ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the uneasy relationship between women's movements and the multiparty movements in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, addressing why women's increased activism has not been easily incorporated into the reform movements. The gap is especially noticeable when women's groups, are concerned with opening up spaces for greater political participation, guaranteeing human rights, enhancing government accountability, and institutionalizing political pluralism and political liberalization. The chapter focuses on that the urban women because they have been most visibly involved in the political reform movement, especially at the national level. It also focuses on the relationship of women's movements to the political reform movements, many important issues of difference within the women's movement due to class, age, urban-rural differences. The formal urban-based nongovernmental associations became prominent in both Uganda and Tanzania only after the mid-1980s, as was the case in many parts of Africa. Countries like Kenya, where this sector already had more visibility, experienced a greater proliferation of associations.
