The Kenyan Women Parliamentary group, now known as the Kenyan Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) was formed in May 2001 by the nine women parliamentarians in the eighth parliament. 

The membership of the association consists of all the women Members of Parliament from all the political parties both elected and nominated. The formation of the association arose out of the need to raise the number of women parliamentarians, increase their contribution and influence on Parliamentary business and ensure increased attention to issues affecting women.

At the formation of the association members observed that:

• Since independence in 1963 the number of women Members of parliament has always been extremely low as compared to the number of men, and as a result issues that are of special concern to women and girls had often been sidelined in the legislative and political process.
• No parliamentary committee was chaired by a woman and gender related bills and house agendas were never treated with the seriousness they deserved, both in committees and on the floor of the house.
• There were no women representatives in the Parliamentary Service Commission and as a result the policies and practices influenced by the PSC were mostly insensitive to , if not abusive of women members (e.g. Parliament has no maternity policy and no facilities for women Members).
• The national budget – the main tool for mobilization and allocation of public resources was insensitive to women's needs and their roles in the productive economy.

 KEWOPA was founded to transform these and other inequities that imperiled women's access, participation and achievement in Parliament and other political institutions and processes.