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How Kenya's polls have treated women and incumbent MPs

Garce Onyango with founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Odinga in 1965.

No village hamlet will be left undisturbed. For the next 10 months, dusty school playgrounds, which do not have toilets, will be used as temporary airfields as top politicians look for votes. But as the politicians crisscross the country hunting for votes, a look at the last 12 general elections paints a grim picture for incumbent MPs and women candidates.

The first General Election in 1963 was very unfriendly to women, for none was elected to Parliament. The first post-independence polls, which were pushed forward by two years to December 6, 1969 saw 77 MPs out of 158, among them 19 ministers and assistant ministers, lose their seats. At the same time, of the seven women who contested, only Grace Onyango of Kisumu Town was elected. During the nominations, President Jomo Kenyatta had exempted Onyango and Bildad Kaggia from paying a refundable nomination fee of 50 Sterling Pounds (7,531.88) to the Kanu treasurer.

In the following General Election, where the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 years, out of a total of 740 candidates, 88 sitting MPs were rejected while out of the 13 women who contested, only four made it.

The 1979 elections were bad for women, for out of 742 candidates, only two women were elected out of the seven who had contested. This election was held just a year after Kenyatta's death and half of the 158 outgoing MPs were kicked out, including seven ministers and 12 assistant ministers.

The 1983 General Election was characterised by low voter turnout, but it was more merciful to MPs, for only 63 were sent packing.

The poor trend of women representation continued in 1988 where six women contested out of a field of 796 and only two won in elections conducted under the queuing system where voters lined up behind their preferred candidates. During these elections, 65 MPS were returned unopposed but 80 were rendered jobless, including three Cabinet ministers and 23 assistant ministers.

The situation changed marginally in 1992 when multiparty politics was introduced, because out of 742 candidates 47 women contested but only four made it. There was a slight improvement five years later when six women were elected and Charity Ngilu contested the presidency. The number of elected women MPs rose to nine in 2002 out of 44 women who had declared their candidature.

The controversial 2007 polls were bad for incumbents, as a whopping 113 of them were rendered jobless. It was however a big score for women as 15 of them, the highest number ever, made it to Parliament.

Women will forever remember 2013 as a watershed period for although only 17 were elected to represent constituencies, 47 seats for women representatives had been created by the new Constitution.

But the world is waiting for the day 99 women will take up their slots in Parliament as elected MPS as envisaged in the Constitution Kenyans gifted themselves 13 years ago. Will it be next August?