What awaits President Ruto in the gender agenda docket

In the next five years, all eyes will be on President Dr William Ruto to fulfil his nine gender agenda pledges outlined in his manifesto.

He promised to implement the two-thirds gender rule in elective and appointive positions in the public sector within 12 months after the elections. This included allocating half of the cabinet positions to women.

With a majority of legislators in Parliament, Kenya hopes that his administration would indeed make the gender law come to pass.

The push to have the law in the 11th Parliament failed. Three bills that had been fronted by then Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, chairperson, Samuel Chepkong'a and majority leader Aden Duale, never saw the light of the day.

Mr Chepkong'a sponsored Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and Two-Third Gender Rule Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015. Both never went beyond the first reading.

A third one, Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) (No. 4) Bill, 2015 sponsored by Mr Duale never passed the second reading.

Four times, more than 233 legislators out of the 349 legislators would not show up to vote for the bill to proceed to third reading, a stage where Members of Parliament (MPs) could give it a nod consequent to assent by the President.

Sanitary towels

For girls, his promise is provide them with sanitary towels as his administration would distribute the products to all schools and public washrooms.

He has not given a caveat on whether only public schools would receive the pads as it was the tradition in the past regime supported by the Basic Education Amendment Act (2016).

From the Sh50 billion Hustlers Fund, Dr Ruto pledged to boost the business ventures of women in co-operative societies, chamas, merry-go-rounds, and table banking initiatives.

He said, he would provide them with financial support in an effort to protect them from predatory interest rates charged by unscrupulous money lenders. Women opt for loans from shylocks due to a lack of collateral to access the funds from regulated facilities.

In responding to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), Dr Ruto had a plan. He indicated his intent to increase the human resource at the gender desks at police stations.

A 2009 study on Status of Gender Desks at Police Stations in Kenya: A Case Study of Nairobi Province by Institute of Economic Affairs – Kenya found a wanting state of affairs.

For instance, in Kilimani, Lang’ata, Embakasi, Kayole and Buruburu police divisions, the study revealed that gender desks were manned by one police officer trained on gender issues and who can be assigned other duties. In the absence of the officer, survivors are attended to by other police officers.

Sexual violence

On fighting female genital mutilation (FGM), Dr Ruto’s administration promised to increase funding to the Anti- FGM Board and fully implement the anti-FGM law.

In 2019, former President Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to end FGM by this year, however, his government failed to give a status update on the same.

Nevertheless, in his farewell letter to the staff, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government Dr Fred Matiang'i indicated that through concerted efforts, the triple threats of FGM, teenage pregnancies and sexual violence had during their administration, been tamed to an “all-time low.” But how low are the missing statistics.

Under Dr Ruto’s administration, women working abroad would access a social welfare fund, a safety net that would save thousands of immigrant women seeking better-paying jobs abroad.

In recent years, Kenyan women who sought nanny jobs in the Gulf countries have returned home either dead or tortured physically and psychologically.

On the healthcare front, he promised that his government would employ a cost-sharing formula to deploy adequate community health workers (CHW) and ensure they are on a regular stipend.

At the core of mother and child health are the CHWs as they promote breastfeeding, child nutrition, family planning and immunisation.

12 targets

To promote the health of women, he pledged to ensure they access clean, safe, environmentally-friendly and affordable cooking fuels.

More than 21,500 Kenyans die annually from cooking with traditional fuels like charcoal and firewood, according to a 2019 household survey on energy usage in cooking by the Ministry of Energy and Clean Cooking Association of Kenya.

He also promised to protect women and children from land dispossession by fully enforcing spousal consent in land transactions.

In addition to his pledges, Dr Ruto carries on the burden of the 12 targets aimed at reinforcing the fight against SGBV outlined by his predecessor Mr Kenyatta during the Paris Generation Equality Forum in 2021.

Notably, Mr Kenyatta committed $23 million of domestic funding to SGBV prevention and response by 2022, which would be increased to $50 million by 2026. An action that would be simultaneous to adoption of an SGBV indicator in performance contracting framework as a tool of monitoring all the duty bearers on their progress in enforcing the respective legislations and guidelines.

He is also to meet the 17 commitments Mr Kenyatta made in 2019 at the Nairobi Summit including working toward a 2030 target of universal access to quality reproductive health services that integrate prevention and management of SGBV in humanitarian and fragile contexts.

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