Kenya stands well above its neighbours on the World Bank Group's Women, Business and the Law Index scoring 80.6 out of 100 compared to the regional average of 72.6 observed across Sub-Saharan Africa, and higher than the average score for Eastern and Southern Africa at 74.1. It is clear that Kenya has taken positive strides to dismantle patriarchy and has made great progress towards gender equality.
The most significant legal development in Kenyan law is the two-thirds gender rule, rooted in Article 81(b) of Kenya's Constitution, which validates efforts to ensure that women have an equal chance in occupying at least one-third of positions in public institutions. As the efforts to effect this rule in the Legislature continue, there has been great progress in the Judiciary and the Executive. Three of the seven Supreme Court Justices in Kenya are female and in 2021, Honourable Justice Martha Koome, EGH became the first woman Chief Justice. Seven of the twenty-two cabinet secretaries in the Executive are women and in 2024, Honourable Dorcas Oduor, OGW, EBS, SC became the first woman to be appointed as the Attorney General of Kenya.
Beyond appointments in public offices, legal organisations continue to champion for the rights of women facing gender based discrimination in Kenya. The most notable is the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) which represents women pro bono in divorce and custody-related litigation and advocates for women in political participation and on issues such as protection from sexual and gender based violence.
Within the legal sector, women lawyers are empowered through various organisations such as the Women in ADR, an organisation which provides mentorship opportunities for seasoned and upcoming practitioners interested in ADR. Another example is the Kenyan Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges which has rolled out the Collaborative Empowerment Network initiative to equip women judges with the skills and resources to rise in leadership positions and ultimately improve the state of the judiciary.
While there has been tremendous progress, there is always more that can be done to attain 100% gender equality including:
- establishing structured mentorship programmes that link women with experienced mentors who can provide guidance;
- providing women with training opportunities to enhance their leadership skills;
- adopting work policies that allow women to progress into leadership positions – including diverse hiring and promotion practices, training for unconscious bias that may hinder women's advancement;
- implementing flexible work arrangements - remote work options, and parental leave policies to support work-life balance for all genders;
- performing diversity audits to identify areas for improvement; and
- carrying out public outreach and education to raise awareness about gender equality issues.
As is evident, Kenya's legal profession has made impressive strides toward gender equality. However, there are still more glass ceilings to shatter and biases to overrule to support women claiming more seats at the table.
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