As politicians are positioning themselves for the next General Elections in Kenya which will be done under the new constitution, one of the issues which have been given the pride of place in the entire struggle of the new constitution is the place of women.
In that the question of women’s representation in any elective post will be the defining moment during the 2012 General Elections.
Elizabeth Muli the Vice Chair of the Constitution Implementation Committee is cognisant of that fact and acknowledges that the gains of women within the constitution can be realised through Article 259 which requires that the constitution is interpreted with the principle of Equality and Equity.
It is against this backdrop that women parliamentarians under the leadership of the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) launched the 116 seats campaign in the count-down to 2012 General Elections.
According to Prof. Margaret Kamar, Assistant Minister for Environment and Mineral Resources and a Member of Parliament, the women expect to secure 116 seats come the next General Elections.
Speaking during the leadership feedback after they had attended the Barbro Dahlbom-Hall Leadership Training in Sweden, Prof. Kamar was emphatic that with the skills they got from Sweden, will them and the women of Kenya to secure the 116 seats.
“We the women leaders have declared that we shall first secure the 7 seats currently being held by women MPs and we will up with strategies to secure the 116 seats.”
Aware that there will be many challenges the KEWOPA women have agreed to come up with the strategies to involve all and sundry in their journey towards the 116 seats. The strategy involves coming up with the motion which shall enjoins Parliament to enact the legislation, and also a campaign mechanism to create awareness among women and the public on the need to secure 116 seats.
Giving the rationale of why 116 seats for women, Prof. Kamar explained that with the new constitution, the number of MPs in the National Assembly shall be 290, and if the spirit of the constitution is implemented to the later women should occupy 162 seats as follows; the National Assembly should have at least 96 women elected. In addition, there shall be 47 women from each County elected by the voters. Then the twelve members who are expected to be nominated by parliamentary political parties according their proportion of members of the National Assembly in accordance with Article 90, one –third should be women and this shall translate into another 4 seats for women. Then the other 47 seats for Senators should again translate into 15 more seats for women.
“The arrival of the 116 seats , only focuses on the National Assembly and the Senator positions,” explains Prof. Kamar.
But for this to happen, women have to join the political parties in large numbers. Even though there are two women led political parties namely NARC-Kenya headed by Hon Martha Karua and NARC headed by Hon Charity Ngilu who is also the Minister for Water and Irrigation, few women in Kenya hold key party positions and even fewer belong to any political party.
“We can only be able to see the glass half-full instead of half empty of we join the political parties to realise the seats,” said Hon Millie Odhiambo.
The current political party bill is very explicit on how nomination should be done and how people can become members of any political party.
According to Winnie Gichu of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) said that the Political Party Bill is very strict on nomination of people who will run for any political post.
She explained; “The party will have to provide the names of all the nominated candidates, who must have been member three months prior to the nomination and provide the Registrar of political parties receipts of membership for each nominee.”
She was concerned that with the way things are going the party list for the nomination of the National Assembly will be a cause of concern especially for women. She wondered aloud; “when time comes for the party nomination, will we get the numbers of women especially at the County level to view for political posts.”
She urged the women to be part of a political structure to start coming up with mechanism on how different criteria of party lists shall be developed namely to ensure that the Principle of Affirmative Action is taken into consideration during the nomination of candidates for the National Assembly, the Senators, the Governors, and wards.
While challenging the women organisation to ensure that the spirit of the constitution is captured through the implementation process, Senior Stephen Etemesi told the women’s movement that it is the mandate of the women organisations such as the G10 to ask for the declaration from the Government on how the appointment, selection, nomination, election, and also on how the selection in public offices will be done in the new constitution.
Therefore for the women in Kenya to look beyond the numbers means that the government through the judiciary must come up with the guidelines for the interpretation and application of new constitution especially within the leadership structures.
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