"Society sees our place as being in the kitchen and the bedroom. Nothing beyond there
NAIROBI - Violence, a deeply chauvinistic society and a lack of cash are locking women out of elected office in Kenya, East Africa's leading economy but a laggard when it comes to female representation.
The country's new constitution guarantees women a third of the parliamentary seats but Kenya's male-dominated assembly has still not passed the necessary legislation to put the constitutional principle into practice.
In next month's general election only one of eight presidential runners is female, and women held only 10% of seats in the last parliament, half the sub-Saharan average.
"Society sees our place as being in the kitchen and the bedroom. Nothing beyond there," parliamentary candidate Sophia Abdi Noor told Reuters. Noor is the only woman running for parliament in the remote, arid northeast.
Hailing from Kenya's conservative ethnic-Somali community, Noor and her family have been on the receiving end of public taunts and curses since her first foray into politics in 1997.
"People abused my husband. They told him, 'Now you wear the skirts, let Sophia wear the trousers'," said Noor, who in 2007 was handed a seat reserved for marginalised groups.
The northeastern region has never elected a female lawmaker.
Across Kenya, from the fertile slopes of the Rift Valley to the steamy Indian Ocean coastline, female political aspirants painted the same picture: politics is the preserve of men in a country that struggles to deal with women in authority.
" Power and money are two things that are very difficult for men to let go of," said Naisola Likumani, a former head of advocacy at the Africa Women's Development and Communication Network.
Sexism in Kenya keeps women out
"Society sees our place as being in the kitchen and the bedroom. Nothing beyond there
NAIROBI - Violence, a deeply chauvinistic society and a lack of cash are locking women out of elected office in Kenya, East Africa's leading economy but a laggard when it comes to female representation.
The country's new constitution guarantees women a third of the parliamentary seats but Kenya's male-dominated assembly has still not passed the necessary legislation to put the constitutional principle into practice.
In next month's general election only one of eight presidential runners is female, and women held only 10% of seats in the last parliament, half the sub-Saharan average.
"Society sees our place as being in the kitchen and the bedroom. Nothing beyond there," parliamentary candidate Sophia Abdi Noor told Reuters. Noor is the only woman running for parliament in the remote, arid northeast.
Hailing from Kenya's conservative ethnic-Somali community, Noor and her family have been on the receiving end of public taunts and curses since her first foray into politics in 1997.
"People abused my husband. They told him, 'Now you wear the skirts, let Sophia wear the trousers'," said Noor, who in 2007 was handed a seat reserved for marginalised groups.
The northeastern region has never elected a female lawmaker.
Across Kenya, from the fertile slopes of the Rift Valley to the steamy Indian Ocean coastline, female political aspirants painted the same picture: politics is the preserve of men in a country that struggles to deal with women in authority.
" Power and money are two things that are very difficult for men to let go of," said Naisola Likumani, a former head of advocacy at the Africa Women's Development and Communication Network.
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