This thesis examines perceptions of political power among Luo women in Kenya. The research was conducted in the autumn of 2015 and founded by a MFS-scholarship from Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The research examines the hypotheses that there are three factors that affect women’s chances to get political power, namely: education, economy and social capital. Through qualitative methods 20 respondents were interviewed. The results show that all three factors were recognized as important. To get power the respondents experienced that you have to take part in a reciprocal pattern. You have to give money, help or knowledge, and with higher education, good economy or a lot of social capital, you will have easier to offer those things.

This study was undertaken in order to determine the contribution of the Chogoria Hospital's health education programme to the development of women in the Meru communities of the Kenyan highlands. The research was designed within the framework of the Gender And Development theory, focussing on the social structures and relations underlying women's development needs. The objectives were based on a review of the literature. Field research was then conducted over a three month period in Chogoria, Kenya. The research was based in ethnographic methodology, consisting of participant observation and interviews. The study found that the programme contributes to and perpetuates the traditional social structures and relations of Meru society, including the dominance of men over women. The programme's approach to participatory development was found to empower the existing power structure of Meru communities, obscure the development needs of women and increase their burdens of labour and responsibility. The study offers several recommendations to enable the CHD to better meet the needs of Meru women. The recommendations address the following issues: the commitment of the CHD to the empowerment of the community, of volunteers and of women; the role of dialogue and education about women, their potential and possibilities; the alleviation of women's burdens of labour and responsibilities; the placement of women's health and development at the centre of the CHD agenda; and the training of CHD staff in the full spectrum of community participatory development.

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In the context of growing poverty and sedentarization, the socio-economic status of pastoral women is an important indicator of how pastoralists in northern Kenya respond to social change. Accordingly, this study examines women's position in three communities in distinct settings of sedentarization. One is located in a semi-arid region dedicated to pastoralism and conservation, while the other two are in a moister mountain area where rain-fed and irrigation agriculture is combined with animal production. Analyses of quantitative and qualitative data, gathered from women and men during 2002--2003, indicate that women have largely responded to social change by using two strategies to secure the well-being of themselves and their children. First, despite the cultural assumption that married women are supported by their husbands, they have strengthened their relationships with natal kin, solidifying a support network to carry them through times of difficulty. Secondly, given decline in returns from subsistence pastoralism, women have seized numerous opportunities to diversify their economic pursuits in order to generate steady income. / Essentially, findings illustrate that, in addition to gaining access to various resources through their marital homes and their own efforts, the majority of women receive socio-economic support from their natal kin, especially brothers. In two communities where land is being privatized, most women have been excluded from the land registration process because of traditional and national policies. However, many fathers are awarding their daughters permanent usufruct rights to family land to ensure they do not become landless because of the death of a spouse or negligence on the part of husbands. Although this does not eliminate the discrimination many women face from being excluded from the registration process, it is a move towards the betterment of women's long-term food and financial security. / Besides contributing to domestic activities, women engage in very different forms of income-generating activities; in Archer's Post, they obtain earnings from craft sales or tourist-related services, in Parkishon/Karare they gain income from milk-marketing, while in Songa, women pursue cultivation for subsistence and market sale. It is a positive finding that most women generate steady income over which they have managed to maintain control.

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This dissertation brings into perspective the plight of AIDS widows in Kisumu. Often widowhood in general focuses on the older women, while AIDS has created a generation of young widows. A high percentage of these widows are immediately pushed into poverty by the death of husbands. AIDS widows' poverty and vulnerability to external shocks and stresses increases dramatically, while the delicate process of juggling competing needs and pressures becomes a far greater challenge. The range of forces against which widows in Kisumu must struggle is formidable: low self-esteem, complex family relationships, hostile or indifferent communities, systemic gender discrimination and harassment, property loss, unemployment or underemployment, lack of education and a daily grind that leaves widows with scant energy to contemplate the possibility of transforming and regaining their dignity/condition. For these reasons this dissertation contends that the church has an obligation to strategise a holistic intervention to care for these widows who are part of the church and society. This dissertation manifests an on going struggle and quest for adequate instruments to understand AIDS widows in the light of God's promise of the fullness of life to all. AIDS leads to severe social, psychological and financial consequences for the affected families, hence the challenging question how the widows can move from deprivation to begin self-reliant sustainable livelihood is addressed. Since widows' lives are complex and constantly changing, their livelihoods wholly depend on their identifying and building their own various strengths, assets and capabilities. In this way the dissertation suggests that the following areas should be secured overtime. Supportive relationships, networks and environments, that is relatives, the church and church organization, government and other agencies should pool and pull together with the widows. Long-term earning power and financial security is badly needed. That means that their property should be secured and their land be on their hands for continuous utilization, contrast to the current state where they are ejected and driven away of their homes. Up-to-date skills, knowledge, self-esteem, motivation, self-confidence and spiritual well being. In this area it is suggested that capacity building would play a major role in moulding their current and future life. Finally the church is challenged to cultivate an alternative theology to address the ever-growing problem of marginalization and violence against widows. That is to say all forms of prejudice, for example stereotyping, isolation and condemnation must be strongly rejected and urgent need for justice, reason and deep faith be employed. As a result the widows would be integrated and feel valued in the society and the church. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

The primary objectives in this study were to gain a deep level of understanding of Kenyan women’s experiences of seeking abortion, both safe and unsafe, and to explore how social and legal issues impact their choices and the routes they take to obtain abortion. I explored the contexts and interpreted 49 in-depth narratives of women’s emic experiences of abortion in Mombasa city and the Kilifi district, Kenya, using a qualitative form of inquiry conducted between April and July 2005. Ethical Review Committees granted ethical clearance to this study. This emic work revealed gender inequity consistent with developing feminist theory and thus how women conceive gendered relationships is introduced in this analysis of women's narratives. The findings provide new insights as well as useful confirmatory knowledge, gleaned from detailed empirical evidence within Kenyan women’s social contexts. The women have revealed the evidence through their narratives; such an approach is largely missing in existing abortion literature. The prominent finding is that women do not abort motherhood, but they do abort particular pregnancies to protect motherhood; to avoid a difficult motherhood likely to compromise the quality of care they envisage for their potential and existing children. This includes ensuring the best nurturing environment, paternal and religious identity, social legitimacy. The abortion decision is difficult to make and thoroughly considered. The married women make a consultative decision with their ‘breadwinners’ having the upper hand. Legal barriers cannot bar abortion but entrench inequities in abortion care access, heighten secrecy, stigma, and hamper prompt comprehensive post abortion care seeking. Thus, financial resources, peers, geographical remoteness, and knowledge significantly influence the type of abortion accessed. Consequently, unsafe abortion threatens motherhood of the most vulnerable groups of women. The foremost recommendation is that public health law must ensure healthy, enjoyable, dignified motherhood for the women; hence safe early abortion (first trimester) must become accessible to alleviate existing health care inequities. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

This study focuses on the contribution of the church to the development ofthe identity of a Gikuyu woman. Opposition to the suppression of women by culture has become a strong social, political and religious conviction. There is a growing number of men and women in Africa who are concerned about the marginal status of women. In traditional African society, the experience of women was that of subjugation, exploitation and control by men. These experiences are persistent even today because most African cultures are still patriarchal. This study therefore seeks to establish and evaluate how far the church has liberated a Gikuyu woman from such unjust patriarchal conditionings. The study was undertaken in ACK Kirinyaga diocese and concentrated mainly on Kirinyaga district in the period between 1910- I999. Among other factors, the study was undertaken as a contribution to the search for the identity of an African Christian by African theologians. The first chapter introduces the whole thesis and gives a clear explanation of the problem of investigation and the methodology used. Chapter two investigates the status of women in Gikuyu traditional institutions. The chapter concludes that although women held some important roles in Gikuyu traditional society, to a great extent their identity was defined in terms oftheir reproductive roles. Chapter three evaluates the impact of colonialism and Mission Christianity on the status of a Gikuyu woman. We observed that this era had both destructive and regenerative effects on the status of women. Chapter four evaluates the different ways in which women have been involved in church life. It singles out the ordination of women as the greatest effort that Kirinyaga diocese has made on emancipation of women. Chapter five searches for an evidence of the biblical meaning of the identity of a Christian woman, evaluating the place of women in selected controversial biblical passages. Chapter six is the conclusion and sums up the main findings of the study. It also points out that the study is not exhaustive; much more still requires to be researched in this area. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

The focus of this thesis is an AIDS education programme targeting prostitutes in the industrial town of Thika, Kenya. The thesis challenges three key assumptions underlying the programme, namely: (1) prostitutes in Kenya form a readily identifiable, homogenous social category; (2) medically, they are a source of HIV-infection, and a risk group due to their sexual activity; (3) once provided with knowledge about AIDS transmission and prevention, they have the incentive, and the means to modify their risk behaviour. The notions of "prostitution", "risk", and "responsibility", as assumed in the medical discourse of the programme, are contrasted with those found in the narratives of local health workers and the women involved in the programme. The incongruences in these sets of understandings have implications for the interpretation of epidemiological findings and the planning of AIDS prevention programmes in general. By lending an overall priority ranking to the risk factor of sexual behaviour, the epidemiological paradigm informing the programme masks social and economic co-factors placing women at risk, as well as the role of men in transmission of the HIV-virus. Further, the paradigm ignores important factors in the motivation of health behaviour, namely, the relative significance that women attribute to the risk of AIDS, as well as their envisaged control over health.

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