Gender balance issue raises heat in House

The Constitutional clause that requires that no one more than two thirds of any one gender can be elected to a public office has kicked off a storm in the country.

Already, women have gone to court to challenge the Constitutionality of the Supreme Court nominees saying the Judicial Service Commission breached the Constitution by nominating more than two thirds of men.

Defending the women’s move, ODM nominated MP, Ms Sofia Abdi Noor, who is also the vice-chairman of the Women’s Parliamentary Association, said it was hard for women to compete with men on an equal footing because of socio-cultural issues pitted against them.

She said many women did not have the financial muscle to sustain a campaign given that they have in the past been marginalised.

“Women have started getting small opportunities recently and it is hard to get enough women to contest because of the cost of campaigns. This is one thing that really discourages women from offering themselves for the elective seats,” said Ms Noor.

She said her association was working on a strategies to have women fill positions in constituencies to avert a Constitutional crisis of having an imbalanced house.

Better leaders

“Whereas the challenges are still there, we are not sitting back and watching, we are saying if we can sensitise the people on the ground to appreciate that women can be better leaders then that will be a good opportunity,” she said.

Beginning next month, the parliamentary association will hold forums in every county where the women MPs will meet the youth, religious and the opinion leaders to convince them on the need to give women candidates a chance.

She said one strategy was to push for the adoption of Interim Independent Electoral and Boundaries Review’s proposal that four constituencies are pooled together to deliver one seat for the women.

“This option has been used in several countries, including India. In a county with four constituencies, by the time the affirmative action time frame ends in 2027, we will have had women rotating in the constituencies,” Ms Noor said.

The women’s demands have, however, been met by opposition, some coming from fellow women.

Veteran journalist Sarah Elderkin has asked women to go slow on their demands saying they might end up losing the gains of the new laws if they continued pursuing the letter of the law rather than its spirit.

Saying that even the most advanced democracies like the US and the UK have not managed what Kenya was attempting to do.

She called for amendment to the clause, which she said threatened the implementation of the Constitution.

“No country in the world has managed the feat we are trying to achieve. We should work out some universally acceptable steps towards achieving our objectives so that we don’t lose greater benefits over arguments of numbers,” she wrote in the Daily Nation two weeks ago.

“Is that how we shall delay real tangible progress in the empowerment, not only of women but also of millions of poverty stricken and disempowered men, youth and children in our society?” she continued in the strongly worded article.

Former Ntonyiri MP Maoka Maore was blunt: “Those who placed the clause must have been high on something. It is unenforceable and is not helpful. They are now overstretching the gains of the Constitution,” said Mr Maore before adding that there was no law barring women from contesting any seat.

She said in Tanzania where they have set aside women’s seats, there was a time when some women turned down positions, or those who accepted did nothing worthwhile in the offices.

Prof Egara Kabaji of Masinde Muliro University vouched for proportionate representation method election was not a zero sum issue.

“Where voters have neared the threshold of electing a woman MP, there is a way in which calculations should produce the MPs,” he said before adding that rocking the boat in the name of fighting for numbers will result in more losses for everyone, including women.

Even as political parties appeared to wear a brave face that all was well, investigations by the Saturday Nation reveal that there were palpable fears, not just on the formula but on the threat on the male-dominated field.

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, who has lately been rebranding his party, ODM-Kenya, told the Saturday Nation that they had no problem with the two-thirds requirement and that as a party they would be going for a 50-50 policy.

“Indeed for us, we see two thirds as too little for our women. Our policy is to have a 50-50 representation,” he said, without elaborating how that could be achieved.

He spoke on the sidelines of a conference dubbed National Wiper Women Conference at Bomas of Kenya.

Moi University don Solomon Waliaula, who has done extensive research on feminism, says the clause was tantamount to reverse discrimination.

Lesser beings

“By doing what we have done we are acknowledging that they are lesser beings,” said Mr Waliaula. “What we should do instead is to continue empowering women so that over time they should be able to catch up with men in a natural and gradual manner.”

His sentiments were echoed by University of Nairobi political science lecturer Dr Adams Oloo, who said there is a disconnect between the political aspirations anchored in the Constitution and the present social realities.

“The drafters meant well as they intended to address the imbalances of our patriarchal society. But there needs to be a balance between the letter of the law and its spirit,” said Dr Oloo, adding that, perhaps, that was why the drafters did not specify that Parliament shall legislate on the details.

The IIEC chairman Issack Hassan has raised concern that the country may not meet the Constitutional threshold of having a third of women in the Senate and Parliament.

“If the Constitutional condition of having a third of women in the National Assembly and Senate is not met, then there would be a problem and the courts would have to decide, and given the independent way the courts are now operating, it would be difficult to speculate what would happen next,” said Mr Hassan.

“In trying to address the situation, we are currently formulating rules to have all political parties ensure that they have a third of their nominated candidates for election be women to avert the Constitutional crisis,” he said.

He said his commission was drafting the rules that required that every political party give a third or more of the nominated candidates slots to women, though he admitted that would depend on the goodwill of the political parties.

However, women are up in arms saying that the matter should be legislated as it should not be left to the whims and goodwill of politicians.

An official at the Constitution Implementation Commission, Mr Kamotho Waiganjo, said though the formula had not yet been worked out, the country would never have Parliament comprising more than two thirds of individuals of one gender after the next elections.

“The commission is considering a mix of options such as providing funding incentives to parties with female candidates as well as reserving certain seats for them,” he said.

Already a number of MPs, including the chairman of the parliamentary select committee that agreed on the final draft of the Constitution, Abdikadir Mohammed, have said drafters did not intend an instantaneous implementation of the gender clause.

“It is unrealistic for them to demand an immediate meeting of the threshold. It is impracticable and the interpretation is pedestrian,” says Abdikadir.

“If we fail to meet their demands the next legislature will not be unconstitutional,” says Budalang’i MP Mr Ababu Namwamba, who is also the parliamentary secretary of ODM.

However, women leaders say the MP’s interpretations were selfish.

“If the drafters of the Constitution intended to make it progressive they should have said as much,” argued university law lecturer Dr Koki Muli.