Women’s Participation in Constitution-Making Process in Kenya (S.3, Part 4)

Abstract

This 34minutes 27seconds-long video was recorded in 2018 and features Hon. Martha Karua. Hon. Karua was born and raised in Kirinyaga. Upon completing primary school, she joined Nairobi Girls Secondary and later the University of Nairobi. After graduating, she worked as a magistrate for six years. In July 1987, she went into private practice. She became active in the Law Society of Kenya at a time when Kenya was a single-party state and when Kenyans were complaining of the emasculation of their rights by the single party and had affiliated key institutions including MYWO and COTU but when the President tried to co-opt the Law Society to Government, she and other young lawyers protested against. Hon. Karua notes that her “activism was born of the efforts to protect the independence of the Professional body of the Law Society of Kenya”. This is what motivated her to vie for a seat on the council of the LSK. She had come to the realization that you do not practice your profession in a vacuum but within a social, economic and political context and the politics of the day determine the environment you work in. They also started to urge the government to expand the democratic space. When the country returned to multiparty democracy, she decided to go back and run for a political seat in Kirinyaga. Unfortunately, the community was still not supportive of women’s political leadership. She experienced gender-based violence but emerged as the winner of the seat. She served the people of Gichugu constituency and was re-elected in four consecutive elections. Hon. Karua was among the founders of the League of Kenya Women Voters, where she was founder Chair for ten years. The LKWVs was the first political lobby organization that advocated for women’s political leadership. She was also among the founders of the Women's Political Caucus (1997). It is also worth noting that she was the only woman in the Legal and Constitutional Committee during the IIPG talks. She worked with women to amend the constitution to outlaw discrimination based on gender and also the allocation of the nomination seats in Parliament and Local Authorities based on gender parity. During the constitutional review negotiations, she was one of the joint secretaries, and together with other women, they were able to negotiate the legal framework for the review process to ensure all organs of the Review had at least one-third of women representatives also negotiated for persons with disability. In Parliament, she and other women MPs, regardless of party affiliation, united on women’s issues including walking out of the assembly when Parliament want to exclude women. She notes that the gains women made in the constitution were made together with partners committed to positive development. Hon. Karua notes that the adoption of proportional representation will help promote gender parity. In conclusion, she says women in leadership should remember that they owe a debt to society and should take into account what they have contributed to advance the cause of women.