I could never be your woman - Gendered citizenship and the 2007 General Election in Kenya

Abstract

<p>The violence which followed the December 2007 elections in Kenya promoted an African Union led mediation. The subsequent agreement led to a power sharing government which would be committed to reforming the Constitution and reforming the public sector. A year after the establishment of the power sharing coalition, a group of women's organisations known as the G10 held a press conference where they announced a seven day sex boycott to protest the lack of progress the new unity government had made. This paper examines the significance of the sex strike in the context of the post-election violence and women's citizenship in the post-colonial period, and argues that the women involved in the protest were attempting to redefine and expand the typically masculine Kenyan political subject, by troubling the traditional public/private dichotomy through politicising sex.</p>