County Woman Representative (Kenya)

In Kenya a county woman representative is a member of the Kenya National Assembly who represents one of the 47 counties in a seat reserved for female members. The county woman representatives serve in the national assembly alongside the 290 members elected from the constituencies, 12 nominated members and the Speaker of the National Assembly.

History

The role of Woman's Representative
was created by the Constitution of Kenya that was adopted in a referendum in 2010 in order to increase the representation of women in parliament. Prior to the 2010 constitution there were fewer than 20 female members of the Kenyan parliament. The first representatives were elected in the 2013 Kenyan general election.

The Woman Representatives are elected by all registered voters in the county they represent, not only female voters. In 2019 the Committee on Implementation and Oversight of the Constitution proposed abolishing the role after the next general election.

While the Constitution of Kenya requires that no more than two thirds of the National Assembly or the Senate be of the same gender, this requirement has not been met. In 2017 the High Court ruled that the two houses had failed to perform their constitutional obligation. Despite attempts to introduce new legislation to ensure increased representation of women in parliament this situation has not been resolved.

In addition to the 47 designated Woman Representatives, at the 2017 Kenyan general election 23 women were elected to represent the constituency seats and 5 women were nominated to represent the appointed seats. Consequently, a total of 75 women serve in the National Assembly in the 12th Parliament of Kenya, comprising 21% of the members of the assembly.

References

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Politics of Kenya
2013 establishments in Kenya