Less than two months to this year’s general election, stakeholders in women’s rights advocacy are calling for collaboration with the media to support women’s visibility and participation in politics.
According to Anne Ireri the Executive Director of Federation of Female Lawyers in Kenya, there is evidence to show the critical role the media plays in gender mainstreaming.
Ireri also challenged political parties to give their female aspirants a fair chance to participate in active politics.
She was speaking during a meeting between FIDA, the Kenya Editors Guild and a section of women aspirants.
Acknowledging the gender gap in media coverage, stakeholders from the media sector challenged women seeking elective posts to be flexible and always ready to take up opportunities for media coverage to enhance their visibility.
Women in politics
A report published in 2018 by the NDI and the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Kenya) highlights a number of important political gains made by women during the 2017 general elections. For the first time in Kenya’s history, women were elected to serve as governors and senators, and 29 percent more women ran for office than in the previous election — a fact that led to the largest number of women ever seated at all levels of the Kenyan government.
Women now hold 172 of the 1,883 elected seats in Kenya, up from 145 after the 2013 elections.
Nonetheless, the report makes clear that significant obstacles remain for women seeking elective office. Although Kenya’s constitution mandates that all appointed and elected bodies contain at least one-third women, women’s actual representation often falls short of that threshold.
Women account for just 23 percent of the National Assembly and Senate — a figure that includes seats reserved exclusively for women representatives.
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