Alice Kirambi of Kenya has worked through her development agency to strengthen the growth of democracy from the grassroots to the national level. (Debbie Johnson photo)

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en major political change in her country over the last few years. Attending the Coady Institute’s 19 week diploma in development leadership this fall she says that Kenya has taken major steps to involve women in the democratic process in its newly formed parliament. Kirambi has attended the course through the support of the Catholic Women’s League in addition to Canada International Development Agency.
As executive director of Christian Partners Development Agency (CPDA), she has witnessed, first hand, the move towards democracy with a new constitution. She is both passionate and enthusiastic for the direction her country has chosen.
The organization’s main goal is to improve the living standards of Kenyans and to help them come up with their own solutions through capacity building. Having Kenyans play a more active role in decision making and being engaged in government from grassroots level to the National Assembly are important to her.
In a referendum held in August 2010, 67 percent of Kenya voters chose to adopt the new constitution. The country gained it independence in 1963 and last year’s decision made history for the country.
“Women have made a lot of gains and it is now part of our country’s constitution that says each county assembly elects a woman member of parliament,” Kirambi said.
With a new constitution there is now a national assembly as well as county representatives where a woman could be elected a senator. Lobbying for a change to the constitution has taken 20 years. Kirambi notes that the process took that long because of a lack of political will to change it. Another issue that stalled the process focused on land issues.
“The constitution says if you have masses of unutilized land it will be repossessed, or you will have to pay taxes on that,” Kirambi said, noting that some land owners acquired land through corruptive means.
According to her some of these landowners then realized that their power has been reduced with the new constitution.
“We in the civil society, especially the women’s movement, knew there would be a lot of political gains and now women are going to get their space in governance and decision making,” she added.
Women, youth and those working towards a new constitution mobilized for support and according to her, the support was huge. That is how the new constitution came to be and, with that, hopes corruption will be reduced. The world at large is corrupt and of course Kenya is too she noted. She believes with a new constitution, this will tip the balance of power through increased public participation.
Her organization CPDA played a role in soliciting for issues and information to be included in the constitution. Part of the process is creating awareness within communities through it and Kirambi notes at least 90 percent of Kenyans know about the constitution on some level. The challenge of including women in government is getting the necessary knowledge to them so they can play a part in the democratic process from the grassroots to national level.
“Where we are now is in the implementation stage. At one time all of the top national seats were held by men and now the constitution reads that no more than 2/3 of the same gender is permitted to hold an appointed or an elected position. Kenyan women challenged this rule and now the country’s chief justice is a woman.”
In the western county of Vihiga, her organization has created a goat project that will work towards reducing poverty. They are granting a European Commission-funded model to community self-help groups which will capacity build their project management skills.
The United Nations is also supporting a program to help communities develop governance skills so they can participate in the democratic process. As executive director of CPDA, Kirambi is able to share some skills she has gained over the years as well as developing new ones.
“I am very satisfied with this program as it has helped fill in some of the gaps, within me or within the organizational structure,” she said. She noted as well the ability to share ideas from other students is helping her.
She got involved with her grassroots organization because of what she calls “psychological poverty of the people.”
When political change was happening in Kenya vote buying was common. Changing the process involved teaching Kenyans about democracy with such things as mock parliaments. Sharing the right information is key to communities becoming politically engaged.
“Today communities are picking up on their own leadership roles and now are asking their leaders questions which never used to be the case,” she said.
CPDA is a facilitation body that acts as a link between the National Assembly and grassroots organizations. Though political favouritism still exists more organizations in Kenya are calling for increased accountability from politicians.
Kirambi started volunteering with the African Council of Churches years ago and realized she had the “passion” to want to work with changing people’s attitudes. She notes that changing what she calls “the hand out syndrome” came from her wanting to help people about changing their lives.