Jane Wanja, 35, says she doesn't know exactly how the new Kenyan Constitution will change her life, but she knows that, thanks to it, no women will be forced to leave their marital homes when their husbands die, as she was.
"I didn't have any power over the decision my in-laws made since I was widowed three years after my marriage," she says. "To make matters worse, my late husband died without leaving a will."
She says she was lucky she had saved some money.
"When I was thrown out of my marital home by my husband's relatives, there were only two options left for me - my parents' home or the streets," she says. "Fortunately, I had saved a little money and did not take either."
Childless and widowed, Wanja says she now earns a living selling secondhand items, such as designer suits, handbags and dinner dresses, at Adam's Arcade Market, located five kilometers from the Nairobi Central Business District in Nairobi, Kenya's capital.
On the first anniversary of the Kenyan Constitution - adopted last August - Kenyans commend new provisions that increase women's rights. But some warn that these provisions are vulnerable to anti-reform. Others say they worry the provisions give women too much power. Women's rights advocates say mechanisms must be put into place to ensure that women receive the rights accorded to them by the constitution during key years that will set a precedent for future interpretation.
Kenya commemorated the first anniversary of its new constitution on Aug. 27. A year later, Kenyans check in on the implementation of gender equality provisions.
Women make up less than 10 percent of the current 10th Parliament of this East African nation, with just 22 women out of 224 members, according to Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya, FIDA Kenya, a nonprofit organization that aims to improve women's legal standing in Kenya. The Cabinet is also uneven, with just 12 women - six ministers and six assistant ministers - out of 92 ministers. The public service and even the trade union movement also continue to be patriarchal in their leanings.
Many Kenyan women say they are happy with their gains in the new constitution in a traditionally patriarchal society.
The new constitution prohibits all forms of discrimination, including violence, against women. Women can own and inherit land, and matrimonial property is protected during and after the termination of marriage. Customary law, traditional practice that has come to be accepted as law, that is inconsistent with the constitution is now void.
Daniel Muia, chairman of the sociology department at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, says women have received a lot new rights throughout the constitution.
"The question is what they are going to do with it," he says.
"Article 60(1) says land in Kenya shall be held, used and managed in a manner that is equitable, efficient, productive and sustainable, and in accordance with equitable access to land and elimination of gender discrimination in law, customs, and practices related to land and property in land," he says.
He says this enables women to access and control land, an important resource in Kenya that has been at the base of power relations in most communities and will enable women to access and control other productive resources, such as credit.
Article 27 of the constitution decrees equality and freedom from discrimination for all. It includes the right to equal treatment and right to equal opportunity in political, economic and social spheres.
The new constitution also mandates the establishment of a bicameral parliament with special seats reserved for women. Moreover, no more than two-thirds of any appointive or elected body can be of the same gender.
According to the new constitution, there will be 290 - 210 existing and 80 new - constituencies, which must follow this two-thirds gender rule. To round out the 350-member National Assembly, each of Kenya's 47 counties will also elect a woman representative. For the Senate, there must be at least 18 women, including one young woman and a disabled woman.
It also provides for gender parity in political party candidate lists, as every third person on political party lists must be a woman. No more than two-thirds of the 12 members nominated by political parties can be of the same gender.
The new constitutional arrangement and the electoral system will be applied during the next parliamentary elections, which have not yet been set. But the gender quota has already been implemented in other sectors, such as the judicial system.
Lawyer Joyce Miguda Majiwa, former chairwoman of FIDA Kenya and a gender and governance expert, says that, thanks to the new constitution, FIDA Kenya and six other organizations stopped the swearing in of five male Supreme Court justices this year after challenging the gender balance in court.
But Muia says that some provisions intended to benefit women may be misused to further existing inequalities.
Muia fears that unscrupulous men will exploit Article 15(1), which enables a foreigner who has been married to a citizen for at least seven years to be registered as a citizen, to marry women just to get citizenship instead of for love and companionship.
He also says that Article 81(b), which states that no more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies can be of the same gender, is likely to lead to manipulation and horse trading just to attain the proper numbers rather than the best candidates to articulate women's issues.
"The practicality of always attaining one-third representation will soon dawn on Kenyans, and they are likely to start being hostile to gender equality/equity concerns - leading to further marginalization," he says.
Muia says he also wonders how the special seats for women will be apportioned.
"Which women?" he asks. "Women are also not a homogeneous group, and this might lead to further marginalization of grassroots women."
Sospeter Barasa, public relations officer for the Central Organization of Trade Unions, COTU, Kenya's main trade union, agrees that Kenyan society is too patriarchal. He says he hopes that the constitution's gender quota for public institutions will positively influence other organizations. But he says that COTU is far from achieving this and that it will be harder to achieve in the workplace than in politics because the population of men is higher than that of women in most places.
Barasa says there is also the risk of women missing out on the benefits intended by these provisions by settling for the special seats set aside for women instead of vying for competitive leadership positions.
The new constitution reserves 47 seats in the National Assembly for women. This is in addition to and does not bar women from vying for positions in the constituencies and for the 12 political party nominations. But some men have been trying to discourage women from campaigning for political posts, arguing that they have special seats reserved for them in the National Assembly and the Senate.
Muia also warns that Article 251(11), which states that the chairperson and vice chairperson of a commission must be of different genders, will cast women as permanent deputies, given the patriarchal nature of Kenyan society.
Barasa agrees.
"Even though the new constitution lays a firm foundation for women's rights, gender equality and justice, we still find that women are still going for the positions of deputy even after complaining that they are relegated to the positions of deputies," he says.
He cites the gender imbalance among COTU's 33 executive board members.
"There are only three women in the executive board," he says. "We found that no woman was keen to apply for the post of secretary-general. Many applied for the post of deputy secretary-general. In fact, 90 percent of most women applicants vied for the position of a deputy for all the elective positions in all the trade unions that are COTU affiliates."
Barasa urges women to rise above the deputy syndrome and fight it out with men in elective and even appointive decisions. He recalls that only two women yet 10 men applied for the position of chief justice recently, while 10 women and just two men applied for deputy chief justice. For the position of director of public prosecutions, only five of the 30 applicants were women.
He also blames society for misconstruing the constitutional gender quota to mean that women can't hold more than one-third of the appointive and elective posts.
"We live in a society where many people cannot divorce themselves from that society where it is believed that a 'tough' job should be undertaken by a man," he says. "Many people, especially men, think that the requirement is that the two-thirds of appointments shall be men and one-third reserved for women. This is an erroneous interpretation."
Lawyer Judy Thongori says the implementation of the constitution so far makes it clear that many provisions are vulnerable to anti-reform interpretation. She cites governmental reports in which officials interpret the constitution in ways that would keep men in the head positions as long as there are women deputies in the departments. Thongori says that women demand a mechanism that ensures there is fair representation when all public sector appointments are taken in totality.
"[These mechanisms] must deal with the questions of how to take into account participation of the people, equity, gender balance, fair representation of Kenya's diverse communities, etc.," she says. "It is an onerous task, but the people of Kenya demand it and must receive it."
She says that these public reports show deficiencies in knowledge of the constitutional provisions, appreciation for the responsibility that the constitution gives particular offices, guidelines on implementation and awareness of representation issues by the people in offices charged with the implementation of the constitution.
"The lack of a comprehensive position or understanding is very dangerous to the implementation of equality, a key pillar in the constitution," she says.
Majiwa of FIDA Kenya warns that if women are not vigilant, people - especially the implementers of the constitution - might return to their former ways.
"For example, the Supreme Court nominations, where only one of five was a woman, does not meet the constitutional principle," she says. "Even though the Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga and the Deputy Chief Justice Ms. Nancy Baraza are part of the Supreme Court, we find there are two women and five men. We should have three versus four instead."
Dennis Otieno, a university graduate who owns a mobile phone shop in Nairobi, says he has doubts about the government's capacity to enforce the gender quota.
"I would like to know what women are doing and what everybody else is doing to ensure that women meet and surpass one-third of the positions in elective and appointive and similarly positioned offices?" he asks.
He says women haven't been able to compete against men because of cultural barriers and practices that have been used to suppress women and deny them of their human rights. He says that Kenyans' outdated way of thinking has made the nation stagnant.
At the same time, he says women also get in their own way when they defer to husbands and boyfriends instead of speaking their minds.
"However, women are also shy, despite their educational background or social standing," he says. "I have seen many cases where women underestimate their own knowledge and ability, preferring that their male counterparts be more visible. This happens in everyday life, and women who go against the grain and are vocal, assertive or aggressive are considered deviants."
Other men say that it should stay this way and that the constitution is giving women too much power.
James Wesonga, 20, a college dropout and bus tout in the city center, sneers at the way women are insisting that they must hold at least one-third of the elective and appointive offices. He says that women will soon overshadow men.
"You women make up a big majority of this country's population," he says, showing off his gold teeth as he speaks. "Now you also want to dominate over we men at the workplace, in elective and appointive offices. Where else will you dominate us?"
As the bus fills up, he says he supports women's rights but thinks they are getting greedy.
"We passed this constitution thinking it is opening avenues for politically engendered processes and also offering an avenue for promoting the respect of women's and men's human rights through different provisions in the constitution," he says. "But now it seems it is all about women and what they can grab. What is inhibiting women?"
Muia warns that the new constitution may create imbalances. He says that as women's empowerment has taken root in the country, men and boys are being forgotten.
"But at what cost?" he asked in regards to the constitution's empowerment of women. "Why do we have so much hopelessness amongst men? There is gender-based violence, drug and substance abuse and men who are increasingly not able to be men."
Thongori proposes undertaking massive awareness sessions for officers with the responsibility of nominating and appointing other officers, as well as being vigilant and taking swift actions if they breach the provisions. She suggests headhunting for qualified women for key state offices through a committee set up by civil society organizations and other groups. She also recommends lobbying for a national policy to guide the appointing authorities to give priority to the candidate who is equally qualified with other candidates but whose gender is underrepresented in the particular department.
Majiwa attributes the problems in attaining a gender balance to old thinking, urging officials to embrace a new mentality.
"The implementers need to shift their thinking as the constitution transforms the country's way of operating," she says. "They are doing men, women, youth and children and ultimately [themselves no] favors by this stance to shortchange women."
She warns that old habits die hard, but Kenyans' saving grace is the constitution.
"Other jurisdictions have used the two-thirds limit principle and have succeeded," she says. "I personally support the formula given by the Women's Political Alliance Executive Director Ms. Wambui Kanyi, who proposed that political parties nominate an additional six women in line with article 97(1c) of the constitution."
Kanyi advises that to avert a looming constitutional crisis following the next general elections, Kenya needs a mechanism to enforce the provision of no more than a two-thirds representation of one gender. She proposes a formula to ensure that women hold at least 33 percent of all elective posts through "twinning," or ensuring that every new constituency carved from a pre-existing constituency will elect a woman if a man represents the pre-existing constituency.
"My proposal is to twin or join each of the new constituencies with the pre-existing constituency," Kanyi says. "The constitution provides for 80 new constituencies in addition to the current 210. The two constituencies elect a man and a woman. Twin men and 64 constituencies elect a man and a woman. Political parties would, therefore, front two candidates, a man and a woman for the 64 constituencies, and this will give us 64 + 47 + 6 = 117."
The electoral body holds the responsibility of giving direction where the new constituency is carved out of more than two constituencies.
Twinning could be also used to include representatives from other marginalized groups, such as youth and people with disabilities, by reserving the 16 remaining seats of the new 80 seats for marginalized groups, she says.
She says the advantages are that the system makes it easier for women to be more involved and included in political parties. She says it also enables them to increase their visibility in the political arena and socialize communities to the idea of women's leadership.
The government has not come up with any plans yet to enforce the gender quota provision, but the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution, established by the constitution to monitor, facilitate, coordinate and oversee the implementation of the constitution, and the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, which will soon be handed over to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, are working with various stakeholders to come up with a plan.
Wanjiku Mbugua, an independent communication, gender, media and governance consultant, says that although the new constitution prioritizes gender equity, enforcing it is still an uphill battle. She says that the government needs to repackage the gender agenda to enable the country to move forward.
Thongori warns that the first year of implementation is almost over and that it will set a precedent for the future.
"If we let the standards get watered down at this point, it will be impossible to implement them later," she says. "We will have missed the boat. The implementation so far is the gong for the return to camp call."