NAIROBI, Kenya — This male-dominated country's first multi-party elections since the 1960s attracted an unprecedented number of women to active politics.

Women won six places in the 200-seat Parliament, the most ever, and scores of seats on town and county councils in the elections Dec. 29.

That is a small percentage of the total, but for the first time, activist women have built a political base with their own issues.

"Kenyans, including women, came out of their cocoons," said Muthoni Likimani, a grandmother, author and former Nairobi city councilor.

Particularly the women.

Most male candidates from the ruling Kenya African National Union stuck to lauding the government of President Daniel Arap Moi, while those in opposition tended to repeat accusations of corruption.

Women were much more concrete. They demanded an end to frequent shortages of sugar, flour and other essential commodities. They criticized the high cost of their children's textbooks, heavy work loads for primary school students and frequent, unannounced increases in school fees.

Female candidates noted the lack of women in key government positions. They complained of the shortage of medicines at state clinics and of potable water in both urban and rural areas.

Maria Nzomo, a professor at the University of Nairobi's Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, said women should help make the laws because men have treated their concerns "in isolation from the broader national development programs."

She heads the National Committee on the Status of Women, which wants 30% of the seats in Parliament reserved for women.

Only two women were in the last Parliament, and both were Moi's candidates.

Under growing pressure from domestic unrest and Western donor nations to make democratic reforms, Moi lifted the legal ban on opposition groups in December, 1991.

Within weeks, three independent women's groups were formed: the National Committee on the Status of Women, the League of Women Voters and Mothers in Action. Previously, women's organizations were dominated by the wives and daughters of prominent men.

A record 19 women ran for Parliament and at least 130 contested seats in municipal and county elections.

Five of the new Parliament members are in the opposition. The one from Moi's party has been given the traditional highest post a woman has held in government--assistant minister for culture and social services.