Womens rights advisor to the president Hon Harriet Chiggai calls on women to proactively engage in ensuring the two thirds gender rule is actualized.
Women’s Rights advisor to the President, Harriet Chiggai has lamented the country’s state of women’s representation in Kenya.
Besides calling on the Kenyan woman to proactively engage, she has further called on the media to take a front seat in driving this very noble agenda.
“The media is a key stakeholder in public participation. And we call upon the media to drive the discussions with the intent to pass information to the general public.” Hon Chiggai.
Kenya doing poorly on women representation.
Hon Chiggai has moaned the sorry place a Kenyan woman occupy in the nation and has called on the Kenyan voter to borrow heavily from our fellow East Africans.
The East African country with the highest number of women in Parliament is Rwanda with a total of 64 per cent, It is followed by Tanzania with 36 per cent, and Uganda and Burundi tied at 35 per cent women in Parliament .Interestingly , Kenya has only 20 per cent composition of women in Parliament, both Senate and the National Assembly,” she said.
Despite the glaring poor women representation, Kenya being a nation is a signatory to various international, regional and sub-regional instruments namely: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, The African Union Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, has to uphold these principles and pull up their socks to attain equitable gender representation in Parliament.
In recognizing this, the Constitution of Kenya 2010, domesticates these commitments to safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms and entrenches the concept in :
article 81 (b): “Not more than two thirds of the members of elective or appointive bodies shall be of the same gender”
However, the bone of contention since promulgation of the Constitution is the matrix, logistics and formula in ensuring that each House of Parliament is constituted properly as per the constitution.
The Kenyan woman must further seek solace in our constitution which has expressly offered a safe haven.
The Constitution in article 27(8) requires that the State shall take legislative and other measures to implement the principle that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender. To date this provision has not been implemented. The Attorney General on behalf of the Government of Kenya sought direction from the Supreme Court of Kenya through an Advisory Reference dated 8th October 2012. The issue presented before the Supreme Court for direction was whether the enforcement of the two thirds gender principle was realizable immediately or progressively based on articles 27 and 81(b) of the Constitution
The Kenya Kwanza govt during the campaigns in what came to be known as the plan, the two thirds gender rule has taken a front seat. To express his willingness and goodwill, President Ruto created the office of the presidents advisor on human rights and women issues which together with other stakeholders, Hon Chiggai has hit the ground running
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