Aden Duale calls for discussion around gender equity

Kenya: The National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale has asked Members of Parliament and the public to start discussions around the implementation of the two-thirds gender equity rule.

The constitutional principle provides that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.

Parliament, National Assembly and Senate, will be considered unconstitutional after the next General Election if the membership of both Houses does not reflect the requirement.

In December last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the two-thirds gender principle should be implemented progressively. It added that a roadmap for enforcement should be in place by August 2015.

Failure to have the law in place will see the 2017 Parliament termed as unconstitutional. The landmark ruling then provided that the current National Assembly and Senate will not be illegal if it had less than one-third of women.

Yesterday, Mr Duale said: “We need to have discussions on the same as members of the National Assembly and the public so that we can have equal representation in terms of the number of women in authority and also in terms of those who are considered marginalised.”

Speaking during a forum organised by the Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations (Kara), Duale said there cannot be equality without equity.

“Rwanda as a country is growing socially, politically and economically because they have been able to mainstream the gender equality issue in their national policies,” he said.

He pointed out that Kenya has made significant strides towards achieving gender equity and inclusion in its legislation.

“Kenya has had its share of challenges in terms of gender issues. The systems in place have been tilted in favour of men thus discriminating against women, youth and the disabled,” said Duale.

Duale cited political leadership as being the major problem noting that key decisions lay with the politicians, majority of whom are men.

Chairperson of the National Gender and Equality Commission Winnie Lichuma noted that the gender equity issue has been observed in some quarters.

“In the National Assembly and the Senate, gender equality has been addressed but the threshold of the two-thirds majority rule has not yet been achieved,” she said.

On the appointments of women as parastatal heads, Ms Lichuma said there should be inclusion of more women as currently there are only two women parastatal heads out of the 36 posts available.

Statistics from the commission shows that the number of persons with disabilities has also increased by nine in National Assembly.