Kenya’s aspirations on gender equality at Beijing+30

By Nduta Njoroge

Kenya is today celebrating the International Women’s Day (IWD) at a national function in Homa Bay County.

The International Women’s Day 2025 is a critical moment to reaffirm Kenya’s commitment to gender equality, celebrate women's achievements, promote solidarity, and advocate for meaningful change towards a more inclusive and equitable society. Celebrated annually around the globe, the day serves as a call to action to accelerate progress towards gender equality.

The objectives of the International Women Day 2025 are to:

• Showcase investments made by both state and non-state actors on women towards achieving gender equality in all aspects of life including education, employment, healthcare, and politics;
• Foster solidarity by amplifying the voices of women and girls in the call for investing in women and girls for gender equality;
• Renew commitment of key policy makers, technocrats and members of public on the urgency of investing in women and girls for national development;
• Recognise women’s achievements in various sectors through the Trailblazers’ Awards.

The celebration of the IWD is coincidentally falling in the same month that Kenya, as one of the 189 countries that signed the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) agreement mooted at the Beijing Conference of 1995 and whose core objective was to narrow the equality gap among genders globally, released its Beijing+30 Country Report for the 2020-2024 period.

The document builds on Kenya’s 2019 Beijing+25 report and traces the country’s progress over the last five years towards protection and empowerment of women and girls in the critical thematic areas identified by the BPfA, as well as the 2030 Agenda for Social Development under SDG-5 targets. It also discusses the challenges faced along the way.

In the report, the Government of Kenya has listed six broad clusters of areas of interest to trace and report progress. These are:

• Inclusive development, shared prosperity, and decent work;
• Poverty eradication, social protection, and social services;
• Freedom from violence, stigma, and stereotypes;
• Participation, accountability, and gender-responsive institutions;
• Peaceful and inclusive societies;
• Environmental conservation, protection, and rehabilitation.

Legal framework

The review follows an analysis of the legal, policy, administrative and institutional frameworks and other initiatives put in place to advance gender equality and reports the tangible and statistical successes achieved. The gender gains registered in the country are largely attributed to the Constitution of Kenya, which provides for non-discrimination and equality between women and men in all spheres of life. This has consequently led to enactment, formulation and implementation of robust laws, policies and strategies that have brought forth fundamental changes in the lives of women and girls as aspired in the BPfA, the SDGs and related human rights frameworks to which Kenya subscribes.

As the cornerstone document that lays the foundation for gender equality, the 2010 constitution has enabled the government to enact legislation and policy guidelines that advance the social protection, empowerment and economic progress of women across various areas of human endeavour.

In the past five years, some of key policies, legislation and guidelines developed include the Children’s Act, 2022, Prevention Against Domestic Violence (PADV) Rules (2020), National Guidelines for School Re-Entry in Early Learning and Basic Education 2020, Persons with Disabilities Amendment Bill of 2023, Kenya Community Health Policy 2020-2030, Social Protection Policy 2024, Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2019 on the National Policy on Gender and Development, as well as Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2019 on the National Policy on Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation with its costed acceleration national plan.

The gender policy, which is the overarching framework for promoting gender equality in Kenya, sets legislative and administrative measures to address the existing gaps in the realisation of gender equality and women’s empowerment. A national action plan (NAP) has been developed to facilitate implementation of the gender policy. This Policy has facilitated development of sectoral specific policies that are increasingly being used to guide gender mainstreaming at the national and sub-regional levels.

Thanks to the enabling policy and legal environment, Kenya has recorded good progress in the implementation of the BPfA in some areas, which include health, education, financial inclusion, Gender Based Violence including, FGM, decision-making and social protection.

What are the highlights in sample thematic areas touching on the welfare of women and girls, the successes achieved and the challenges encountered?

Health

Kenya has registered some positive results in promoting good health and well-being as envisioned both in SDG-3 and BPfA. The health outcomes include a decrease in the disease burden by 6.9 percent from 94.3 million in 2021, to 87.8 million in 2022. On maternal and child health, the percentage of live births assisted by a skilled provider increased markedly over the past two decades, from 41 percent in 2003 to 89 percent in 2022 (KDHS, 2022).

Additionally, the number of deliveries in health facilities increased from 1,243 thousand in 2021 to 1,249 thousand in 2022, accounting for 82 percent of total deliveries in 2022 (Economic Survey, 2023).

Maternal Mortality Ratio also dropped from 362 per 100,000 live births in 2014 to 355 per 100,000 in 2019, although it still falls short of the 2030 target to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000.

On contraceptive prevalence, the rate for modern methods for women of reproductive age increased from 49 percent (2020) to 57 percent in 2021 and then to 74.7 percent in 2022. The proportion of married women who made their own informed decision doubled from 32.4 percent in 2014 to 64.8 percent in 2022 for women aged 15-49 years, who make their own informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health care.

The biggest challenge in the area of health has been the crippling debt crisis, which continues to constrain the ability to allocate more resources to health as desired.

Education

In education, budgetary allocation has been increasing with an anticipated increase of 23.9 percent to Ksh689.6 billion in 2023/24 from Ksh556.5 billion in 2022/23 to boost equity. In primary education, gender parity has been achieved in enrolment, with the Gender Parity Index of about 0.97.

As is the case with health, the greatest impediment has been resource limitation.

Equal opportunity

On women in leadership, the Judiciary stands out in women’s representation in decision-making positions. Significant milestones have been made, and for the first time in the history of Kenya, the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice, and Attorney General, are women.

Overall women account for 44 percent in the Judiciary, an indication of progress towards gender parity.

In the executive, women representation as Cabinet Secretaries has increased from 30 percent in 2017 to 39 percent in 2024. At the Governors level, there has been remarkable improvement from 6.3 percent in 2017 to 14.9 percent in 2022.

According to the 2021 Board Diversity and Inclusion Report, women in Kenya constitute 36 percent of the corporate board positions, higher than the global average of 23 percent.

Financial inclusion

Significant progress has also been made on financial inclusion through the Government affirmative action programmes, mainly the Women Enterprise Fund, Youth Development Enterprise Fund, Uwezo Fund, National Government Affirmative Action Fund as well as the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities.

A good example is the Women Enterprise Fund establishment in 2007, whereby $150 million have been disbursed to women entrepreneurs, enabling them to start and/or grow their businesses; two million women have been trained on entrepreneurship skills; and 257 women-owned SACCOs registered to support women’s economic independence and financial inclusion. The transformation to a digital lending model, made access to finance and loans available on Mobile USSD and Mobile APPs, grew disbursements to $6.5 million per month.

Training

The Gender Parity Index (GPI) for Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) enrolment shows male dominance from 2018 to 2021, with GPI values ranging from 0.76 to 0.80, indicating a larger proportion of male students enrolling in TVET programmes compared to their female counterparts. However, in 2022, the GPI increased significantly to 0.86, indicating an improvement in gender parity because of targeted efforts to encourage and support female participation in TVET. More pertinently The Model Gender Mainstreaming Policy for TVETS 2023 addresses critical aspects of gender disparities within the TVET landscape, providing a roadmap towards gender mainstreaming in TVETs.

The National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) has also been instrumental in building women’s capacity for entry into the job market by integrating more gender responsive approaches into their processes and programmes through vocational training; aligning training with industry needs; offering gender-responsive apprenticeships and internships, which mitigate the effects of time poverty by providing day care facilities and flexible learning hours; providing certification and recognition that allow for formal recognition of women’s expertise; and promoting technical careers, stimulating women’s interest in such jobs.

Expansion of TVETs from 52 in 2013 to 238 in 2022, representing a growth of 435 percent at a total cost of Ksh10.6 billion, has been instrumental in increasing enrolment from 55,945 trainees in 2013 to 318,179 (176,437 male and 141,742 female) in 2022 (representing 469 percent increase).

Sanitary towel programme

The sanitary towel programme has also been rolled out to ensure continued access to free and quality sanitary towels for girls enrolled in public basic education institutions, addressing menstrual hygiene challenges and promoting gender equality in education.

The Sanitary Towels Programme for girls in public schools was first launched in 2011 under the Ministry of Education, with girls from disadvantaged backgrounds as the beneficiaries. This was necessitated by a 2014 UNESCO report, which stated that in Kenya, girls lose an average of four days of school a month, costing them 165 learning days, ultimately affecting their performance and their transition to higher levels of education.

The sanitary towel programme was first launched in 2011 in the Ministry of Education. The programme was transferred to the Ministry in charge of gender in 2017. As per reports from the Office of the Auditor General between the financial year 2011/12 to the financial year 2021/22, the expenditure for the programme was Ksh3.5 billion. Within the same period, the programme also reached 12.5 million girls. During the 2023/24 financial year, it benefitted 2,293,251 girls in public primary schools and junior secondary schools, with a budget of Ksh876 million.

Representation

Following the 2022 general election, there was a slight increase in women's representation to 23.3 percent, up from 21 percent in 2017. At the local government level, out of the 47 County Governors, seven (15 percent) are women, while Deputy Governors were eight (17 percent). With regard to Senators, 21 out of 67 (31.3 percent) are women. Additionally, in the Members of County Assemblies (MCAs), 718 out of 2166 (33 percent) seats are held by women.

Overall, as Kenya continues to advance gender equality, challenges faced in the country in the past five years have threatened to erode the gains made. Implementation of the BPFA, SDGS and related human rights instruments was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitics, debt crisis and climate change, with women mostly bearing the brunt. Additionally, data gaps, including sex-disaggregated data, continues to pose a problem for comprehensive monitoring of the BPFA and SDGs implementation and outcomes.

These challenges notwithstanding, Kenya was the recipient of the Africa Gender Award 2022 from the Gender is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC), in recognition of the Government’s exemplary leadership on implementation of the African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.

These achievements reflect Kenya's ongoing efforts to empower women and promote gender equality, making International Women's Day a meaningful occasion for celebration and reflection.

As the world celebrates the incredible strength, resilience, and achievements of women all around the world, for Kenya, let the day be a reminder of how far we’ve come in the fight for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Let the day also act as a call to action for the long journey that still lies ahead.

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Nduta Njoroge is the Communications Director at the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action