African Feminist

Drawing on over a decade and a half of first-hand experience, leading legal scholar and feminist activist Marilyn Kamuru documents the important role African feminist organizing plays in defining and defending gender-equality policy in Kenya and beyond.Focusing on how constitutionally mandated gender quotas in Kenya’s parliament are repeatedly violated by government failures, or outright refusals, to implement them, Kamuru brings out how Kenya's feminist activists--during the drafting of the 2010 constitution and in the years since--fight gender inequality in ways that go more to the heart of the problem than any conventional approach. Kenyan feminists, Kamuru argues, are unique in that they address not only the underrepresentation of women in politics, but also the overrepresentation of men. This distinct framing of the issue, now enshrined in the highly progressive 2010 constitution thanks to their efforts, poses a real threat to male dominance in government, and this is what accounts for its obstinate non-implementation.Kamuru's findings highlight the important questions that African feminism poses to global efforts towards gender equality. How do quotas really impact gender equity? How are they used to limit debates about it? What does the dominance of typical WROs and INGOs in all areas of gender policy say about their own roles in inscribing such limits? And what alternatives are African feminist movements such as WeAre52pc and EndFemicide offering?