Let the President heed Maraga call, break Parliament

Representation of women in Kenya’s Parliament has been the lowest in Africa, resulting in underrepresentation of women in positions of power. But a country cannot progress economically, politically or socially without half its citizens participating in decision-making.

The Constitution created special seats for women, resulting in the election of 47 woman reps and nomination of 16 women by political parties to the National Assembly and one woman each representing the youth and persons with disabilities to the Senate and county assemblies, and appointment of women in other decision-making bodies.

Just recently, the National Assembly once again rejected the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2018, the “Gender Bill”, which sought to legislate on the constitutional requirement that neither gender makes more than two-thirds in elective positions.

That, clearly, is a systematic violation of the constitutional provision. The Gender Bill may merely be the means for the technocrats in government to upend the constitutional order and, with the growing momentum to have women’s voices amplified in the decision-making spaces, more so on policies in the wake of devolution, the call to build stronger women engagements that speak with a unity of purpose cannot be overstated.

The balance of power between men and women is clearly tilted against women leaders, although they have outshone the men in politics and development. Despite affirmative action, women’s participation in the the first general election under the new Constitution, in 2013, was very low.

Of the 237 candidates for senator, only 19 were women and none was elected. There was no female governor either. Of the 290 elected MPs only 16 were women, and just five among the 12 nominated ones. With the 47 woman reps, women made 68 of the 349 MPs, or 19.48 per cent, falling short of the 49 out of 117 requirement of the gender rule. The 18 women nominated senators (26.8 per cent) was 6.4 per cent short of the constitutional requirement of 67 seats.

A whole 10 years after the promulgation of the Constitution, Article 27(8) of which requires the State to take legislative and other measures to implement the two-thirds gender principle, it hasn’t. That led to this week’s judicial advice by Chief Justice David Maraga to President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve Parliament after he received petitions.

This is no option. Art. 261(7) is mandatory for both parties. Neither the CJ nor the President is granted discretion; nor does it require the former to be petitioned to act. Art. 261(7) provides that if Parliament fails to enact any court-ordered legislation to implement the Constitution, “the Chief Justice shall advise the President to dissolve Parliament and the President shall dissolve Parliament”.

The Catch-22 situation, however, is, whether, if Parliament is, indeed, dissolved, the depleted all-male four-member Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) would conduct by-elections.

Mr Adankhalif is a disaster risk and policy consultant. [email protected].