Kenya in a Dilemma Over Women Representation

Kenya is considering carrying out the first constitutional amendment to fix the provision requiring that composition of women in parliament must be one third of the total elected members of parliament.
The amendment will give women a technical knock-out and deny them up to 72 seats reserve in parliament.
Some politicians and analysts say that achieving such a number is impossible even if some constituencies were reserved for women since you cannot force people to elect women only. Cabinet met on Thursday 18 August and resolved that the tenet on women representation was technically impossible to achieve.
After the meeting, the cabinet decided to set a task force that will prepare a constitutional amendment bill to deal with the provision termed as technically impossible. The government is racing against time to pass all bills into law before August 27 deadline.
Section 81 (b) of the constitution states that “not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.”
However the cabinet meeting chaired by President Mwai Kibaki found that the section was impractical and resolved that a taskforce be formed to come up with an amendment bill for the section.
The move by the cabinet has elicited strong opposition from different women groups including Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake among others.
Kenya National Human Rights Commission chairperson Florence Jaoko criticized the government’s move terming the move as unconstitutional.
“Women have had a disadvantage traditionally due to social and traditional way of life and the one-third rule was a stop gap to balance gender in elective positions,” says Jaoko.
The new constitution creates 290 constituencies which means that women would get at least 72 seats plus should the one-third rule apply as stipulated. One woman would be elected to parliament as representatives from each of the 47 counties.
David Kuria Western of Nakuru Human Rights Network says, “It cannot happen in any democracy, the principles of democracy demand that every person has the right to vie for whichever elective posts they want, women should as well compete for the seat.”
Women rights activists have already threatened to move to court to block the cabinet from amending the section that limits the number of either gender to two thirds.
Experts say that a constitutional crisis was possible should the country go to the polls and fails to fulfill the section of the constitution saying that the senate and the parliament would be unconstitutional.
Addressing Kenya’s Nation Newspaper, lawyer Paul Mwite and Issack Hassan who is the chairman of Interim Independent Electoral Commission said that the “two organs would be considered unconstitutional if either gender exceeds one-third.”
Hassan observed that the way out was to come up with a way to compel political parties to come up with a formula to compel political parties to reserve certain number of seats for women.
Judy Thongori, a lawyer and rights activist said that she would be in court “immediately after the election to stop the parliament and the senate from sitting if the gender balance is not respected.”
The constitution that was voted into law last year by an overwhelming 6 million plus Kenyans envisaged a better representation of women in a parliament where men have dominated for many decades now.
The current parliament has 22 women legislators constituting ten percent of the total 222 legislators. Women make up to 52 percent of the total population in Kenya according to 2009 population census.
“However the representation of women in parliament and ministries among other appointive and elective bodies does not reflect this majority percentage.” Said Ms Gunilla Carlson, Swedish Minister for International Cooperation when she met women legislators in Nairobi city recently.
Maendeleo ya Wanawake leader in coast province Surea Roble has opposed the latest move by the cabinet to amend section 81 (b) saying it was wrong to deny women representation as required by the constitution.
Varying views and opinions have been given by Kenyans with some saying that women should not “be given seats on a silver plate but should compete with men for the seats”
Former President Daniel Moi recently said that Women should “not have special seats reserved fro them but should join other people in competing for the sets.”
Various women groups and rights activists have proposed a formular of dividing the 290 constituencies into four clusters of constituencies. “ Each of these four clusters will elect women in rotation in each election.” Proposed Wambua Kanyi of Women’s Political Alliance. By so doing he argued it would ensure that each group of constituencies must elect women.
This rotational method is however faced with a challenge of going against the very constitution that guarantees right for any person to vie for elective posts subject to set standards.
It would be the first time in the history of Kenya women would get such a high number of positions in the elective seats something that would be a big gain for them should the one-third rule be followed.
Both the Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musioka have assured women that the cabinet “did not have the intention to deny women the positions but was looking at practical ways to apply the provision of equity in a democratic way.”
Peter Karare is a freelance journalist based in Nakuru County of Rift Valley province in Kenya, East Africa.