Suba North Member of Parliament Millie Odhiambo on Friday, April 16, challenged President William Ruto to take the Ministry of Gender and Culture seriously despite Parliament’s approval of Hanna Cheptumo as the new Gender Cabinet Secretary.
While speaking in the National Assembly, the lawmaker raised alarm over the eight-month vacuum that has plagued the Gender ministry since the dissolution of the Cabinet in July 2024 in the wake of the June-July Gen Z-led protests.
During that period, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi oversaw operations at the ministry. This was despite Mudavadi being the Foreign Affairs CS and performing other significant duties within the government.
The MP also challenged the nature of appointments made in efforts to provide a substantive CS for the ministry, citing the rejection of CS nominees by the National Assembly.
“It is unfortunate that this is the Ministry that three times, we have rejected the CSs in a very short time. And since July, it has been without a substantive CS,” Odhiambo stated.
"The challenge goes back to the appointing authority, that we need to take this Ministry seriously and that we don't just use it as a means of filling up slots,” she added.
In August 2024, President William Ruto nominated Stella Lang’at for the Gender Ministry. However, the National Assembly's Committee on Appointments rejected her nomination. The committee's report indicated that Lang’at had failed to demonstrate adequate knowledge of topical, administrative, and technical issues pertinent to the ministry.
Additionally, they flagged how her career was characterised by frequent job transitions without long-term strategic planning experience, leading to concerns about her suitability for the role.
Since then, the ministry has been without a substantive CS, with the prolonged vacancy drawing criticism from various stakeholders, including women's rights advocates and parliamentarians, who viewed it as a neglect of gender issues by Ruto’s administration.
Millie Odhiambo's remarks came amidst the National Assembly's decision to announce their approval of recently nominated Hanna Cheptumo to the Gender docket, bringing an end to the long-standing vacancy.
Even so, Odhiambo expressed her reservations about Cheptumo’s appointment but at the same time offered to assist her in the affairs of her new ministry.
“I am not saying that this woman is incompetent; she's very competent as a lawyer, but when we want to give somebody some added responsibility, we need to think more seriously about that,” she noted.
Cheptumo sparked attention in her parliamentary vetting after she made a controversial remark about the spate of femicide witnessed in the country.
During the vetting by the National Assembly Committee on Appointments, Cheptumo stated that victims of femicide were mainly uneducated women. She went on to add that the educated ones were killed or attacked while looking for money.
The significant backlash prompted Kikuyu Member of Parliament and Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah to apologise on her behalf, noting that Cheptumo made the remarks while in a state of panic.
Cheptumo is a lawyer by profession and the widow of the late Baringo Senator William Cheptumo, who passed on in February.
