EAC should prioritise gender equality issues

Yesterday, March 8, the world marked ‘International Women’s Day’ (IWD), celebrating women’s social, cultural, economic and political achievements.

This dates back to 1911 when IWD became a focal point in the Movement for women’s rights in particular, and gender equality in general. In due course of time and events, the UN adopted the agenda in earnest. It started celebrating IWD in 1977, with scores of its member-nations participating in one form or another – including celebrating womanhood, and protests/uprisings intended to stress gender equality every which way.

Closer to home, the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) of the six-nation East African Community passed the ‘EAC Gender Equality, Equity and Development Bill, 2016’ – doing so on IWD (March 8, 2017) in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

But, perhaps most unfortunately, the Bill is yet to be officially assented to by the six-member EAC Summit of Heads of State!

As noted in these pages yesterday, this omission continues to hinder a raft of women empowerment programmes across the region. This is despite the fact that Article 121 of the 1999 Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC ‘recognises the significant contribution that women make towards progress of socio-economic transformation and sustainable growth, as well as the importance of full participation of women [and men] in the economic and social development of all the EAC Partner States.’

Speaking in an exclusive interview with our reporter – also published in these pages yesterday – a world-famous activist on gender issues, Prof. Ruth Meena, stressed that gender equality and women’s rights should be universal and across the board, NOT limited to parliamentary seats – and, still less, to special women’s seats in Parliament!

How true...! As the good professor of Political Science and Fulbright Fellow says, we should just level the playing field – and let women compete for decision-making, leadership positions across the board...

How right!