Towards Secure,Free and Fair Elections with Increased Representation of Women in Politics In Kenya.

Nairobi — The Swedish Ambassador to Kenya, H.E Ms. Anna Brandt, hosted the second in a series of quarterly forums for all ambassadors supporting the Gender and Governance Programme (GGP) in Kenya. The forum focused on security and the upcoming elections, following a spate of violent attacks on women candidates. A call was made to the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) to pay more attention to violence against women candidates and respond to it. Under the Gender and Governance Programme, UNIFEM will be collaborating with the ECK and the police to undertake security awareness training for women candidates and their campaign supporters. Links will be established between GGP partners and ECK Peace Committees in all constituencies to reach out to women.

Ms. Brandt acknowledged the positive developments of the Gender and Governance Programme over the past months in efforts to promote women’s representation in Kenya. UNIFEM implements the programme together with 33 partners working in 186 out of 210 constituencies in Kenya. The GGP supports institutional and policy frameworks that promote women’s rights as well as an increase of women’s representation. It also conducts civic education on women’s rights at the community level, actively works with the media on messages around democratic governance and women’s leadership, and produces information, education and communication materials for public outreach.

“The GGP is an initiative through which normative instruments promoting women’s rights are translated into doable actions. The programme has had impact at institutional and individual levels and is being seen as a developing good practice,” said Ms. Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, UNIFEM Regional Programme Director for East and Horn of Africa, at the Forum. “Political organizing is critical in the context of the elections; yet politics in Kenya are characterized by fragmentation and coalitions, posing a serious challenge to women on consistent engagement,” she remarked.

For the remaining months before the elections, forum participants considered it key to create opportunities for dialogue with political parties and coalitions to help increase commitments to nominate women.

Present at the well-attended meeting were the Ambassadors of Sweden, Norway (H.E. Ms. Elisabet Jacobsen), Germany (H.E. Mr. Bernde Braun), Finland (H.E. Mr. Heikki Haili), Denmark (H.E. Mr. Bo Jensen), Spain (H.E. Mr. Nicholas Martin Cinto), the heads of CIDA (Mr. Stephen Weaver), DFID (Mr. Simon Bland), USAID (H.E. Mr. Stephen Haykin), representatives of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), UNIFEM Regional Programme Director Ms. Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, and the UNIFEM country heads of office (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Southern Sudan).

For more information, please contact Pamela Tuiyott, pamela.tuiyott[at]unifem.org, +254 20 7624960.