Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed on Wednesday challenged women to “first accept each other” before demanding equality with men.

At an opening session of a women leadership forum in Nairobi, Ms Mohamed said “it is a shame” that women continue to hate one another even in times when their cooperation can help the cause of women.

“We must empower ourselves. We must first accept each other. We go through stages where we can’t even trust women in leadership,” she argued.

“It is a shame that this continues to happen. We should all strive to be women of substance. We have to vote for women. Ask yourself, why should anybody else do for you what you do not want?” she posed.

She was speaking at African Women Leaders Symposium (AWLS) at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi.

In a continent with more than half of the population being women, there has only been three women presidents — in Liberia, Mauritius and Malawi.

The Foreign CS argued the current status of inequality between men and women in getting economic opportunities means there could be gender parity only by 2133 if nothing is done.

“I do not think there is anyone here who will be alive to see that but that means if we sit back and do nothing,” she said.

In Kenya, despite a constitutional provision that a third of appointive and elective posts in government be of a different gender, the country has been unable to fulfill that condition.

That is partly because fewer women have been contesting in elections, citing improper political environment for them.

In fact Kenya, with only 19 per cent of legislators being women has missed two deadlines to pass that law.

Ms Mohamed argued such discrepancies can be helped if women first chose to elect female candidates.

“Half of the world’s population are women and the other half was born by women,” she told the audience.