Kenya not ready to elect women leaders despite two-thirds gender rule

As the 2027 General Election draws closer, Kenya remains far from being ready to elect women leaders, despite the two-thirds gender rule, an expert says.

Speaking on Spice FM, Badili Africa Executive Director Bina Maseno said that existing political structures, cultural norms, and institutional failures continue to exclude women from leadership, even when they are highly qualified.

“Politics in Kenya is structured around money, networks, gatekeeping and intimidation. Many times, these structures shut women out because they have to navigate an arena that was not designed with them in mind,” Maseno said.

According to her, women’s underrepresentation is not a matter of attitude or ambition, but rather a structural issue that makes it difficult for them to survive or even exist in political spaces.

“Sometimes when we talk about these issues, it sounds like a personal complaint, but it is not. It is about how politics itself is structured. People keep telling women, ‘just run, just run,’ without interrogating what is actually holding them back,” she said.

Adding that when women fail under such conditions, society turns the blame inward instead of questioning the system.

“We then ask, ‘What happened to her?’ But it was one individual against so many forces.”

According to Maseno, women who run for office are often exceptionally qualified, contradicting stereotypes that they are less prepared than their male counterparts.

“Data shows that most women who run for political office are professional or career women. Many resign from stable jobs to join politics,” she said. “Even younger women have been active in community work, youth projects, or volunteering. They are not idle people waiting for handouts.”

However, she says women enter a political arena that is fundamentally uneven.

“If the ground is not level, and you cannot interact with me the same way you would interact with a man, then there is a problem,” she said, citing safety as one of the most overlooked barriers.

“When a woman goes to a rally, she is not just afraid of being beaten. She fears being groped, sexually assaulted, or raped. A man goes to the same rally without those fears,” Maseno said.

Maseno, who deals with women's rights, warned that if powerful women can be publicly intimidated, newcomers stand little chance.

“If established women leaders can be intimidated, what about someone just trying to build a name? They become collateral damage.”

She pointed to the persistent failure of counties to elect women beyond the women's representative seat as evidence that Kenya is still unprepared.

“There are counties that did not elect a single woman as MCA or MP. Without the woman representative seat, some counties would have zero female representation,” she said, warning that underrepresentation is dangerous, as many societal challenges affect women and children.

“Think about teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence, human trafficking and healthcare. Who bears the brunt of these issues?” she posed. “Yet when budgets are being discussed, there is no diversity of thought to push these priorities.”

Maseno added that weak institutions have worsened the situation, particularly political parties that lack internal accountability mechanisms.

“How many political parties have sexual harassment policies?” she asked. “If you cannot resolve harassment at the party level, how will a woman feel safe reporting intimidation from supporters on the ground?”

Data from the 2017 and 2022 elections further show how far the country remains from meeting the two-thirds gender principle.

“In 2022, there were about 16,100 candidates on the ballot across all elective positions. Only about 2,000 of them were women. Even if all women had been elected, we still would not have met the two-thirds rule,” she said.

She noted that women made up only about 11 per cent of candidates, emphasising that the problem is not ambition but the political environment.

“You cannot run a race when you are starting 1,000 metres behind everyone else,” Maseno said, urging for a neutral political environment.