Although the just-ended 16 days of activism against gender violence are an important part of Kenya’s human rights calendar, it is important for the media to go beyond highlighting cases of violence to set agenda on how we can mainstream gender issues to be in line with our Constitution.
As we prepare for 2025, the media can adopt, as one of its agendas, the need to mainstream gender inclusion in all spheres of national life and put in place mechanisms to measure the impact that this will have on the overall well-being of society, not just in the political arena.
It is disheartening that 14 years after Kenyans promulgated the 2010 Constitution, the country is yet to comply with the two-third gender rule, particularly in the Legislative arm of Government. Were we to be pro-active in political parties, for instance, it would be easy for party leaders first to increase the number of women candidates nominated to vie for various elective seats.
Secondly, once in power, the parties can pass legislation to ensure that all arms of Government comply with the two-thirds gender principle, cognisant that inclusion is one of the key pillars of growing the economy, fostering social harmony and ensuring political stability.
As we are, however, politicians in the current Parliament have thrown out workable proposals on gender inclusion, arguing, curiously, that this is work best suited for the next Parliament. How did they come to this unfortunate conclusion? Why put off for later a legislation that could have been passed this year given that the proposals on what needed to be done had already been presented to the Speaker of the National Assembly?
Why decree that other issues can be handled by this Parliament but compliance with the gender principle must wait until after the 2027 election?
One of the challenges that we ought to address as a nation is why, even after five attempts, we have still not come up with legislation that would make Parliament compliant with the Constitution, yet the Senate and county assemblies have largely complied.
This is an indication of lack of political will at that level. Interestingly, just before he left office, the then Chief Justice, David Maraga, had advised the then President, Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve the National Assembly because it had both fallen short of the constitutional requirement and had demonstrated lethargy towards passing legislation that would make it compliant. That sword of Damocles still hangs over the heads of MPs.
Aside from reporting such setbacks, which have exposed Parliament to accusations of falling below the constitutional threshold, the media can take upon themselves the challenge of influencing the policy direction that legislators take going into 2025. Sometimes, all it takes for deadlocks to be unlocked is for the media to take a firm position on public interest issues, such as the gender principle, and drive a national agenda that will be beneficial to all stakeholders.
Although many legacy media platforms are facing financial challenges, there is still need for them to invest, even modestly, in in-depth analyses of gender issues so that they can remain top of mind among MPs, policy makers and implementers, as well as players in private sector movers and shakers.
We can learn from Nordic nations which did not just find themselves trail-blazing on matters of gender and other forms of inclusion. It took strategic communication over time, and creative thinking on the part of opinion shapers, including forging collaborations with mainstream media outlets, to move the need and improve the quality of life that comes with inclusion.
Even here in Kenya, such partnerships are important for highlighting the issues that affect audiences. This, in turn, keeps the audiences engaged with their preferred media outlets, especially when they offer accurate reporting, balanced perspectives and solution-based approaches that make both men and women feel they are part of the solution, not the problem.
Social construction is a critical part of the responsibilities of the media since it is their job to educate society and highlight what is important. In a country like Kenya, for instance, progress on gender inclusion has been slow. Consider that in a nation with 47 counties, we only have seven women governors and even fewer deputy governors. Whereas this is steady progress compared to ten years ago, in absolute terms, it still falls far short of the ideal.
Kenya has a lot to learn from countries like Namibia, which this December elected Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as its first female president, and Ghana, where Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang became that country’s first woman vice-president after last week’s elections.
True, the Azimio coalition had nominated a woman, Martha Karua, for Deputy President but fell short of winning the presidency, meaning that the dream of gender inclusion in Kenya has had to be deferred.
The point of this commentary, however, is that although the campaign for gender inclusion may have suffered a setback, this is not a license to say that the soldiers at the vanguard of this battle should retire and despair.
Rather, we are calling them to re-strategise and form alliances with the media so that they can open new fronts and forge ahead with their onslaught.
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