Participation of Elite Women in Political Leadership in the Maasai of Narok South Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

This paper discusses the historical challenges hindering the elite women participation in National leadership in Kenya. The paper notes that though women have shown that they have the potential to effectively participate and engage in national development, they still face a lot of challenges. Elite women participation is still underrepresented in Kenya. Remains challenged in terms of ascendancy of women to political leadership in relation to their historical status. The researcher adopted the descriptive design and targeted all the elite women in Narok South Sub County.  A sample of 330 elite women was selected using simple random sampling to participate in the study. The study used Questionnaires, focused group discussions guides and in depth interview schedules to collect the required data tools. Both descriptive and inferential data analysis methods were used. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to aid in analysis of quantitative data. The qualitative data was analyzed by identifying common themes in textual data. The study established that the historical events about women and politics have an influence on the participation of women in politics today. Most of the respondents recounted that all through, politics has been regarded as a male dominance activity where only very few women can be found. In the Maasai community, it was noted that women's place is in the kitchen and at home and that women are not supposed to talk before men from the cultural perspective. These issues have their origin from the historical believes about women and leadership. Women felt they were intimidated by the patriarchal society which has been defined by historical happening where men are regarded as being supreme and having full control over women.  On strategies that can be used to improve on this situation, the respondents said that there is need to educate the girls and stop marrying them off at a tender age. There is also need to give women autonomy in their operations so that they can be able to decide what is best for them and also there is need for men to be sensitized on the role of elite women so that they don't  consider them as competitors with wrong motives. Findings of this study are expected to contribute to the theoretical and empirical knowledge on how to empower elite women to participate in political leadership and inform policy formulators.