Women reps oppose bid to scrap position

County Women Representatives have threatened organise countywide demonstrations against the Jubilee government over proposals to merge counties and scrap their positions.

Led by the County Women’s Rep Parliamentary Group charlady Cecilia Ng’etich (Bomet), Alice Chae (Nyamira) and Wanjiku Muhia (Nyandarua) the women representatives declared that they will seek legal interpretation of the law from the Constitution Implementation Commission (CIC) to enable them to block a bid by MPs to scrap their positions and those of nominated politicians in the Senate and county assemblies.

Addressing journalists Tuesday, they described the Bill by Mwingi MP Joe Mutambo as against the Constitution, discriminatory, anti- women and must be resisted through all means.

“I urge women in the country to come out in large numbers once we call for public demonstrations so that our voices can be heard. It is through community that our rights as women can be respected,” said Mrs Chae who led a statement signed by her colleagues.

Among others things, the Bill aims at reducing the number of counties from the current 47 to 16, scrap positions of nominees in Parliament, Senate and County women representatives.

Those agitating for the Bill say that is the main way the bloated public workers’ wage bill can be reduced.

But Mrs Chae accused male MPs of being egocentric and having a tendency of not treating women reps who are members of parliament as equal partners in the national Assembly.
“It is annoying when some of our male legislators refer to us as just flowers in Parliament. We will not tire until our concerns are addressed as we have equal rights like our male politicians,” she said.

She cited the management of Uwezo fund which was supposed to be controlled by County women reps which now MPs want to take control of it as one area where women leaders are discriminated by their male counterparts.

“The President had clearly stated that Uwezo fund was to be managed by women MPs but when the matter came to Parliament we were short changed by our male counterparts.

No woman was picked as a member of a committee that is handling the matter in the Senate after we disagreed with our male counterparts over the fund’s management,” she said.