Women representation in parliaments in Africa is unlikely to increase as per the international requirements, former Ugandan minister for ethics and integrity Miria Matembe said on Wednesday.
Addressing a regional dialogue on women political leadership in Nairobi, Matembe said most governments are busy opening space for women but ends up ensuring that women of their choice that helps them maintain status quo are elected.
“It is pointless to have high percentage of women in parliament if they are unable to represent the views of women in rural areas simply because they collude with male political leaders,” he added.
Rwanda leads African countries with percentage of women representation in parliament with 56 percent, while South Africa at 44 percent, Tanzania has 36 percent, Uganda 35 percent, Burundi at 30.5 percent and Ethiopia at 27.8 percent.
Kenya, which is the leading economic powerhouse in the region with a national budget of 12 billion U.S. dollars, lags behind at 9.9 percent. Out of the 222 elected parliamentarians, 22 are women.
Matembe told women leaders to contest political party seats to be able to rise up in the political leadership of the country. She said that women must unite under a strong movement with a common agenda irrespective of tribal alliance.
“Political good will is paramount for the success of women emancipation as is the case in South Africa and Rwanda,” she added.
A former deputy speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge challenged the leaders to engage political parties to create slots for women as well as the youths.
She said that political parties are in a position of changing their constitution without conducting a referendum as is in a position to create room for all party members before the matter is referred to the national government.
“The ruling South African political party African National Congress (ANC) has an affirmative action that has reached 50 percent representation in parliament an achievement that should be emulated by political parties in Kenya,” she observed.
She said that women presidency is only possible in the continent once political parties accepts women to contest national party posts without favoring male counterparts.
“In the meantime help create awareness in the grassroots so that women in rural areas could know their rights and seats to vote for,” she added.
Madlala-Routledge, however, told women leaders to keep watch at the law and point out abuses of the constitution to ensure that women get their share as enshrine in the national constitution.
Kenya’s 2010 constitution has opened space for women’s participation in decision making through the provision of a gender quota requiring that no more than two thirds of the members of each elected and appointed body shall be of the same gender.
The country has joined other countries in using the constitutional reserved seats to increase women’s political participation.
The provision however has to be operationalized through an enabling law to achieve the minimum of one third of women in the next parliament.
Rwanda’s Chief Gender Monitor Oda Gasinzigwa said that capacity building and political good will is the key to achieving the targeted one third requirement.
“Get ready to fight for the seats and do not expect leadership in a silver platter,” she told the delegates.