Gender activists from the East African Community are meeting in Kigali to discuss the role of women in the bloc’s political integration process.  

While opening the meeting yesterday, the Minister for EAC Affairs, Monique Mukaruriza, said women contribute a lot to a country’s peace and development hence the need to involve them in decision making.  

"Women are underrepresented in decision making globally, yet their equitable participation in all sectors leads to sustainable development,” she said. 

Mukaruriza said women are committed to peace building since they are the major victims of conflict, adding that if involved in policy making, conflicts can be minimised. 

"Rwanda embraces women leadership having more than fifty per cent women representation in parliament. Research shows that there is modest progress in women representation with only 19.7 per cent women in parliament worldwide,” she said. 

Call for dialogue

With this background, the minister called for use of dialogue to come up with concrete ideas that will enhance women participation in sustainable development. 

The Deputy Secretary-General for Political Federation at the EAC Secretariat, Dr Julius Rotich, urged partner states to empower women and also involve them in policy making in all sectors of society. 

According to Dr Rotich, women constitute 50 per cent of political party membership but only 10 per cent are in political leadership, thus appealing to political parties to support women for key elective posts. 

"Where women are elected in bigger numbers to positions of power and decision making does not mean that they are participating in conditions of equity,” he said. 

He observed that political parties hardly elect women to critical positions in leadership ranks and where they do their participation and influence may be undermined through critical decisions being taken outside the main formal party decision making structures. 

Dr Rotich attributed the low participation of women in decision making to the African tradition and culture, citing West Africa among some places where women are flogged to death due to failure to give birth.  

Such incidents, he said, have hindered women’s involvement in policy making. 

Boosting women

Jesca Eriyo, the EAC deputy secretary-general for productive and social sectors, said women suffer discrimination in policy making while others hold down their fellow women instead of encouraging them.  

She emphasised the need for women to support each other if they are to successfully participate in the integration process. 

Miria Matembe, a gender activist from Uganda, said effective interventions that are women-driven at a national level can influence their participation at a regional level. 

Matembe called for the enactment of the EAC gender laws to help involve women in the political integration process.