African Woman and Child Feature Service

ESTABLISHING INDICATORS T0 ASSESS THE INFLUENCE OF FEMALE AND MALE USING A SCORE-CARD IN THE 10TH PARLIAMENT

For the first time in Kenyan history, the Kenyan Parliament has got more women as Members of Parliament. With 22 women MPs out of 222, the figures are still small comparing with Rwanda which has supposed the 50% mark and now stands at 56.7%.

However, to be able gauge how Parliament is trying to mainstream gender issues in its day to day activities, from debates on different bills, priority of bills to Committee Sessions, African Woman and Child Feature Service has developed a Scorecard to monitor Parliament with key set indicators.

The aim is to establish from a qualitative aspect the difference women bring into Parliament and the following indicators will be used;

- Question time in Parliament (who asks what, depending on the parameters, e.g. type of questions asked by elected vs. nominated MPs, gender, region, political party, education level, profession, etc.)

- Motions (Who brings what motion, again, depending on the parameters).

         > Bills (a critique of private members' Bills, depending on the benchmarks set)

         > Participation during debates (Is gender an issue? or what other factors influence the intensity, or otherwise of a member's participation)

- Parliamentary Committee: How active are female MPs when their committee reports are tabled?

NOTE: We will assess these benchmarks on a weekly and monthly basis and pass a verdict, together with suggestions on strengthening weak links and the findings will be published in the Nation Newspaper.