Vote A Dada Launch

Oxfam, FIDA-Kenya and Youth Agenda with financial support from the European Union on 30th August launched “Vote A Dada” campaign calling for increased women participation and representation in the 2017 general elections

The Vote a Dada campaign will work with different stakeholders in mobilisation and sensitisation of Kenyans at both national and grassroots level to own and advance the gender agenda in mainstream politics.

Vote a Dada campaign is under the European Union funded project “Increasing women participation and representation in the 2017 general elections”. The European Union is financing Oxfam, Fida-Kenya and Youth Agenda to the tune of 480,000 Euros for the implementation of the project which targets about 2,400, 000 voters of whom 1,400,000 are women voters and 500 women aspirants from Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisii, Wajir and Turkana Counties. 

In order to achieve effective women representation and participation, Oxfam, FIDA-Kenya and Youth Agenda will over the next 30 months work to strengthen the implementation of electoral laws to facilitate women participation in the electoral process, increase the capacity of women to competitively participate in political processes and issue based politics. Another key aspect will be to influence voter endorsement and positive profiling of women in elective political leadership.

Women make up for over 50% of the population; however their participation in the electoral process does not reflect this demographic reality. This campaign will use multiple approaches to challenge the factors limiting women’s participation for instance; culture, patriarchal dynamics, inadequate political will, intimidation from society, financial resource constraints which limit their ability to campaign and violence against female candidates. The campaign will also lobby for a legal framework on actualization of gender equality in political representation.