Women asked increase participation in politics

African women have been asked to change their attitude towards politics and offer themselves for elective positions instead of waiting to be given reserved seats.

Participants in a recent conference on African women in Political Leadership   agreed that it is not an easy exercise but  women should be prepared for it. The difficulties were attributed to negative societal perceptions, financial implications and the laid back nature of most African women. 

The women leaders however called upon African governments to pass and implement legislations that promote gender equality. Ugandan MP Betty Amongi argued that affirmative action is necessary in order to attain the 50 percent women representation by the year 2020, as envisioned by the African Union.

In Uganda, there are special constituencies  set aside for female candidates and the electoral law demands that at least 40 percent of political party executives should be women. On its part, the Kenyan political parties Act demands that not more than two-thirds of members of a political party’s national governing council should be of the same gender. 

Addressing the conference, Gichugu MP Martha Karua accused leaders of non-commitment and engaging in politics at the expense of women empowerment.

“There is no political will on this issue and those leaders now calling for a 50/50 gender representation are just trying to be politically correct,” Ms Karua said. 

 Ms Karua cited the recent passage of the Elections Bill, without provision for the implememntation of the not more than two thirds gender representation principle, as a case in point. The Bill has since been assented to by the president but women leaders are now considering taking the government to court for what they term as violation of the constitution.

The Narc Kenya leader and presidential hopeful also took issue with the high court ruling that dismissed a case filed by women groups challenging the composition of the supreme court. “I hope they(women groups) will appeal,” Ms Karua said.

Speaking at the launch of Pillar Awards Africa, Kenya Human Rights Commission executive director Atsango Chesoni said the cabinet has demonstrated its insincerity in ensuring gender equality in elective and appointive positions.

“There is no excuse why there shouldn’t be a third of women in all elective and appointive positions,” said Ms Chesoni.

Recent assessments of the extent to which increased women’s representation in democratic institutions is contributing to changing the cultures of these institutions and the way they conduct their business, reflect a mixed experience and questions of sustainability of the changes are raised. 

Statistics available from the Inter-Parliamentary Union indicate that women currently occupy 19.4 percent of parliamentary seats in Sub-saharan Africa, which is slightly higher than the world average of 19.3 percent.

Rwanda, with 56.3 percent women representation in its lower house, leads the pack of seven African countries that exceed the 30 percent threshold set in the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Nigeria is among those ranked lowest with less than 4 percent of parliamentarians being women.

The African women in political leadership conference was held in Nairobi this week and deliberated on support mechanisms and conceptualised a funding framework for women in politics at national, regional and international levels.

The conference was organised by the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) and brought together women politicians, women rights activists and women political aspirants from from  African Countries holding elections in 2011-2012.