The Significance of Implementing Gender Quotas on Development Outcomes for Women: A Case Study of Kenya County Assemblies 2013-2018

In the recent past, gender quotas have become a global phenomenon. Gender quotas have increasingly come to be seen as a solution to patriarchal politics and as a means to promote inclusion and representational equality in national policy making. Adoption of affirmative action measures are aimed at increasing the number of women in politics and improve development outcomes when fully implemented. Ultimately, the measures are meant to reduce marginalization of women in political participation hence promote female development in terms of institutional, political, cultural and socio-economic capacities. This research was tasked with the responsibility of assessing the impact of implementing gender quotas in political representation on development outcomes for women in Kenya focusing on county assemblies. The research acknowledges that historically, the various challenges women have faced can be attributed to social construction of gender roles in Kenya. A qualitative approach was employed for the purposes of the study. The research established, in the last decade there has been an increase of female leaders across the country more so at the county level attributed to the lobbying for inclusion by various groups and the enactment of the 2010 Kenyan Constitution. The research established that county assemblies have been able to achieve the required at least one third representation of either gender, just surpassing the legislated 33.3% by 0.7%. However, a majority of the women have been nominated as Members of Country Assemblies (MCAs) as opposed to being elected. The research findings concluded that, although achieving numbers is a progress on its own, it does not seem to clearly outline how effective gender quotas are in bridging gaps in the political activity or how they add towards the attainment of broad development goals for women. The study recommends that those entrusted with pushing for the women’s agenda should do so accountability. It also recommends that the country should invest more in political and technical capabilities to advance on legal change to align with the 2010 constitution. The research further recommends that there should be continued investment in civic education to increase the number of women in assemblies through elections rather than nominations. Further research would be prudent to establish why despite women being more in the population more males that females are elected in the political arena.