Women’s Political Participation and Leadership Final Report — Kenya Assessment
Source: USAID | Year: 2023
This study investigates the barriers and opportunities to expand women’s participation and leadership in the political landscape in Kenya. It uses the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Women’s Political Participation and Leadership (WPPL) Assessment Framework to document women’s access to and power in politics along sociocultural, institutional, and individual dimensions. The report can be used by the relevant stakeholders to identify priority areas in which their investments in programs and initiatives to support WPPL are likely to have the greatest and most meaningful impact.
The gender representation of the over 22 million registered voters for the 2022 elections was almost equal, according to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP). Even so, women candidates were way fewer than men candidates and fewer women than men were elected. According to the IEBC, of the 16,100 candidates cleared for the 2022 polls, women represented 12.18 percent (1,962 candidates). Women-led political parties, which appear in the small parties' category, remain weak and transient. They have minimal or no representation in the County Assemblies and Parliament. The status of women in political parties is low because the socialization of women in Kenya’s patriarchal culture has continued to undermine women’s ascendancy to leadership by confining them to subordinate roles in the public realm, such as political parties, and normalizing this discourse. The outcome of this patriarchal influence is the low representation of elected women. Patriarchal structures still view women as weaker leaders compared to men and have reinforced traditions and cultures that have resulted in women-hostile actions, such as violence against women during the electoral cycle, to discourage women who challenge these norms.
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