Where Women Are: Gender & The 2017 Kenyan Elections, edited by Nanjala Nyabola and Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle
Abstract
In August 2017, three women made history by winning seats in Kenya’s senate and three others as the first female governors. It should have been cause for celebration in the context of a long running struggle to increase women’s representation in politics in Kenya. Instead, against the widespread electoral fraud and intimidation of women candidates across the political spectrum, it was a reminder that the struggle was complicated and far from over. Should it matter that at least four of the six women, enter their new elective positions with major blights on their political record? Or is the mere presence of women enough? Should we celebrate devolution and forget that Kenya still has the lowest proportion of women in parliament in East Africa? Should we note that Kenyan neighbours with high records of formal female political representation are blatantly failing other human rights records? Should we have to choose between patriarchy and authoritarianism?
A book edited by Nanjala Nyabola and Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle.
