Women’s Participation in Constitution-Making Process in Kenya (S.3, Part 15)

Abstract

This 1hour 36minutes 48seconds–long video was recorded in June 2017. Lady Justice Effie Owour was born in a family where her father was an educationist and the mother was a midwife at King George, now Kenyatta National Hospital. After completing her primary school, she joined Butere High School during the colonial era. Afterwards, she joined Alliance Girls for A-Level studies. The local universities at the time were confined to careers linked to gender roles among them nursing, teaching and secretarial work. Effie realized that she was not cut for these careers as she wanted to be a lawyer. Women who wanted to venture into other careers had to pursue their studies out of the country. Her father encouraged her to pursue her dream and through his intervention, she joined Dar es Salaam University, in 1964, to study law. After completing these studies, she returned to Kenya. She got a job at the AGs office in Mombasa as a registrar of marriages, birth registrations etc. It is then that she realized there was an issue as a woman would marry one man this month and come back after a month marrying another man. This aroused her curiosity to know what was happening. Later she joined the AGs prosecution and she started climbing the ranks and being a trailblazer in the Judicially till she was a judge in 1985. She was the first female judge and there were many gender issues to deal with including the title of her position, dress code, and lack of facilities such as a ladies' washroom. Eventually, they were sorted out. In 1998, she was appointed the first female judge in the Court of Appeal. Gender roles were also a challenge as she had to travel away from home while she still had to take care of her children. At a time when women were not supposed to divorce, she realized she was not getting along well with her husband. She decided to divorce him. She remarried but unfortunately, her second husband passed away. The Luo in-laws were determined to get her a relative to remarry her someone to support her as a young widow. This was a time when she was heading the women’s task force, which aimed to come up with recommendations for laws and regulations that needed to be reviewed so as to ensure women enjoyed their rights in Kenya. The task force was going around the country collecting views from women on legal issues. The then also intervened and said he didn’t want to hear of that custom of remarrying widows as it would be an international embarrassment. She refused to be immediately inherited and gave a condition the ceremony be after morning her husband for one year. After one year the in-laws came to culminate the inheritance ritual. She agreed but gave them a condition she knew it was impossible to meet; “you bring me a male bachelor who is 64 years old”. She knew this was an unachievable condition. The in-laws never returned. She continued as Judge of Appeal and chair of the Women’s Task Force. The membership of the Taskforce was predominantly comprised of women drawn from all walks of life, and academicians. Civil Society Organizations, Government Bureau, Economists, and Researchers among others. The team went around the country collecting views from the women. The task force made major recommendations including the marriage bill, succession act, matrimonial property, property ownership for married women and maintenance of the wife and children upon divorce or separation, among others. Realising the challenges facing women within the marriage institution, Effie and other women, pushed the setup of the Family Division to handle family matters including succession and divorce among others. Through a broad consultative process, they also came up with the children’s law to protect the rights of children. Some of these issues were later incorporated into the constitution. Lady Justice Effie Owour is concerned that Kenya has many laws on paper, including the two-thirds gender rule, and the timelines for implementation are not respected by the government. While there are many qualified women in the legal profession, they still lag behind in politics and governance. When it comes to politics, Justice Owour, notes that women should stop being too nice but push as their male counterparts do. She notes that women should get involved in community affairs so that they bring in their issues. She also notes that women’s contributions should be quantified. When it comes to sharing matrimonial property, 50:50 is unfair because women will be left with the children with whom they have to share. Therefore, to ensure fairness, this needs to be reviewed. In addition, issues to do with cultural traditions, including the role of elders in executing justice, should be reviewed to ensure they do not perpetuate discrimination against women. However, for Kenyan women to realize their gains, they must make a deliberate effort and come out of their comfort zone, refuse to become partisan with the ruling regime and political parties and work together, as they did in the past.