Kenya’s general election, held on 9 August, is being lauded as a “historic” breakthrough that has brought more women to power than ever before. This is true – up to a point.
Voters elected 29 women MPs (out of 290), up from 23 in the last general election in 2017, and seven county governors (out of 47), up from three in 2017. Five other women MPs were nominated to represent social interest groups. This is on top of the 47 country representative seats that are automatically reserved for women by order of the country’s 2010 constitution.
In some areas, female candidates did particularly well. For example, in Nakuru, a large town in the Rift Valley, they won eight positions including governor (Susan Kihika), senator (Tabitha Karanja) and women representative (Liza Chelule).
