Welcome to another edition of USAWA!

This month we take a closer look at political parties...

As the recruiting ground for political office, political parties play a crucial role in bringing about the change we need: women & men governing together. In many countries increases in elected women were preceded by changes within political parties.

Analysts cite that the difficulty in bringing about gender balance inside political organisations is one of the main stumbling blocks to raising the number of women nominated and later elected.

How can political parties bring about this change?
First they play an instrumental role in recruiting and training women to take up positions in decision-making. They ultimately aid women in getting elected through selection and promotion of gender balance on electoral tickets.

Secondly, political parties themselves need to be taken into consideration as organisations. To what extent have they succeeded in achieving the democratic representation of the sexes in their own houses? Are the decision-making organs inside political parties, such as the executive council, balanced in terms of gender? To what extent are women’s interests integrated into their policies?

While more and more Kenyan political parties claim affirmative action few reflect this in their nominations and party leadership. Though women are vital in mobilizing support and campaign efforts, they seldom hold top party functions but work behind the scenes. In fact, in Kenya, less than 9% compared to the global 11% of party leaders are female.

As you read through USAWA this month,think about how we can engage political parties in furthering our agenda. We have also brought you the numbers: Kenyan political party officials by gender, Analysis of party commitments on gender issues and the reality on the ground, From the 2002 General elections we bring you political party nominations by gender

It is for you to say! How can we use the numbers to engage political parties and put an end to empty rhetoric?

Political Party Propaganda

During nominations, many women with good manifestos for their voters, lose nomination even before the voting process has began.

Stories have been told over and over again of political party propaganda that locks women out of a fair election process. Just to mention a few... In 2002

• Narrating her experience during a post-elections meeting organised by ECWD to find our what went wrong, Beatrice Kanini described how she won and then lost within 24hrs of the NARC nominations of the Gachoka parliamentary seat
• Abigael Nyanduko in her attempt to capture the Kitutu Masaba seat told of how the nomination venue was switched without her knowledge giving her competitor outright victory
• Mary Okumu who was vying for the Embakasi Parliamentary seat said she paid a non-refundable nomination fee only to be told that her opponent had been cleared. She then had to moved to another party and pay nomination fees once more

How can we counter this propaganda so that come 2008, we are not narrating these same stories of failed ambitions and frustration? Click here to contribute

[Click here for more women's experiences]

The African Woman and Child Feature Service is pleased to invite you to the launch of "For Better or For Worse: Impact of the Code of Conduct on Journalism Ethics in Kenya and Media Score Card Report: The Coverage of the Referendum Campaigns 2005." The venue of the launch will be at the Nairobi Intercontinental Hotel on Friday, 13th April 2007 at 6.00 pm. More

The National Women’s Forum held at the Kenyatta International  Conference Centre  on the 25th March, 2007
Even the chilly Sunday, 25th March, morning weather and the drizzles of raindrops could not dampen the spirit of the hundreds of women from all corners of the country; Moyale to Mombasa, Budalangi to Baringo, Mwea to Molo, who turned up at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, (KICC) for a one day workshop on women whose agenda was to deliberate on and consolidate measures that secure Affirmative Action.  The list of moderators said it all: This was not going to be a mean thing!

Read more Get the KICC Declaration

The league of Kenya women voters (LKWV) will be meeting with ECK on 18th April 2007. Forward any electoral issues that you would like discussed during this meeting to the league.

Youth Agenda will be holding inception forum meetings at Maragwa Constitiency on 10th and 11th April 2007

The African Center for Empowerment, Gender and Advocacy (ACEGA) will be holding two public forums in Kitui South Constituency: 10th April 2007 at Ikutha Social Hall and on 11th April 2007 at Mutomo Social Hall

Mothers' Rural Care for AIDS Orphans (MORCAO) will be conducting the next training  for 3 women aspiring for parliamentary seats and 21 women aspiring for civic seats between 8th - 10th May, 2007.
The training will take place at Mash Park Hotel in Kisii.

This is an invitation to all of you for this month's Self Empowerment Session title: ‘Say No to Child Prostitution’. This is in support of the campaign ‘No to Child Sex Tourism’ by the Mijikenda Girl Child Organization. The campaign aims at addressing the plight of girls and young women at the Coast. The session will involve signing up on to the campaign to end child prostitution in Coast. The session will be held at Young Women's Leadership Institute (YWLI) office grounds on Saturday, 14 April, 2007 starting at 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Do bring a friend and share the information with your network members.

GGP will be hosting an open Internet chat once every month starting this month. Please forward any topics you would like to discuss to webmasterATacwictDOTorg

Political Parties

Want to contact them? Click here for list of the 85 political parties currently registered with ECK

Only 9% of Kenyan political parties are chaired by women. Click here for the list

Kenyan political party officials by gender view list

Analysis of party commitments on gender issues and the reality on the ground
Political parties made very strong gender commitments in 2002 but few have adequate gender representation. We drew our analysis from the 2002 General Elections see analysis

2002 General elections: Political party nominations by gender

Women in Focus: Nazlin Umar

This is not another gender story of a female presidential candidate but a story of a presidential candidate who happens to be a woman. Political iron lady with a heart for the communities... More

The constituencies with the highest percentages of female voters are all from the remote parts of Kenya?... Kacheliba in West Pokot, the whole of Turkana, the whole of Kitui, Mandera East, Moyale...

See more percentage, you'll be amazed

Yet in Nairobi and Mombasa, the percentage of female voters are significantly lower than those of men, standing at 36%.

Food 4 Thought ... Is it that we have fewer women in the urban areas or are we too busy to register as voters? maybe we need to step up voter education in the urban areas...

On a Positive Note,

Kudos to Sophia Abdi Noor, Executive Director, WomanKind on receiving this Year's "Father John Kaiser Human Rights Award"

"My words: The legacy we will leave behind us will last longer and impact greater than the rewards and awards they bestow us today. We must do all these for the love of humankind."
Joseph Kwaka, Programme Director -
Community Aid International (CAI)

Kudos also goes to parliamentary aspirant Asenath Nyamu on the KBC talk show (saturday March 31st 2007)

"..aspirant Asenath Nyamu, was able to confidently bring the national broad issues of governance, the affirmative action debate, the reality of mobilisation through market women in Meru. It was a good piece and congrats to all and to KBC. We need more of such packaged media products. I also liked how she talked about the National Council of Women of Kenya, her local organisation, Gender and Governance Programme and our partnership. She went to the interview prepared.."
Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, Regional Programme Director, East and Horn of Africa (United Nations Development Fund for Women -UNIFEM)

DTM was Among the first Non-Profit Initiatives to Specifically Work Towards Policy Reforms, Capacity Building, Production and Awareness Raising in the Film, Media, Culture and Broadcasting Sectors in Kenya and the East African Region.

DTM programmes include The Just Cause, Gender Hour, Public Service Announcements, Together on the Move

Read more about Development Through Media

VACANCIES...

Community AID International is looking for a programme officer and a project officer. If you are interested or know someone who can fit this positions click here for further details

Get involved in promoting the addition of gender and governance issues onto the world wide web by adding this logo to you website

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As we strive to make USAWA an informative and interesting newsletter, we invite your comments. What would you like to see in the next issue of USAWA? Feel free to contribute an article in the next issue? Email newsletter @ gendergovernancekenya.org

Also find on our website...

Female MPs, the ninth parliament

Female presidential candidates, 2007 general elections

Female parliamentary & civic candidates for the General Elections 2007

List of GGP partners working in your consituency

Reports from the 2002 general elections: Learning from the past

See what the media is saying on women and politics