Kenya’s National Assembly on Wednesday kicked out the 2/3rd Gender bill for the fourth time deferring the vote last year. The now four time failed bill seeks to have Parliament conform to the two thirds gender principle provided for in article 81(b) of the constitution.
Majority leader in the national assembly Adan Duale has suffered with this bill once again and failed try to convince members of parliament to pass the constitution of Kenya amendment bill 2018.
The bill proposes to amend articles 97 and 98 of the constitution to ensure that both houses of Parliament comply with the two thirds gender rule. While debating the bill, some lawmakers yesterday raised concerns that the bill does not provide for a formula for the nomination of MPs to Parliament.
The bill has now failed four attempts in parliament and the same fate can only allow it to be introduced to the house after six months. Manual counting confirmed that there were only 174 Members in the chamber and this number does not meet the threshold required to undertake the vote on this bill which needed 233 members to be around for its survival.
However, insiders report that despite the bill being in favor of women, there were only 31 women members of parliament present out of the 76 in total in the 12th parliament.