Tracing Kenyan Women’s Involvement in Elections and Political Leadership from 1963-2002

Résumé 0

The chapter will construct an understanding of Kenyan women’s experiences of electoral politics by examining the life stories and, subsequently, the emergence of women in political leadership from 1960 through to 2002. The chapter investigates the challenges women face when running for and functioning within elective positions because of a male dominated political landscape, where Kenyan women are caught between pre-colonial and post-colonial societal culture, and the private and public sphere. The life stories of a selection of Kenyan women leaders are to demonstrate how they navigate a male dominated political landscape while working to attain elected positions. As such, their life-stories present key political and social events that were critical to these women’s journey towards elective positions. Against the backdrop of key socio-political events in Kenya’s history, such as the Mau Mau insurgency, independence, and the institutionalization of multi-party – politics play a significant role in shaping women’s experiences of seeking elected posts. These events and memories offer greater understandings of women’s history in electoral politics in Kenya. This study, therefore, contributes to an underserved area in leadership literature employing memories and voices that are often marginalised. At the same time, due to a reliance on oral history in Africa, many histories are often lost. Therefore, capturing women’s post-colonial history in written form is important in order to establish a Kenyan women’s history, the study connects these personalities to the wider trajectory of Kenyan and African politics.