Gendered Citizenship, Politics and Public Spaces in Kenya By Christina Kenny, PhD Candidate, Australian National University
Date: Tuesday, 23 September 2014
Time: 11.00 am
Venue: BIEA, Laikipia Rd, Kileleshwa, Nairobi
Entry: RSVP at seminars@biea.ac.uk
Abstract:
Shortly after the 2013 general elections, the newly elected women’s representative for Nairobi county, Rachel Shebesh was slapped by the Governor of Nairobi Evans Kidero at his offices in front of a crowd of Kenyan reporters.The new Kenyan constitution provides for women’s civil and political rights through a variety of innovative mechanisms, but in the months leading up to the 2013 elections, most Kenyan women did not seem to have a good understanding of the laws which are designed to protect women’s rights. Although the constitution had been in place for almost two years, the women I spoke to could only talk vaguely about the content of their constitutional rights. Against the recent focus on women’s representation in Kenyan politics, my doctoral thesis, “We’ve agreed to be ruled”: Women’s public and private decision making in modern Kenya, examines the regulatory and interpersonal dynamics which drive women’s choices and behaviours, in both private and public spaces, with a dual focus on sex and sexuality rights, and civil and political rights. I employ an interdisciplinary approach – utilising cultural anthropology, history and law.
I examine the experiences of women entering politics and public space through a feminist lens. Through case studies drawn from the last two general elections, I interrogate the imperatives of international human rights discourse, and the demands such discourse places on its subjects.
About
Christina Kenny holds a Bachelor of Arts (English Literature, Early Modern History; Hons. I) and a Bachelor of Laws both from the University of Sydney, and is admitted as a solicitor in the Supreme Court of NSW. She is currently PhD Scholar at the School of International, Political and Strategic Studies, at the Australian National University. She began her career as a policy officer with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice team at the Australian Human Rights Commission and has since worked for the Australian Government for the Refugee Review Tribunal, and the Attorney General’s Department, the Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town, the South African Human Rights Commission, and the Kenyan Human Rights Commission.
For more information and to RSVP please contact seminars@biea.ac.uk