President Uhuru Kenyatta has received the African Gender Award 2022 for championing gender equality and development in the country.

The award was presented to the president by Ms Benita Diop, the African Union Commission Special Envoy on women, peace and security.

The award is anchored on three thematic indices namely HIV index, education index and gender parity index.

According to the selection committee, Kenya achieved 11 out of 12 operative articles of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.

“On behalf of the Republic of Kenya, and on my behalf, I am deeply honoured to receive this year’s African Gender Award (AGA), in recognition of the significant strides we have made in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls,” President Kenyatta said after receiving the award on Tuesday at State House, Nairobi.

The president said that his administration has increased access to ARVs for women from 67 to 91 per cent and free maternity services and the number of deliveries in health facilities has increased by 23.1 per cent between 2014 and 2018.

The selection committee noted that Kenya made significant improvement in its primary education enrolment moving from 83 per cent in 2016 to 103.4 per cent in 2022 while the country’s overall literacy level moved above 80 per cent.

Kenya’s achievements on gender parity included growth of 2.9 per cent in women’s representation in Parliament between 2016 and 2022 which shot to 16 per cent between 2019 and 2022.