Members of the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) have unveiled priority areas of engagement with the Women Political Leaders (WPL) to address challenges affecting women leaders and advance women’s participation in political leadership.

The set areas of engagement for the WPL Kenya Cohort for its first year includes women's political participation and democratic governance, peace, security and women leadership, economic empowerment, trade and financial inclusion, as well as ending violence against women in politics.

These key areas of collaboration were identified in a meeting co-hosted by WPL and KEWOPA, creating a platform for women MPs to share both the potential areas of collaboration and challenges they experience in the leadership space, and explore solutions to the issues that are priority to them.

Speaking during today’s meeting, KEWOPA Vice Chairperson and Dagoretti North MP Hon. Beatrice Elachi, said increasing the number of elected women to Parliament in the 2027 general election would be critical to achieving the two-thirds gender principle in the 14th Parliament.

"If at least forty more women can be elected in 2027, then we shall achieve the two-thirds gender principle," Hon. Elachi said.

Supporting the idea of increasing the number of women leaders in the political arena, Senator Catherine Mumma called on the WPL to train women leaders both at national and County levels on handling information and disinformation on social media.

"Women leaders need the capacity to guard against violence on the social media.Most women have been affected mentally and pulled down from the race," Senator Mumma said.

She further called on the WPL to engage Independent Electoral Commission (IEBC) and the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) to strengthen measures to deter goonism and ensure that violations affecting women leaders are monitored and addressed.

Collating Women MP’s views, WPL Africa Strategic Advisor and former Tanzanian lawmaker, Hon. Neema Lugangira acknowledged the challenges faced by women in politics noting that identifying topics that affect women at the grass-root level helps in crafting targeted interventions.

"We are here to get views from women leaders on the potential projects for the WPL Kenya Cohort, pegged on their policy interests," said Hon. Lugangira.

KEWOPA Executive Director, Ms. Mercy Mwangi reaffirmed the association’s commitment to providing platforms for women leaders to network, share experiences and work together to advance women’s political participation.

Ms. Mwangi said that the priority areas identified by women MPs would provide a framework for addressing challenges facing women in political leadership and strengthen their participation in governance.

While making the session’s closing remarks, Suba North MP. Hon. Millie Mabona encouraged women leaders to pursue their development projects with confidence even with limited resources, noting that women should support one another with decorum, be resilient and strong despite lack of resources to fund campaigns.

“We are trained to be good girls. Even if some men launch projects worth Ksh. 10M and yours is Kshs. 100,000, do it unapologetically,” said Hon. Millie.

She further urged WPL to fast track the implementation of the projects to support transformative women's leadership.