Is there gender balance in the selection of IEBC commissioners?
By MUNGAI KIHANYA
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
27 November 2016
On 16th November 2016 the Selection Panel for the Appointment
of Commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission
(IEBC) published the names of shortlisted applicants for the vacancies.
Three men and two women were to be interviewed for the position of
Chairperson of IEBC.
At first sight it looks like a fair gender balance (60:40) but when we
dig deeper, a different picture emerges. There were 15 applicants for
this position – 13 men and two women. So, it turns out that 100 per cent
of the female candidates were shortlisted while only 23 per cent of the
male made it!
Was that gender bias? Well, that’s probably a moot point since the
Selection Panel has decided to start the process afresh with new
applicants.
748 people applied for the positions of Commissioner of IEBC – 574 men
and 174 women (I counted them!). Considering that these vacancies were
advertised openly in the mass media, the fact that only a small
proportion of the applicants were female – just 23 per cent – is
somewhat worrying.
Does it mean that women are not interested in leadership? Does it mean
that there only a few women with enough knowledge and/or experience
and/or the confidence to lead critical institutions like IEBC? That
discussion is beyond the scope of this column.
Nevertheless, out of the 748 applicants, 36 were shortlisted for
interview – 28 men and 8 women. At first sight, there appears to be bias
in favour of men. But, when we dig deeper, we find that 4.6 per cent of
the female candidates are in the shortlist while compared to 4.2 per
cent of the males. It turns out again that the women got a slightly more
slots than men.
Looking farther at the list, I am happy to report that applications came
from each of the 47 counties. Nairobi topped the list with 46 out of the
748 candidates followed by Kakamega and Kisii, both with 34. With 30
applicants, Bungoma came in at fourth place.
Lamu and Samburu pulled the tail with two applicants each; Nyandarua had 3 and Tana River, 4. A summary of number of applicants from each county is available HERE
Interestingly, 43 applicants did not indicate their “home county”. I
suspect that they were confused (as I am) by the meaning of the term
“home county”. For many decades now, I have tried to get an official
definition of this phrase. Is your home county where you were born or
where you live or where you work or where you own most of your property
or where your parents were born or where they live or what?
Curiously, none of the 43 who didn’t declare their home county made it
to the shortlist. Perhaps the Selection Panel considered this important
information and so we need the Registrar of Persons to come out and
define it clearly.
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