Voters gave both genders equal chances, so why are more women not vying for office?

Yvonne  Chaka Chaka, an example
of women who have stood tall in their own areas

NAIROBI Kenya (Daily Nation) As the world celebrated the International Women’s Day in March, the main message that went out indicated that African women were still sidelined and denied full support in political engagements.

However, this may no longer be true in the Kenya’s situation. An analysis of numbers from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) reveals that voters who participated in the March 4 polls gave women candidates equal opportunities as their men counterparts and the trend was evenly distributed all over the country.

The main reason why men dominated, perhaps, is that more men presented themselves to vie for all the competitive elective positions than women.

For example, there were only 129 women vying for a National Assembly seat, where 16 of them made it to Parliament. This figure compares very poorly to 1,968 men who vied for the same position but only 274 made it to the House.

However, comparing the total percentage of women who made it to the National Assembly to that of men, one easily notices that the difference is nearly negligible.

The 16 women who were duly elected represent 12 per cent of the total number of women who vied for a National Assembly seat.

In the same vein, the 274 men who were elected to the same position represent 14 per cent of the total number of men who vied.

The actual margin separating the two genders was only 1.5 per cent.

More interesting was the county representative contest, where only 623 women vied for the position and 77 of them were approved by voters. That represents 12 per cent of the total women contestants. The same position attracted 9,287 men contestants, where 1,393 were elected.

This also represents 12 per cent of the total men contestants. Here, the difference was the same.

Unfortunately, no woman candidate made it through the primaries to vie for the senate seat all over the country, giving a leeway for men to compete against each other.

But at the gubernatorial level, only six women vied for the post against 2,301 men contestants. The number of women contestants was negligible, again giving men a mathematical leeway.

Similarly, only one woman contested in the presidential election against seven men, again, giving the majority edge to men contestants.

Discounting the new President and the former Prime Minister — both of who had overwhelming support — the woman candidate competed effectively with the remaining men contestants.

In total, 12 per cent of all women who contested all the competitive positions we elected by Kenyans, while 14 per cent of the total number of men also went through.

These results send very strong messages to all women in the country — that Kenyans are ready to elect any person to a political position regardless of gender as long as they present themselves for the available slots and market their agenda.

The most noticeable contest was that of the National Assembly seat for Othaya, where the electorate rejected retired President Kibaki’s male choice to settle for a female contestant — Mary Wambui.

This was irrespective of the fact that Kibaki was the outgoing area Member of Parliament and still enjoyed overwhelming goodwill.

Another eye-catching woman’s victory was that of Peris Tobiko of Kajiado East constituency, who became the first Maasai woman to be elected to the National Assembly.

At some point, her candidature for the primaries was described by community elders as a curse.

Despite the warning, the electorate chose her over seven men aspirants who were in the nomination contest. She was later confirmed as a member of the National Assembly during the General Election.

The entire election result is a confirmation that contrary to the belief that African women cannot perform well in political engagements, the truth is that Kenyan voters have proven that they are ready to vote for any candidate as long as they are qualified without necessarily considering gender.

The challenge, therefore, is for women’s rights activists to invest more in advocacy to encourage women to vie for political positions because they are already acceptable to voters and have equal chances of winning in an election.