Social Engagement Contrary to common beliefs that citizens are not engaging, the data shows that generally most people belong to some social grouping or gathering and this is where the discussions citizenship are taking place. This is happening in both urban and rural areas. Women for instance are involved in mainly economic ventures and exchanging ideas about how they can fend for their families. Other social groupings mentioned include savings clubs, from the little money they collect from their daily informal income generating activities. Again, most women consider going to church as a social activity which gives them motivation because of the economic hardships the nation is facing. Table 8: Social Engagement, Mean Scores Males Females Member of any group (yes) 38 36 Member of any group (no) 1 2 The greater chunk of women, including the young people, have pinned their hopes on religion to change the current national situation. These support networks in turn facilitate women participation in socio-economic and political spheres.20 Most of the young people, especially the males, are into recreational activities like playing soccer as a way of passing time since they have nothing else to do because of unemployment. But again, even though some would spend their time at the local drinking hole, important discussions that have far deeper implications are taking place in those spaces as the local leadership explores avenues to reach out to the people since the formal ways such as meetings have poor attendance. The danger however is that these new spaces are not gender-sensitive as most women would not want to be seen at beer spots because of the stigma attached to these venues. Confidence in group participation Table 9: Confidence in groups, Mean scores21 Male Female Confident members to visit other 4.4 3.7 Confident to express opinions 4.3 3.6 Confident to lead discussion 4.1 3.5 4 3.3 Confident to initiate a project 3.8 3.3 Conf. to question things 2.5 2 Conf. to take leadership At the individual level where people make choices to join certain groups, male respondents are generally confident (4) to take up leadership positions within the group and express their opinions and lead the discussions. This is somewhat different when compared to women. 20 Felix Kiruthu - Masculinities, Femininities and Citizen Identities in a Global Era: A Case Study of Kiambu District Kenya, 1980-2007 21 Males were significantly more confident in group settings than females (See Table 2). 13