EDITORIAL: More must be done to meet gender parity goal

Reports that Kenya is still lagging behind its global peers when it comes to gender equity should not come as a surprise to many people.

This is because the country has not been proactive in ensuring that its womenfolk are given the same chances as their male counterparts.

According to a World Economic Forum, Kenya was ranked at the bottom of the list after scoring 0.671 on gender parity out of a possible 10.

Kenya was ranked at position 109 out of the 153 countries that were benchmarked on their progress towards gender parity last year.

This should be a wake-up call for the country since despite having a Constitution that requires at least 30 percent representation of either gender in the public sphere we have always fallen short.

The yawning gap is not only prevalent in the public sector since the private sector also has a long way to go.

A 2017 report by the Kenya Institute of Management puts the proportion of women heading boards at only five among firms listed on the Nairobi bourse.

The percentage of women in the civil service and politics in the country is also way below the constitutional requirement of two thirds threshold. The good thing is that many people in the general society are recognising the folly of not entrenching gender equity.

There is urgent need to totally change the mindset that is prevailing in the country.

Recently, corporate leaders in Kenya decried the 23 percent overall representation of women on boards.

We concur that the percentage is too small in a sphere that demands visionary boards amidst a disruptive business environment.

But in order for corporate and public sectors to meet the global standards on gender representation there must be a total overhaul, of teh current mindset

We must start by respecting the tenets of our constitution which strongly emphasises on gender equity.

The government must ensure that all its agencies meet the quota set by the law.

There should also be political will that will ensure the success of such efforts and this would ultimately trickle down to other sectors of the society. We support efforts aimed at having a gender representative workforce.