Of the last few days, parliament of Kenya has been in control of the country’s agenda and still will be in the next days. Quite a good number of Kenyan parliamentarians have so far opposed the #GenderBill. And its for a fact that for it to pass through to the next stage it has to gunner support of 233 votes.
Gender Bill was drafted in the 2010 constitution requiring that the National Assembly and the Senate shouldn’t accommodate more than two third members of the same gender (Article 81 b). This happens when the world is rallying for gender equality in leadership roles. It also happens when some nations are showing tremendous steps ahead and indeed when NGOs, human rights bodies are are working days and nights to advocate for women inclusiveness in policy making processes.
Recently, Rwanda announced that women make up half of its cabinet members ranking it number two in Africa to announce gender balance. 50% of its cabinet members are women. Rwanda and Ethiopia stood out as the only African nations joining the most European nations that have women dominating a plus 50% of the seats.
It is well remembered that in 2013, Rwanda broke the record in the elections by sending into parliament 64% women seat occupants.
According to Moguldom.com publication posted in 2015, a research by world bank and other bodies indicated how women are under-represented in parliament and that only 12 African countries are ranked with highest number of women representation.
In the list of the 12, Rwanda still stood out with of course the 64% and was leading worldwide. Interesting right? Well, South Africa had 45% representation, Seychelles with 44%, Senegal with 43%, Mozambique with a representation of 39%, Angola with 37%, Tanzania with 36%, Uganda with 35%, Zimbabwe 32%, Cameroon and Burundi 31% and here Ethiopia was number 12 with 28%. But surprisingly Ethiopia became first African country to announce in October 16th its equality when the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed women to occupy half the seats of his government’s ministerial posts arguing that women are less corrupt comparing to men.
Just like Kenya’s Article 81 (b) of the 2010 constitution the road to an increased women participation in the case of Rwanda was paved way by its 2003 constitution where they placed a quota of 30% women in its decision making organs. Apart from normal contested elections, Rwanda reserved 24 seats in parliament for women (www.UNWomen.org).
For Kenya on the other hand, what is a pain in the throat is how two-third gender bill can be implemented and realized. Despite being a signatory to many human rights bodies, Kenya is in dilemma in ensuring equitable men and women representation. Its the lowest rated in East Africa (EA).
According to www.sidint.net only 9.8% of the tenth Parliament was comprised of women, and only 20.7% of the eleventh (sitting) Parliament is women this ranks it the least in EA.
The Supreme court had earlier ruled that there were no proper strategies on how the two third gender balance was to be achieved however Justice John Mativo, High Court Judge in 2017 significantly ordered for mechanisms to be put into place within a set time frame consequently, failure by the members of parliament to enact the legislation within the set time is a violation and can lead to dissolution.
The question is, is our last rush minute as Kenyans going to put in place best strategies to realize the gender balance dilemma? Or are the distinguished Members of Parliament going to do the usual for the sake of it to save them the shame of a dissolution? A dilemma that we are all glued to as we advocate for gender inclusivity in every step of decision making.