Women, discard bowl-in-hand mentality

The gender-equality debate has trended globally and now it is Kenya’s turn, a late comer at it, to also scratch its head. Like many human rights issues, it has done its rounds at international bodies through conventions and it is now time for implementation. Many countries are fumbling with its implementation process. It is characterised by blame game.

Younger Kenyans may not remember the stir the Beijing conference of 1985 left in its wake. This is one of its products. At least Kenyan ladies did not go to Beijing for nothing. They have something to show for it.

The two-thirds rule is now firmly embedded in our Constitution.

Since the globe is ablaze with it all, the East African nations are also at it. All that we need to do to unlock the situation we are finding ourselves in, is to use another trendy public service word when seeking per diem – to ‘benchmark’.

The general thinking seems to have moved beyond the statistics of ‘under-representation of women’ in legislatures around the world to testing the actual proposals. The world is seemingly beyond the point of asking whether throwing out well-established politicians for the benefit of less-experienced women can in fact not be unfair or whether affirmative action does not ‘undermine women’s efforts to demonstrate their abilities on merit’. The writ is still out for anyone to draw any useful conclusion as yet, but there lies the problem.

The other consensus point around this issue is that the rules alone will not do. There is need for a public-spirited movement or a paradigm shift of sorts – to empower the girl child - and for sisters to inherit wealth just like their brothers.

The Constitution has gone ahead of the supposed ‘movement’. In support of that view is a study of Belgium which is the classic example on parliamentary women representation. In the upper house they are about 50 per cent women.

The Belgian Flemish Christian Party’s strategy will show that equating women to men has to go beyond mere legislation, if internalised by political parties, it has the effect of broadening its political appeal. It will show that it is not just about legislation. This is where our women folk should be concentrating their energies.

Any other efforts are totally misguided and whenever we see our women folk giving ultimatums on TV and other media we wonder whether they truly value the provisions of Article 27, sub-Article 1, 2, and 3 of the Constitution of Kenya, wherein equality has been balanced out across the entire national spectrum.

Women in Kenya should drop the bowl-in-hnad mentality and instead throw themselves in the ring for political duels with their male counterparts. They should quickly shed off the “weaker sex” mantra and focus on their competence, not their sex.

It is not a positive attribute as most recently stated by Christina Duarte, the Finance minister of Cape Verde when she thundered: “I believe that women are more open to a balanced, stronger leadership because of nature and maternal instincts.

We are more prone to look to the future, to focus on the next generation... we are more forward looking and altruistic in our approach and leadership style.”

Women in Kenya should drop the agenda they are currently preoccupied with by discovering their untapped potential as ably put by the strong and admirable Minister from Cape Verde as captured by African Business magazine of May 2015. Whatever is holding back our women is truly a making of their own given the circumstances!

On the flip side, it is our estimation that there are two scenarios (which are mere excuses) and for reference, we will call them nomination and election of women reps. Kenya has tried both, but the numbers still don’t add up to one-third because the constituencies are too many and the nomination slots are too few.

Another challenge is that there is no specific organ tasked with having the numbers met except an unaccountable electorate.

Further, the ‘all women short list’ proposal by parties like Labour in UK might backfire first because it is unconstitutional but secondly, consider for example, if the parties insist on an all women short list, isn’t it likely that they will lose that constituency?

The problem with the one-third gender rule therefore that individuals are forced to compete while the male-female interaction is one of complementarity and reciprocity. While in all other spheres the field can be even, in politics, there are cultural biases that roadblock our sisters but which can and should be addressed by purposeful interpretation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, especially Article 27.

It should guide any well meaning efforts to deal with the subject.