Can Kenya break the trend of not having a female vice president since independence?

In contrast to the male-dominated politics of the past, numerous women now serve as prime ministers, supreme court judges, governors, senators, speakers of parliament, and army generals, among other prominent governmental posts in contemporary democracies across the globe.

Taiwan, Greece, Barbados, Slovakia, Singapore, Nepal, Moldova, Iceland, Honduras, and Georgia currently have female presidents.

Africa has not been forgotten. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who had been living in exile in Kenya since the 1980s, became the first African woman to be elected president in 2006.

Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu and Ethiopia’s Sahle-Work Zewde (who was the director-general of the United Nations Office in Nairobi from 2011 to 2018) are the nations’ first female presidents.

Kenya has produced phenomenal female icons such as Prof Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, Ambassador Amina Mohammed, author Margaret Ogola, and paleontologist Louise Leakey, among other formidable female members of Parliament, governors, senators, speakers, and Cabinet secretaries.

Despite these accomplishments, Kenya has had 11 vice presidents since independence, all of whom have been males.

Tanzania, Uganda, and South Sudan, all East African Community member nations bordering Kenya, have had female vice presidents. Uganda has had two vice presidents: Specioza Kazibwe, who served for eight years from 1994 to 2003, and Jessica Alupo, the current Vice President.

Kenya has a solid reputation as one of the few African nations that allows women to hold key political positions. While the Constitution ensures female involvement in government, primarily via the two-thirds gender rule and the establishment of the woman representative role, worthy female leaders are nevertheless barred from the president and vice presidency.

Samia Suluhu of Tanzania was the country’s first female vice president and is currently its first female president. South Sudan, whose creation Kenya facilitated, now has a female vice president, Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior.

Kenya, like these nations, especially the United States, which for the first time in its history has a sitting female Vice President, Kamala Harris, should follow suit and have a female deputy president.

Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the only EAC countries who have yet to get access to the president and vice presidency.

Another EAC member, Burundi, has had two female vice presidents: Alice Nzomukunda and Marina Barampama. Rwanda, too, had a female prime minister in 1993, Agathe Uwilingiyimana (who was acting president for 14 hours before her assassination in 1994).

Only five African nations have female vice presidents at the moment: Liberia (Jewel Taylor), The Gambia (Isatou Touray), Benin (Mariam Chabi Talata), Zambia (Mutale Nalumango), and South Sudan.

Kenya has a solid reputation as one of the few African nations that allows women to hold key political positions. While the Constitution ensures female involvement in government, primarily via the two-thirds gender rule and the establishment of the woman representative role, worthy female leaders are nevertheless barred from the president and vice presidency.

Kenya Kwanza and Azimio la Umoja, both potential coalitions for the 2022 State House campaign, have fantastic female leaders to pick from. Azimio, on the other side, has Martha Karua and Charity Ngilu, among others. Kenya Kwanza, on the other side, features Anne Waiguru and Alice Wahome, among others.

With Azimio’s women’s league endorsing Karua and the drive for Waiguru to deputize Ruto, and with political pressure forcing the two plausible presidential contenders to choose their deputies from Central Kenya, a Martha Karua and Anne Waiguru run for the deputy presidency is becoming more likely.

Kenya is on the right road when it comes to the inclusion of women in important governmental roles. We already have the first female Supreme Court president, Martha Koome, and a female Supreme Court deputy president, Philomena Mwilu.

It is past time for Kenya to have its first female vice president.