Where Women Are Gender & the 2017 Kenyan Elections Edited by: Nanjala Nyabola Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. © Copyright HBS & IFRA 2018 Published in 2018 by: Twaweza Communications Ltd. P.O. Box 66872 - 00800 Westlands Twaweza House, Parklands Road Mpesi Lane, Nairobi Kenya website: www.twawezacommunications.org Tel: +(254) 020 269 4409 Design and Layout: Catherine Bosire Cover Design: Martha A. Mwenda ISBN: 978-9966-028-81-5 Printed by: Don Bosco Printing Press PO Box 158, 01020 Makuyu, Kenya. This book is dedicated to Kenyan women Contents 7 Acronyms and Glossary 9 Acknowledgments 10 Notes on Contributors 12 Introduction: Women and Elections in Kenya Nanjala Nyabola and Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle 20 Gender & Kenya’s 2017 Elections: The Legal Framework 24 Tracing Kenyan Women’s Involvement in Elections and Political Leadership from 1963-2002 Lanoi Maloiy 50 A Seat at the Table: The Fight for Gender Parity in Kenya Nanjala Nyabola 58 Women contesting in the 2017 General Elections in the Coast Region of Kenya: Success and Obstacles Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen 83 Women and Political Party Participation in Kenya: An Analysis of Gender Mainstreaming Efforts within Party Processes in Nyanza Region George Odhiambo Okoth 107 “Jesus Can Afford it, We Can’t!” Samanthah Maina’s 2017 Campaign for Member of the County Assembly in Kileleshwa Ward, Nairobi Nanjala Nyabola Where Women Are: Gender & the 2017 Kenyan Elections [5] 116 Exploring Feminine Political Leadership Attributes and Women’s Campaigns During the 2017 General Election in Kenya Maria Arnal Canudo and Fatuma Ahmed Ali 139 “During Elections They Do Not Refuse That We Exist!” Urban Borana Women, Structural Violence and the 2017 Kenyan Elections Wangui Kimari 152 Winning Women’s Hearts: Women, Patriarchy and Electoral Politics in Kenya’s South Coast Jacinta Muinde 190 The Missing Piece: The Legislature, Gender Parity and Constitutional Legitimacy in Kenya Marilyn Muthoni Kamaru [6] Where Women Are: Gender & the 2017 Kenyan Elections Acronyms and Glossary CIC: Implementation of the Constitution CCP: Citizen’s Convention Party CMS: Church Missionary Society EU EOM: EU Electoral Observer Mission FGD: Focus Group Discussion FORD: Forum for the Restoration of Democracy FPK: Federal Party of Kenya IEBC: Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ID: National Identification cards IPPG: Inter-Party Parliamentary Group KANU: Kenya African National Union KAU: Kenya African Union KEWOPA: Kenya Women’s Parliamentary Association KU: Kenyatta University KICAWOCA: Kisumu County Assembly Women’s Caucus LEGCO: Legislative Council MCA: Member of County Assembly MP: Member of Parliament MYWO: Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organization NARC: National Rainbow Coalition NEC: National Executive Committee NHIF: National Health Insurance Fund ODM: Orange Democratic Movement PAC: Pan African University Where Women Are: Gender & the 2017 Kenyan Elections [7] SDP: Social Democratic Party TNA: The National Alliance UDF: United Democratic Forum UON: University of Nairobi URP: United Republican Party USIU-Africa: United States International University- Africa TUK: Technical University of Kenya Chama: Self-help groups or associations Harambee: Pull together Kahawa: Coffee Kipande: National Identification Madrassa: Islamic school Minji Minji: Fresh garden peas Muguka: Khat Ndengu: Lentils Ngoma: Dance or dance group Uhuru: Freedom Ushago: Rural home [8] Where Women Are: Gender & the 2017 Kenyan Elections Acknowledgments This book is the result of a multi-year collaboration between Kenyan women and their allies: a labour of love that we hope will shift the conversation around women and politics in the countries. As with any other project of this size, an intense amount of teamwork and collaboration has gone into every step, and we are humbled and grateful for everything that has been brought to the table. The editors would like to thank each individual contributor for working within tense timelines to produce impeccable work. Your intellectual contributions to this important subject are greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank Wangui Kimari and Lanoi Maloiy for their tireless work in meticulously proofreading and copy editing each contribution, as well as their individual contributions to the text. Without their work, this final product would not be possible. To our institutional partners at the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, IFRA, and Twaweza Communications, thank you for the support and all the sacrifices that have gone into getting this final product into the right hands. To the various women who shared their stories and their lives with us and with our contributors - thank you for allowing us to hold up your stories as an example of what is possible within Kenya's political space. You inspire us all with your courage and conviction, and we hope to have done you justice. And to all of our families and friends who have walked with us on this two and a half year journey, thank you for your patience and understanding. May our political herstories no longer be hidden. Where Women Are: Gender & the 2017 Kenyan Elections [9] Notes on Contributors Fatuma Ahmed Ali is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the United States International University—Africa (USIU-A). Her research interests include issues related to gender, peace, conflict, sexual and gender-based violence, Islamic feminism and violent extremism. Jacinta Victoria Muinde has completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Her research explores the lives of women in the face of socio-economic constraints and historical social, religious and state patriarchal pressures in a matrilineal and Islamic context at the Kenya South Coast. She was awarded the Royal Anthropological Institute/Sutasoma Award for outstanding merit of her PhD research. Lanoi Maloiy is a lecturer at the African Women’s Studies Centre, University of Nairobi. Her research interests focus on projects with a community approach to gender and development, and, in particular, the participation of women in politics. Maria Arnal Canudo is Assistant Professor in Journalism and Communication at USIU-Africa. She holds a PhD in Political Leadership and her research focuses on leadership, communications and digital communications. Marilyn Muthoni Kamuru is a lawyer and a writer. Wangui Kimari is an urban anthropologist affiliated with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. Her research work historicizes the connections between urban planning, violence, subjectivity and ecology in Nairobi. [10] Where Women Are: Gender & the 2017 Kenyan Elections Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle is a political scientist interested in collective mobilization, elections and state violence. She has so far worked on and in Kenya, Cameroon and French Guiana. She has been the director of IFRA, Nairobi since September 2014, on a secondment from the University Paris 1- Panthéon Sorbonne where she is assistant professor of political science, and a researcher at the Institut des mondes africains (IMAF). Nanjala Nyabola is an independent writer, researcher and political analyst whose work focuses on refugees and migration, as well as East African politics and society. She is the author of «Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet is Transforming Kenya» (Zed Books, 2018). Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen is presently a lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences, Technical University of Mombasa. George Odhiambo Okoth is a lecturer and researcher at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology. Where Women Are: Gender & the 2017 Kenyan Elections [11] Introduction Women and Elections in Kenya Nanjala Nyabola and Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle In August 2017, three women made history by winning seats in Kenya’s senate and three others as the first female governors. It should have been cause for celebration in the context of a long-running struggle to increase women’s representation in politics in Kenya. Instead, against the widespread electoral fraud and intimidation of women candidates across the political spectrum, it was a reminder that the struggle was complicated and far from over. Should it matter that at least four of the six women, enter their new elective positions with major blights on their political record? Or is the mere presence of women enough? Should we celebrate devolution and forget that Kenya still has the lowest proportion of women in parliament in East Africa? Should we note that Kenyan neighbours with high records of formal female political representation are blatantly failing other human rights records? Should we have to choose between patriarchy and authoritarianism? The 2017 election in Kenya is easily the most complicated election cycle in the country’s history to date. In the build up to the August 8 vote, there were numerous legal and political challenges to the legitimacy of the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)—the agency that conducts elections in Kenya. In fact, in October 2016, with less than a year to go, the entire Commission resigned and was replaced in a rushed vetting process that raised more questions than it answered. Weekly protests called by the opposition to raise questions about the seemingly partisan nature of IEBC routinely