A PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE TO INCREASING WOMEN’S ACCESS TO ELECTORAL JUSTICE mediation matters and all civil matters filed at the courts, conduct mandatory screening, and refer matters to mediation as appropriate. Brief Overview of Electoral Structures Kenya has a multi-party democracy and presidential system that holds elections for all national positions every five years. The government is divided into four branches: the legislative, executive, judiciary (discussed briefly above) and devolved government that divides the country into 47 counties. Each county elects a member of the National Assembly, a member of the Senate and a governor. The devolved government is made up of county assemblies with representatives from 1,450 wards across the country. Kenya has a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate (upper house) and the National Assembly (lower house). The Senate has 67 members, of whom 47 are elected as representatives of Kenya’s 47 counties. Of the remaining 20 seats, 16 are reserved for women, two for representatives of people with disabilities, and two for youth representatives. The National Assembly is made up of 337 members, of whom 290 are elected from single-member constituencies. The remaining 47 seats are reserved for women, who are also elected from single-member constituencies. Each elected member wins in a first-past-the-post system. To win outright in the first round, the president must obtain a majority of the national vote (50 percent plus one vote), plus 25 percent of the vote in at least half of the 47 counties. Members of the Senate and the National Assembly are elected by a qualified plurality vote. Women’s Representation in Politics Gender equality is enshrined in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, and gender parity in political representation is a constitutional requirement under Article 27(8), which provides that no one gender should occupy more than two-thirds of appointive and elective bodies. However, at no point has the Kenyan Parliament been in compliance with the “two-thirds rule” despite multiple lawsuits and court orders for Parliament to issue the enacting legislation to operationalize the constitutional mandate. In April 2020, the chief justice of the High Court determined that he must “advise the President to dissolve Parliament” for its repeated failure to implement the two-thirds rule. This advisory opinion was not heeded, and the Parliament was not dissolved. While the two-thirds gender rule demonstrates Kenya’s commitment to promoting women’s political participation, “the failure to establish sufficient enabling mechanisms, leaving women under-represented in legislative assemblies and in the electoral process” undercuts the spirit of the 2020 Constitution.128 The Political Parties Act (Article 25(2)(b)) also provides that a party is not eligible for the Political Party Fund (PPF) – public money allocated to parties based on prescribed criteria – if more than two-thirds of its registered office bearers are members of the same gender.129 To reinforce women’s inclusion in the leadership of political parties, the act further directs that 30 percent of those public funds be used to promote the representation of women and other marginalized groups. However, the criteria for accessing those funds are strict, and the PPF was not operational in advance of the 2022 elections. Following the 2017 election, 75 (21 percent) of the 355 seats in the National Assembly and 21 (31 percent) of the 68 seats in the Senate were held by women. The total proportion of women in the national Parliament going into the 128 129 Diplomatic Service of the European Union. (2018). FINAL REPORT REPUBLIC OF KENYA General Elections 2017. Kenya Law Reports. (2012). The Political Parties Act, 2011. 46