Separating the baby from the bath water: women's rights and the politics of constitution-making in Kenya

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Periodical article

Title:	Separating the baby from the bath water: women's rights and the politics of constitution-making in Kenya
Authors:	Kameri-Mbote, Patricia Kabira, Nkatha
Year:	2008
Periodical:	East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights
Volume:	14
Issue:	1
Pages:	1-43
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	women's rights gender inequality feminism constitutional reform referendums 2005
Abstract:	This article looks at the process of constitution-making in Kenya from the 1990s to October 2005, when the proposed new constitution (the product of the process), was rejected in a national referendum. It avers that Kenyan women had succeeded in getting many of the issues that they considered important included in the constitution and that they should have lobbied to have that constitution adopted. It would have been best for women to have voted 'yes' for the proposed constitution and to have opted for the amendment of certain contentious issues relating to the executive and religious courts after their gains were secured. The defeat of the constitution amounted to throwing away the baby with the bath water. It also negated gains that seemed so close to being realized, setting the quest for gender equality back considerably. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]