Why the two thirds gender rule may never see the light of day

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Hope is slowly fading away for women in government as the Gender Bill debate takes a different turn. Women around the country were hoping that the National Assembly would stand up for them and gave the two thirds gender rule Bill passed but it now seems like that was a far-fetched dream.

The National Assembly has today failed to vote on the Gender Bill after it failed to raise the required numbers. House Majority Leader Aden Duale made a request to Speaker Justin Muturi during the debate this afternoon to have the vote deferred to 2019 citing lack of quorum.

 

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According to Duale, the House did not have the 223 required members to vote in support of the Bill. At the beginning of the debate, 212 members were in the chambers but the numbers drastically dropped to 207 a few minutes into the debate.

At the core of the Bill proposed by Duale, is a nomination criterion to ensure that at any given time, the number of women is at least a third of the total. The bill therefore proposes that after an election has been finalised and the gender numbers calculated, the right number of women be nominated.

 

 

This in line with the 2010 Constitution stipulated that the National Assembly and the Senate should not have more than two-thirds of their members of the same gender.

“Not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender,” says Article 81 (b) of the Constitution.

Currently, the National Assembly has 75 women MPs. Only 22 out of the 75 were elected from the 290 constituencies in the last election while 6 were nominated in the 12 nomination slots while the other 47 were elected as woman reps.

 

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Reports had earlier indicated that some legislators had excused themselves on the grounds of the ongoing Blue Economy Conference at KICC. However, the plotted delay is meant to buy time to allow lobbying for the Bill as some MPs were reportedly planning to reject it.

Even after President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto, NASA Leader Raila Odinga and other influential leaders tried to convince the Nation Assembly to pass the two thirds gender rule Bill, the debate is proving to be a difficult one as a large number MPs do not want the Bill to see the light of day.

 

Do you see any hope for the Gender Bill being passed?

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