| dc.description.abstract | There has been growing concern over the low women representation in the Kenyan Legislature.
Researchers have tried to establish the blame for women’s underrepresentation in politics with
early studies indicating out that men politicians received more total media coverage than women
politicians. Newer studies have suggested that coverage for women politicians has improved
over time. While the coverage for women politicians was said to have improved over time, less
has been done to compare the coverage of parliamentarians (women versus men) in the print
media and more specifically, the Nation versus the Standard newspapers, so as to establish the
improvements made. Although some studies concluded that there is no gender bias in the media
coverage, they failed to consider the quantity and quality of coverage given to the women as
compared to the men parliamentarians owing to the fact the number of women in parliament has
increased over time. The 11th Parliament saw the highest number of women parliamentarians in
the history of Kenya’s political leadership. Having come into being after passing the Constitution
of Kenya in 2010, that saw more women than ever in the history of Kenya elected and others
nominated to Parliament. The 11th Parliament has a total of 86 women parliamentarians, 63
having been elected and 23 nominated by political parties as compared to over 300 men
parliamentarians. This study conducted a comparative content analysis of print news media in the
context of the Nation and the Standard Newspapers’ coverage of women and men
parliamentarians in Kenya; with a view to compare the quality and quantity of coverage given to
the parliamentarians. The sample size for the content analysis was the Daily Nation, Saturday
and Sunday Nation, the Standard and the Saturday and Sunday Standard newspapers, for the
period of May to June 2014. This period was purposively selected being the time that the
national budget is considered by parliament and it was expected that all parliamentarians, aiming
at performing their representation, oversight and legislation roles, were to actively participate in
the debates thereof. Key findings indicate that the amount of print media coverage given Kenyan
women and men parliamentarians was uneven, with women parliamentarians received less
coverage compared to their men counterparts. Across the divide, news stories, political analysis,
features, editorials and commentaries featured both parliamentarians who were covered in
political, economic and social spheres and the articles a took neutral tone with gendered frames
not being substantially established. Parliamentarians were covered when both in parliament and
when outside parliament and articles on women parliamentarians were placed in the inside pages
of the newspapers and were given less space as compared to placement and size given to articles
on the men parliamentarians. The research concludes that there is need for enhanced efforts
towards equipping women parliamentarians to be able to strategically place themselves and seize
up the opportunities provided by the media. | en_US |
