One woman from Kwale County has finally made it in the ongoing Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) recruitment drive that has been marred by protests over alleged gender-based discrimination.
This comes after protests by a huge number of women who were turned away from the exercise in Lunga Lunga, Msambweni and Matuga Sub-counties.
The angry women expressed frustration saying it was not the first time they were being snubbed because of gender.
The lucky woman from Msambweni will join the air force.
She was among a few youth, all the rest being men, who have so far been picked in the exercise that ends Thursday in Kinango Sub-county.
A total of 21 recruits joined the forces in 2018 from the region.
“This is almost a fourth time in a row that we are being locked out of the recruitment and it is unfair,” said one of the female candidates who traveled all the way from Nairobi only to be unsuccessful during the exercise at Jomo Kenyatta Primary School grounds.
Senior Recruiting Officer, Lt. Colonel Joseph Nzioka who is supervising the exercise, said KDF was not discriminating against women and that more slots will be offered to them in future.
“We are sensitive to gender parity in line with the Constitution and are striving to be fair to all. We expect to have more slots for women in future and our aim is to eventually get there,” he said at Kwale Baraza Park.
Mr. Nzioka added that most of the candidates in the county were being turned away for various reasons, including failure to meet the minimum academic qualification of D plain.
Other reasons are lack of original documents, being overage and underweight.
By Richard Kamau/James Muchai
