In 2013, Alice Wahome ran in her third attempt to win the hotly-contested Kandara constituency parliamentary seat in Murang’a County, Central Kenya. As is typical of rural politics, the field was male-dominated, with the stakes being high for all candidates but more especially so for Wahome — no woman had ever occupied the Kandara constituency parliamentary seat.

Maasai women have made great progress in fighting oppressive cultural practices, says Lydia Ntimama, a Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) candidate for Narok County woman representative.

She says she is happy and encouraged by the progress, adding that the cultural practices have been a major drawback on women’s progress in politics and other spheres of leadership.

The percentage of women in senior leadership positions among the top Kenyan companies and in the government is still dramatically lower than that of men.

The nomination of Betty Maina as Industrialisation CS has cast a ray of hope for a gender-balanced Cabinet.

President Uhuru Kenyatta also appointed 15 new chief administrative secretaries, eight of whom were women.

With Maina's nomination, the Cabinet now has seven women members.

Institutional weaknesses undermine the prevention of and response to sexual violence during electoral periods in Kenya, according to a new report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and UN Women.

When footage circulated last week of a Kenyan lawmaker, Hon. Zuleikha Hassan, being kicked out of parliament for coming in with her baby, reactions across the country were mixed, but mostly muted. A home emergency left the Kwale county women’s representative with no one that she could leave her five-month old baby with.

Female MPs have walked out of Kenya's parliament in solidarity with a colleague who was ordered to leave because she had taken her baby.

Zuleika Hassan said she had brought her five-month-old baby with her to work because of a domestic emergency and that parliament didn't have a creche.

According to the house rules, "strangers" are not allowed into the chamber, children included.