign had already been atypical with a record number of candidates, three of whom appearing as a running mate of the four contenders for the presidency.
Last Tuesday, 22.1 million voters were to choose their new president, as well as 290 deputies, 47 senators, 47 county governors and 1,450 members of the counties. Among the 16,100 candidates, the Kenyans elected 26 deputies, against 23 in 2017, seven governors, against three in 2017, and three senators for a high room which has 67.
Women have won the victory in the politically influential counties of Kirinyaga and Machakos as well as Meru, where the former representative of women Kawira Mwangaza presented himself as an independent and beat her male competitors. In the city of Nakuru, in the Rift Valley, women won eight positions, one of which is from governor and a senator.
“Now, sit down and look at what women can do when they are in office,” said Tabitha Karanja, businesswoman the second biggest brewery in Kenya (Keroche Breweries Ltd) and Freshly elected senator under the label of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) of William Ruto.
“Violence targeting women”
Since the election of the first woman in Parliament in 1969, the political landscape in Kenya has remained mainly male and the application of parity, parity. The 2010 Constitution requires a balance of two thirds, a third between men and women in Parliament. But the two chambers, dominated by men, have never voted in this sense, despite legal appeals to force their hand.
The number of elected women had already progressed in 2017, to reach around 20 % of the National Assembly. Kenya remains far from some of its neighbors, such as Rwanda, in terms of parity. The political course of the Kenyanas is often strewn with pitfalls and that of the 2022 candidates has no exception.
The campaign “has been marred by violence aimed at women” despite the government’s warnings and promises to tackle the problem, according to the International Human Rights Federation and the NGO Commission of the Rights of the Man from Kenya.
However “the emergence of more candidates from women confirms that these primitive tactics no longer work as well as in the past”, noted in his editorial of August 5 the daily influential Kényan Daily Nation.