Women in Meru, Nyamira and Kisii demand winnable party seats

By  Moraa Obiria

Senior Gender Journalist

What you need to know:

• Women in Meru, Kisii and Nyamira want political parties to issue nomination certificates in seats where they have realistic chances of winning.
• Alongside other special interest groups, they are demanding lower nomination fees, campaign financing and fairer party processes ahead of the 2027 elections.

Women in Meru, Nyamira and Kisii want political parties to give them nomination certificates in seats where they have a realistic chance of winning, seeking to break a pattern of low representation in elective positions in the three counties.

The demand is contained in declarations adopted in the three counties at the close of dialogues convened by the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) on inclusive electoral preparations and participation ahead of the 2027 General Election.

The declarations come as NGEC warns that barriers to women’s political participation arise before voters cast their ballots, with women accounting for only 1,962 of the 16,100 candidates cleared to contest in 2022, just about 12 per cent.

Yet among those who were cleared to contest, the success rate for women and men was about 11 per cent each, according to NGEC. “This means the barrier operates before the ballot,” the commission says.

The declarations call on political parties to finance campaigns of special interest group aspirants, reduce nomination fees and issue nomination certificates to candidates in areas where they are poised to succeed.

The demands extend beyond women, with the declarations also adopted by representatives of youth, older members of society, persons with disabilities, and minority and marginalised communities.

The declarations record that since 2013, few members of these groups have been elected or nominated to represent their counties in the National Assembly, Senate and County Assembly.

They also raise concern over violence, intimidation, discrimination, stereotyping and inaccessible information, which the groups say continue to keep their members from full participation in the electoral process.

NGEC chairperson Rehema Jaldesa, says the choice of Meru, Kisii and Nyamira was informed by the low representation of women in elective positions in the three counties.

In 2022, women won only two of 56 non-reserved elective positions in Meru, one of 56 in Kisii and none of the 26 in Nyamira. No woman was elected senator or Member of Parliament in any of the three counties, according to the commission.

Under the declarations, the groups have committed to registering in large numbers and mobilising their members to register as voters. They will also mobilise young people who have attained the age of 18 to acquire national identity cards and register as voters. 

At the same time, they will encourage them to join political parties of their choice, exercise their rights as party members and demand inclusion in party governance and management. They further commit to fielding higher numbers of candidates for the seats available in 2027.

Peace and stable environment

To contribute to maintaining a stable environment, they pledge to promote peace before, during and after the elections. As well as monitor the conduct of the elections and hold agencies responsible for free, fair and peaceful elections to account.

For older members of society, who serve as community elders, they pledge to use their influence to encourage more youth, women, persons with disabilities and members of marginalised communities to contest elective positions. 

They would also lead peace and reconciliation initiatives. The commission says the decisions political parties make over the next four months will have a bearing on inclusion in the 2027 elections. Nomination rules are due to be certified in October and lodged in November 2026. 

These rules will govern how parties conduct their primaries and compile party lists from which 12 special interest group seats in the National Assembly and four in the Senate are filled, according to NGEC.

NGEC says its 2022 elections monitoring report found that six in 10 candidates from the special interest groups financed their campaigns through friends and relatives. While about 27 per cent received partial support from their political parties. About half described the funding shortfall as “high”.

The commission says reduced aspirant registration fees can therefore remove part of the financial barrier to contesting. It is calling on political parties to extend fee reductions to every category of the groups and apply them across all seats. 

It also wants parties to publish nomination rules in accessible formats and local languages ahead of certification and place the respective aspirants in positions where they have a realistic chance of winning.

Rehema said, they will monitor political party nomination rules and scrutinise nomination lists. She said, this is where gains in women’s representation can be lost. “We are not going to wait until election day to ensure that, you know, the two-thirds is observed. Or to hold the parties accountable,” she said.

“We are going to critique the party nomination list. We are going to critique the party nomination process,” she added.

She wants the conversation on women’s political representation to move beyond the question of whether Kenya has achieved the two-thirds gender principle. And instead confront what she describes as the failure to implement the constitutional guarantee on representation, 14 years after the Constitution was promulgated.

“As not achieving the two thirds is no longer a token or a favour. It's a constitutional requirement,” she says.

The commission will convene a review of the commitments before 6 November, 2026, and publicly report on what was committed.