- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 21 2000 02.26 GMT
The women say that the equal rights and affirmative action bills, due to be published next week, are a direct challenge to Islamic law on the place of women in society.
President Moi said: "What is this affirmative action women are talking about? I want unity because I stand for the unity of all Kenyans. If affirmative action divides women, I'm not for it."
Although neither bill deals exclusively with women's rights, together they have been interpreted as a sign of the burgeoning of Kenyan feminism.
The affirmative action bill promises to guarantee women and minority groups, including disabled people, a minimum of 33% of representation in parliament and on local authorities. Currently, only nine of Kenya's 250 MPs are women.
The equal rights bill is intended to convert several international human rights charters already signed by Kenya into law, guaranteeing the rights of minority groups to, for example, basic medical care and equitable inheritance.
"It is totally misleading to think of the rights bill as a women's bill," said Martha Coombe, chairwoman of the association of women lawyers which drafted the bills.
"It is the usual thing - men think we want to overthrow them. But this bill talks about giving equal treatment to all Kenyans."
Muslim groups object particularly to the plan for equal inheritance rights. The proposal runs contrary to Islam's patriarchal sharia law, which decrees that sons receive twice as much as daughters.
"Whether this is just or not, it is divine law so we have no choice," said Abeda Ali, head of the Muslim Sisters Network.
"The constitution acknowledges our right to sharia law, so unless Muslims are made exempt from this provision it will be discriminating against Muslims," she said.
Ms Coombe argues that the vast majority of Kenyan women need their inheritance rights protecting. She days that Muslims are free to follow sharia law regardless.
Muslims, who make up 20% of Kenya's population, also say that a proposed ban on discrimination based on sexual preference would encourage homosexuality, which is outlawed in Islam.
"We do not want a bill through which homosexuality and lesbianism will be introduced. This bill is foreign," said Said Asman, of the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims.
With the ruling Kanu party and the National Development party vowing to block votes against the bills, they seem certain to fail.
But Ms Coombe is undeterred. "They may use their clout against the equality bill but we will shame them into changing their minds," she said.
She claimed that the Muslim women's protests had been orchestrated by high-ranking politicians as a smoke screen for their own agenda. Equal rights would mean an end to tribal patronage, to which most Kenyans owed their jobs, she said.
"The women did not even know why they were demonstrating," she said.
"The real reason the government doesn't want this bill is that they fear an audit being taken of who is where, and how they got there. It would reveal a system based on ethnicity."
Jam Karanja, of the United Disabled Persons of Kenya, is also sceptical about the protests.
"The bill intends to outlaw all forms of discrimination. It therefore comes as a surprise to us that Muslim women want to reject it before they have had a chance to examine it fully," he said.
