A Study Of Socio Economic Elements Influencing Gender Imbalance In Elective Governance Positions In Kenya PDF Download

Gender imbalance in elective posts of governance is an issue of concern not only in Kenya but the world over. With affirmative action in place, Kenya has increased the number of women in governance positions slightly especially through nomination. There is still a major challenge on increasing the number of women in governance positions through elections. There are still political and socio-economic challenges to be solved. The study intended to investigate the socio-economic factors that influence the voter to vote for either gender in elections in Kenya with a case study of Kilgoris sub-county(constituency).It particularly sought to assess the effect of culture, religion, education and occupation on gender imbalance in elective posts of governance. Kilgoris sub-county was suitable because of its cosmopolitan nature. The findings of the study were expected to be as representative of the face of Kenya as possible. The study is significant as it does not only increase the already existing body of knowledge in this area of study, but can also help policy makers and the government of Keya in general to restructure civic education curriculum to address the gender issue effectively among voters. Even school curriculum can be reviewed further to address the gender bias issue adequately in order for the Kenyan society to tap the abilities of both genders for prosperity. It is necessary to give both genders equal opportunity to access elective governance positions. Gender imbalance is usually skewed against women yet they are known for some good leadership qualities like pacifying, coalition building, initiating development projects, increased participation through delegation,etc. Review of related other works was crucial right from the formulation of the topic, statement of the problem formulation, data collection and analysis. The research design to employ was descriptive statistics. The target population was the 47,624 registered voters of Kilgoris sub-county. The sample size was 200 respondents arrived at by purposive and random sampling since population is vast. The methodology to be employed in this study will be questionnaire interview. Reliability and validity of research instruments were tested before actual research. Questionnaires were administered to all respondents in the study; an interview schedule was also used to solicit more responses. Theoretical models suitable for this research are the rational choice model and the sociological model which provided a framework for analyzing the factors for the voter’s preference in the context of a general election in Kenya (presidential, gubernatorial, parliamentary, senatorial and county assembly positions).Data analysis was done by use of software package for social sciences and presented using percentages and pie charts, accompanied by explanations. Key words: Governance, elective, influencing, gender, imbalance, positions.