En storstilet plan om at sikre flertallet af Kenyas indbyggere – kvinderne – en vis garanteret andel af den politiske magt synes faldet til jorden
Kenya’s coalition government wants to drop a new constitutional requirement that women should make up a third of MPs in parliament, BBC online reports Friday.
Analysts say the government fears that if parties are forced to reserve seats for women it will cause serious divisions in their ranks.
President Mwai Kikabi’s office said the cabinet decided to appoint a task force to draw up a constitutional amendment, scrapping the quota.
The decision to set aside seats for women – who form the majority of the population in Kenya – was an “important requirement” of the constitution but “technically impossible” to achieve, it said in a statement.
The new constitution was overwhelmingly approved in a national referendum last August.
Kenya has less than 20 MPs in the current parliament of 224 members. Prominent Kenyan women’s rights activist Njoki Njoroge Njehu told the BBC the government’s plan to scrap its affirmative action policy showed a lack of leadership.
– It does not have a vision to lead Kenya into the 21st century, Ms Njeju, who is the executive director of the non-governmental organisation Daughters of Mumbi, told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.
Rwanda and South Africa are among African countries where a quota system is implemented to strengthen women’s representation in parliament.
Kenya is due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections next year – five years after disputed polls which led to a power-sharing government.
