Women making positive strides towards equality at highest levels

Linet Chepkorir, alias 'Toto', a 24-year-old win was exceptional. [Boniface Okendo, Standard

The women's movement remains the one critical non- State actor that serves as a political bridge, a vehicle and midwife for lobbying and advocating for engendering of governance and a constant support structure for women politicians.

Grace Onyango became Kenya's first elected woman to hold a political office. She was Kenya's first female mayor after independence, one of the country's first female councillors, and the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives. She was a member of Parliament until 1984 and accomplished all these firsts between 1964 and 1969.

As a result of the creation of special seats for women in the 2010 Constitution, 47 women were elected to the National Assembly, 16 were nominated by political parties, and one woman was appointed to the Senate and county governments to represent youth and people with disabilities.

The recent historic event in Kenya has truly set the stage for the women's movement in light of attempting to enforce the usurpation of a long-standing status quo in our patriarchal society. The outcome of the most recent elections has sped up the advancement of women by placing more women than ever before in positions of political leadership.

More women stood for office and were successful. Official results showed that 22 women, out of the confirmed results for 108 seats, had been elected. Seven of them had won back their seats. This tally excludes the 47 seats allocated to women contenders, whose holders are known as Woman Representatives.

The seven female governor-elects are Susan Kihika (Nakuru), Gladys Wanga (Homabay), Cecicly Mbarire (Embu), Wavinya Ndeti (Machakos), and Fatuma Achani (Kwale), Kawira Mwangaza (Meru) and Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga).

Kenya has long struggled to get women into politics, with men accounting for the overwhelming majority of elected leaders and female politicians consigned to serving as one of 47 Women Rep. But the recent polls marked a breakthrough for female politicians. In Nakuru, for instance, female candidates were elected to eight positions, including governor, senator and woman rep - with Susan Kihika, Tabitha Karanja and Liza Chelule claiming victories.

We're making positive strides towards gender equality at the highest levels. While we aren't quite there yet, there's no doubt that we're on the right path.