OVERVIEW
The Kenyan National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) peace process and the adoption of the 2010 Kenyan Constitution made key inroads in increasing women’s human and socio-economic rights and political participation. The KNDR was in response to the alleged rigging of the 2007 elections in which deep ethnic divisions culminated in a period of violence where an estimated 1,300 people died and 600,000 people were displaced. Women were extremely vulnerable during this period with over 1,000 cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) reported and loss of livelihoods through being widowed, displaced, looted, and forced relinquishment of land. Women were prominent during the peace process, where one in four negotiators were women, and women’s civil society maintained a robust presence. Though the peace process resulted in increased rights for women on paper and continued women’s rights activism, patriarchal social structures, norms and attitudes, continued ethnic polarisation, poverty, and normalisation of gendered violence hinders women’s participation and gender equality.
