IF KENYANS WAN’T WOMEN TO LEAD, THEY WILL ELECT WOMEN

Why The 2/3 Gender Rule Can’t Work in The Kenyan Political System.

By Abala Kinyua

Women Deserve to Lead Because Many Are Capable. However, Get This; We Are Not Going to Award People Elective Seats Simply Because They Are Women’

Pic; Courtesy

Women empowerment can roughly be defined as a procedure through which women procure abilities and readiness to fundamentally dissect their circumstances and make suitable moves to change their status in the general public.

There are several ways and forms of women empowerment in the society. However, as a political writer, I would like to center my article on ‘POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT’ a major form of women empowerment that brings a lot of emotions and arguments.

In the era of democracy where the voter is expected to elect the leaders of their choice, empowering women politically has become an aspect of much debate and arguments; Should women be awarded free seats, should be they given ‘special’ treatment to allow them trounce their male counterparts?, What happens to qualified men who fail to win seats in the name of ‘women empowerment’? Is there fairness when women get a bit ‘favored ‘in politics more than their male counterparts?

The women empowerment has been raging for years in Kenya since we passed our 2010 constitution that that provides in article 81(b) ‘that ‘the electoral system shall comply with the principle that not more than 2/3 of the members of ELECTIVE public bodies shall be of one gender’

However, the persistent challenge has been on how to actualize this core commitment in the Kenyan parliament (both senate and the national assembly) as prescribed by the constitution. There is actually a bill in parliament that seeks to abolish this constitutional provision.

A local legislator Peter Opondo on his twitter account has recently opined in an argument with another local politician that ‘Meeting the 2/3 gender rule in Kenya on elective positions is a function of democracy and choice. It is not a function of parliament to meet it for society.’ (https://twitter.com/gpdkaluma/status/1289994195940208640?s=21)

Indeed, I tend to agree with the legislator because in real sense, Parliament does not constitute itself. Parliament is a product of a democratically held election that allows the people of Kenya to elect their preferred candidates to represent them (be it a woman or a man)

It therefore falls on the electorate to elect a representative of their own and actually far-fetched to imagine the dissolution of such a house that does not meet the 2/3 gender rule. Dissolving such a parliament would be to overturn the DEMOCRATIC WILL OF THE PEOPLE.

The 2/3 gender rule was a compromise during the constitution making process that led to many concessions and compromises. This provision was unrealistic and unachievable in the political system that Kenya is.

 

Such a provision would have worked in the South African way of political party system where the party deploys legislators according to the percentage of votes the party gets in an election. In the south African political system, it would be easy to balance between the people deployed to the national assembly because the people do not elect the legislators directly as we do here in Kenya.

It is therefore my point that, let women hit the ground, campaign and get elected to these elective seats. Those who get elected, should make examples of what women leadership can achieve and not compete with men in corruption and noise making. When Kenyans see the kind of leadership women can offer, they will not have objections electing women to office.

We have had great women who have hit the road and campaigned to get elective positions and they have given exemplary leadership. Women like Hon. Asiyo, Martha Karua, Charity Ngilu are some examples of what women leadership can be.

However, if we end up with current crop of women leaders that we have in parliament who have nothing to offer to the people, who only offer their body shapes, beauty and sizes as qualification to parliament, Kenyans will have issues electing women to leadership positions.

 

‘WOMEN DESERVE TO LEAD BECAUSE MANY ARE CAPABLE. HOWEVER, GET THIS; WE ARE NOT GOING TO AWARD PEOPLE ELECTIVE SEATS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE WOMEN’