Image of Women's Agency and the State: The Kenyan Experience

Governance and Politics

Women's Agency and the State: The Kenyan Experience

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The 80s and 90s, (highlighted

as the decade as some of the

most significant for women's

organising globally), were for

us in Kenya the dark days of the

Moi dictatorship. There were

2 national women's networks

at the time, both of which had

been effectively captured by

the ruling political party, which

had by that time, monopolised

the State. The 3rd UN World

Conference on Women which

took place in Nairobi in 1985,

happened just 3 years after the

attempted coup in Kenya. A time

in which many Kenyans were

arrested, tortured, detained and

disappeared. Many intellectuals and activists went into exile and

all forms of political opposition

were forced underground.

Despite this context, Kenyan

women on the local organising

committee for the Nairobi

Conference, including those

allied to the State (and who

had successfully lobbied to

host the conference), in a fit

of self determined exuberance

came out of the first planning

meeting to demand 50%

women's political participation.

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: African Women\'s Development Fund.,
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English
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Kenya
African Feminist Forum
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