Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Shollei has tabled a motion in parliament seeking to scrap the Woman rep seat.
The constitutional amendment bill advocates for the pairing of constituencies to form one that will be exclusively reserved for women.
Speaking in Eldoret, the legislator mentioned that the amendment seeks to foster the two gender rule by election of more women instead of nomination.
[caption caption="Uasin Gishu Woman Rep Gladys Shollei"]
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“What I want my bill to achieve is adding more women parliament through election and not through nomination which is prone to abuse by party leaders who often nominate their girlfriends,” Shollei noted.
Women currently constitute 19 percent of legislator falling way below the expected 30 percent by the constitution.
It has been depicted that women have difficulties accessing leadership positions mostly due to to the socio-cultural settings of gender rules.
Although the 2017 General Election recorded a high number of female contestants than other election years, statistics from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) showed that out of 10,928 contestants, only 1749 (16 percent) were women.
The constitution holds that not more than two thirds of members of elective bodies shall be of the same gender.
Despite Article 177 ensuring that the gender rule is followed at the county level through the nomination of special seat members, the same has not been guaranteed in the National Assembly and the Senate.
Even after the Supreme Court in 2012 ruled that the gender rule had not been followed, a mechanism is yet tobe developedp to handle the issue.
[caption caption="MPs during a Parliament proceeding"]
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