ACDEG was seen as the African Union’s main normative instrument to set standards for better governance across the continent.
African Union member countries who signed the charter were expected to use it as a yardstick to measure democracy, governance and fair and credible elections in their respective countries.
But according to the African Women Leaders Forum (AWLF), the charter provided more than just a toolkit for countries to check whether they were on the right path in governance.
It provided provisions to advance women’s political rights by mandating states to promote gender equality, eliminate gender discrimination and adopt policies to guarantee the rights of women.
“They would also need to create necessary conditions for full and active participation of women in decision-making at all levels, take possible measures to encourage full and active participation of women in electoral processes and ensure gender parity in representation at all levels,” the forum said.
As of March this year, 36 African countries had ratified the charter, Kenya being the second-last on the list, ratifying it in 2021. Angola was the last.
Recently, the International Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Development in Africa (IPHRD-Africa), together with AWLF, held the Annual Young Women Political Leadership Summit in Nairobi.
At the Summit, AWLF released a report on the progress of African Countries that had ratified the charter.
The Gender Barometer of the charter showed that Kenya was doing dismally in working to advance women’s leadership and governance.
The barometer showed that Kenya had special measures in place to ensure that women’s representation in political leadership was equal to that of their male counterparts, according to the provisions of the Charter.
Only 23.2 per cent of women are represented in Parliament, 30.4 per cent in ministerial positions, and 33.5 per cent of women in local government
LOW IMPLEMENTATION
“There are reserved seats for women leaders at the lower and upper houses of Parliament and at the sub-national level,” it said.
Despite these measures, the number of women present in leadership positions in Kenya still remained low.
“Only 23.2 per cent of women are represented in Parliament, 30.4 per cent in Ministerial positions, and 33.5 per cent of women in local government,” the gender barometer said.
There were no women heads of state or deputy heads of state.
Rwanda led African countries in women’s participation with 54.7 per cent representation in Parliament, 54.8 per cent in ministerial positions and 43.6 per cent in local government.
South Africa followed on the gender barometer with 45.6 per cent in Parliament, 48.3 per cent in ministries and 40.7 per cent in local government.
“There is also a voluntary political party quota in place in Kenya, but no system of accountability is provided,” the barometer added.
This means political parties cannot be forced to make women’s representation in their parties necessary.
IEBC had sought to do just that when the commission’s chairman Wafula Chebukati said he would reject Political Party lists that did not comply with the two-thirds gender rule.
Chebukati ordered parties to uphold the Constitution and make sure that not more than two-thirds of the list of aspirants running under their party was of the same gender.
The chairman and the commission came under heavy fire form the parties and eventually, Cliff Ombeta, Lawyer and UDA candidate for the Bonchari parliamentary seat in Kisii county, filed a petition to have the order reversed.
In June, Justice Anthony Mrima, in a ruling delivered in Nairobi, quashed the order.
The judge said the IEBC decision was not well thought out and should have at least included public participation or stakeholder engagement.
“It was arrived at prematurely. It can only be described as unreasonable, inconsiderate and unfair,” he said.
The country will be conducting the third general election under the 2010 Constitution without a mechanism that secures the two-thirds gender representation both at the National Assembly and the Senate
BACKWARD STEP
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights termed the ruling retrogressive.
KNCHR chairperson Roseline Odede said IEBC had been proactive in its attempt to compel political parties to adhere to the two-thirds rule.
“The country will be conducting the third general election under the 2010 Constitution without a mechanism that secures the two-thirds gender representation both at the National Assembly and the Senate,” she said.
According to a report done by Mzalendo Trust, in 2013, only 138 women were elected into various elective offices, while in 2017, the number slightly increased to 182 women, out of over 1,800 positions available.
Although Kenya complied with the ACDEG charter, there is still more that needs to be done to ensure women’s full political participation and representation is reached.
AWLF recommends that countries should address the systemic and structural barriers to women’s political participation, such as the implementation of policies and holding to account duty bearers.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights recently gave a statement that it has been receiving unsettling reports of harassment and intimidation of female aspirants.
This is particularly during the political parties' nominations.
"These range from online bullying, physical assaults and sexual violence. We have been documenting cases of alleged attacks and injuries to female aspirants and their supporters," they said.
Many women end up dropping their candidature because of being intimidated by violence, causing their numbers to drop.
It seems they have become so commonplace that some of them are not being taken as seriously as they ought to be when these incidents are life-threatening.
Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo had her house burned down during the ODM party primaries back in 2017 and her bodyguard was also killed.
Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris was also held hostage by hostile youth at a university as they extorted money from her.
Unfortunately, the incident repeated itself in 2022, when she had gone to campaign in a particular slum area in Nairobi, and she barely managed to escape.
Women, who are considered threats, have now become the target of violence from their competitors, yet they still keep going, desperate to achieve their goal.
HARASSMENT RIFE
Just recently, Nairobi South MCA aspirant Waithera Chege said despite winning the United Democratic Party nominations, her competitors have been harassing her to step down.
"I won the nominations and was issued a certificate by my party. My opponents registered a complaint at the Dispute Resolution Committee at the Party Headquarters, who then referred the case to the National Elections Board," she said.
The board summoned Chege for a sitting and then she was declared the winner again and issued a certificate.
Her opponents then moved to the Political Parties Tribunal for an appeal and the tribunal issued a ruling on May 6, demanding that repeat nominations be conducted on the 8th.
“The party gave the notice to conduct the elections on the 8th, where I participated,” she said.
On the day she walked out of her polling station at Highway Secondary School, her driver alerted her that they were being followed.
“The driver told me that three motorbikes were following us, and I told him that maybe they were the usual boda boda operators on their own business. But as we moved along, he realised they were hot on our heels, trailing us,” she said.
They were heading back to their offices near the polling station, so Chege asked the driver to speed up so they could get there faster.
Chege said that on arriving at their offices, the armed security personnel she was with managed to scare off two of the assailants and arrested the rest.
“Each motorbike had carried two young men, so we arrested two of them,” she said.
“I called my area District Officer, who came with a team from the Quick Response Unit of the Police Department, and the young men were taken to Industrial Area police station.”
She said the young men were released on bail a few days later, and they recorded a video to brag about their release from custody.
“They were saying they were out on cash bail and the person who had paid their cash bail is a sitting MP in Nairobi, whom I suspect to be the mastermind behind this little scare,” Chege said.
She said she also recorded a statement at Hazina police station and wrote to the regional commander, requesting him to upgrade her security because she felt her opponents would not give her an easy time.
Dr Juliet Kimemia, Kiambu Governor candidate under Azimio la Umoja, said from the moment she was nominated to run for the seat, she has been facing a lot of harassment.
Kimemia said while she has not been physically threatened, online violence is one of the biggest weapons being used to demotivate women aspirants and make them feel small and give up vying.
“I have been receiving insults in my inbox from people I know and people I do not know,” she said.
“They have been dismissing my candidature, abusing me and calling me unqualified to run, asking me if I will be able to run against certain male contenders for the same seat.”
She, however, says the protection of women political aspirants can be better because she often feels skeptical and believes that someone might be trailing her car because it is familiar to many people in the county.
“If just the nominations saw us receiving such threats, what about as we draw nearer and nearer to the elections and the competition becomes more intense? What might our competitors think of doing next?” she asked.
If women cannot feel safe vying for any political seat in the country, then many will not wish to vie for any seat at all in future.
More needs to be done to ensure women aspirants are safe as they pursue their political ambitions.
