The low involvement of Nakuru county women in public participation forums has been attributed to cultural barriers and poor timing, even as majority of them are held up in household chores.
The Chief Executive Officer, the Young African Women initiatives (YAWI), Fidelis Karanja said although direct citizen participation in the identification of community needs and development planning was an integral part of the 2010 constitution, the low attendance by local women was a serious concern.
Consequently, Karanja appealed to the county governments to reconsider the timing of public meetings since the 9am to noon forums were somehow complicated for women, since during such moments they would most likely be cleaning and planning to prepare lunch for their school going children.
The CEO said most of the women they interacted with, in their awareness creation on the importance of public participation forums had duly registered their willingness to attend the same, but had requested for adjustment of timing from 2 to 4 pm, when they were less occupied.
Karanja noted that the alteration of timing of the public participation was something that Nakuru county government needed to re-evaluate to enable as many women as possible to attend the all-important forums.
Speaking Monday during a meeting at a Nakuru hotel, the CEO said YAWI was at the forefront of encouraging more women to attend public participation forums, since implementation of development projects as well as monitoring and evaluation has now become an essential ingredient in governance matters as a means of ensuring accountability.
She also appealed to the members of the county assembly to give women ample time when they give their contributions at the public participation forums, instead of pushing their suggestions aside.
However, Karanja said the few who women attend such forums claimed that they eventually got tired because year after year none of their suggested projects were ever included in the ward development budgets, thus they felt alienated.
YAWI is a legal entity with its headquarters in Nakuru city, and it mainly promotes gender equality alongside women, children and girls’ rights.
