Rethinking Gender Equality in Kenya: The Kenyan Polygamy Law and Unequal Protection OF Women

The Kenyan Polygamy Law is a step backwards for Kenya. In a nation that likes to pride itself as the technology Silicon Valley of Africa and the center of e-Banking in Mpesa, this exercise in constitutional savagery is appalling in so many ways. Not only is it unconstitutional by blatantly denying women their constitutional right of equal protection under the law but it goes farther by directly marginalizing women who are more than half of Kenya’s population. I trust the Kenyan female legislators will resign in protest to this arbitrary display of legal buffoonery. I also hope all women cabinet members will resign in support of their legislators.

Lastly, I fail to understand how a nation that produces an Oscar Winner in Lupita Nyongo, multiple female star track and marathon superstars and a Noble Laureate in the late Wangari Mathai can  pass this type of draconian legislation. Do these male legislators not have daughters, mothers and sisters? I hope the independent judiciary in Kenya will swiftly move to strike down this legislation when it is challenged in court for on its constitutionality. This Law only works to further disempower women further. The plight of millions of disempowered women across Kenya is only made worse by the Kenyan Polygamy Law. Kenya is going backwards fifty years rather than moving in the direction of affording women equal power with men.  

David Monda