Women Aspirant Popularity Poll: Which way forward?

A survey commissioned by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and conducted by Strategic Public Relations and Research Limited (SPR&R) in August this year, sought to achieve a broad-spectrum cluster of objectives including:

To gauge the general mood of the country or constituency, to establish party popularity at the constituency level, to establish aspirants popularity at the constituency level, to establish the level of satisfaction /dissatisfaction of constituents with women candidates as members of parliament, to identify the image Kenyans/constituents would like for their women members of parliament, to gauge the popularity of potential presidential women candidates for various parties and to establish candidate trade offs constituents would make in electing their members of parliament, major findings and recommendations were observed which should serve as impetus to provide significant signposts that would enable women capture parliamentary seats in the fourth coming general elections. 

The survey addressed wide-ranging issues in women’s participation in politics and women’s leadership, in the country in general. It documents that even though women are members of political parties; their membership is by no means effective.

These have been indicative of the fact that rather than seek inclusion subject to the whims of the male power holders, women have to refocus their strategy on consolidating their strengths and on the basis of past experiences, emancipate themselves from the unfortunate state of being at the mercy of the male dominated parliament. It is against this background that this study was done. On the basis of their strengths and weaknesses, the study sought to, among others, gauge the general mindset of the public on women in political leadership in Kenya vis-à-vis that of their male counterparts.

Findings from the study on Women Political Aspirants Popularity Survey demonstrate a clear need for action by actors in development, if greater participation of women in electoral politics and issues of decision-making is to be realized. Recommendations from the study findings, therefore, include:

• There is an urgent need to sensitize women through civic education, particularly voter awareness to ensure that they do not only register as voters but also do actually vote during elections.
• There is need for political parties, government and civil society groups to support women leaders and aspiring women leaders to overcome barriers such as lack of finances, cultural barriers, and inadequate women representation of women in political parties that hinder their effective participation in electoral politics.
• The findings of this study indicate that there are not very wide variances in opinion between males and females on a majority of the issues pertinent to representation, participation and leadership. In view of this, women leaders and those aspiring should as a matter of strategy form working partnerships with male counterparts who share in the concerns raised in this report.
•  The government together with the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) must seriously move into action to stamp out campaign violence in terms of ridicule, insults and harassment by male opponents, that for a long time has served to discourage women’s’ participation in politics.