By Isaiah Lucheli

Majority of Kenyan women would rather have a male president than one of their own, a new report has revealed.

In an opinion poll conducted by Infotrak Research and Consulting, majority of the women (91 per cent) do not trust one of their own to be a president despite their numerical strength as voters.

"Whether it is due to the nature of the Kenyan society or the fact that men are more dominant in the political sphere, women seem to trust men in positions of political leadership than they do fellow women," said Angela Ambitho, the executive director of the organisation.

The survey, carried out between February 24 and 28 countrywide, showed women politicians featured poorly against their male counterparts in terms of trust.

"Just like their male counterparts, women tend to trust more male political leaders than females. Only Martha Karua and Charity Ngilu were mentioned in the top ten ranking of trusted political leaders. Karua was at position three while Ngilu was position ten," said Ambitho.

In the survey, Prime Minister Raila Odinga still remains the most trusted politician with 35 per cent support of the respondents followed by President Kibaki who had 12 per cent.

Ms Karua had six per cent support while Ms Ngilu scored a paltry three per cent.

The report does not explain why women seem to trust men in positions of political leadership than they do their fellow women.

It, however, suggests that it could be either due to patrileneal nature of the Kenyan society or the fact that men are more dominant in the political sphere.

"Women must indeed believe that their fellow women can. Men must believe that their mothers, sisters, aunties, wives can," the report says, adding that when women are empowered the whole community, country and world benefits.

Ambitho explained that if the country was to realise the dream of a woman ascending to presidency or being appointed a vice-president in 2012, there is need for a paradigm shift and fast track equal access to opportunities for women.

She said 45 per cent of the male respondents considered gender inequality is still prevalent.

"Nearly five of every ten males indicated that they did not feel enough had been done to improve gender equality.

"Women only differed with men slightly with six of ten women indicating that gender inequality existed," said the director.

The survey also established that education and training is one of the key areas where people feel the Government should prioritise when it comes to gender equality, especially after the dismal performance of girls in the just-released Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam results.

Among the 1,200 respondents sampled, 52 per cent believe women still do not have equal access to political participation as compared to men.

"Parliamentary, ministerial and civic positions were the three main roles highlighted by respondents as those that are currently occupied by women in the political landscape," said Ambitho.