Dramatic scenes were witnessed at the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) meeting in Narok on Saturday, February 22, as Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru confronted a lawmaker over his remarks on gender parity in public appointments.
Budalangi MP, Raphael Wanjala, had given a speech in which he trashed proposals to have governors compelled to appoint deputies from the opposite gender, sparking the angry reaction from women leaders seated on the main dais including Waiguru and Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu.
Wanjala blamed 'populism' for the two-thirds gender rule adopted in the 2010 Constitution, reiterating that gender-based appointments were not legislative issues.
"You cannot force a man, that when he wants to run for governor, he has a woman behind him. This is a democracy, everybody votes for who they want, you don't have to find a woman. This is not a marriage!" Wanjala thundered. Waiguru led women leaders on stage as they shouted down Wanjala, loudly opposing his remarks.
"Hapana! Hapana! (No! No!)" the leaders are heard chanting.
Waiguru remained on her feet as she pointed at Wanjala until the MP was ushered back to his seat.
Waiguru has been vocal in her push for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) to entrench gender equality at the highest levels of leadership.
Referencing a proposed executive structure with a president and prime minister, Waiguru recommended that one of two deputy Prime Ministers be a woman as well as either the President and Deputy President.
“We need more seats at the top including a prime minister and two deputies. If the president is male, then the deputy president should be female. One of the deputy prime ministers should also be female,” she stated in Narok.
Waiguru maintained that expanding the executive would open up leadership to all of Kenya's different communities.
Leaders from the Maasai community who spoke at the event shared a memorandum with a list of issues they wanted the BBI to address.
Most prominently, the leaders demanded the return of community land grabbed during the colonial era.
"The Maa nation wants economic devolution and not political devolution. We already have counties, which have started off well and visible development has begun to be experienced,” stated Kajiado Governor Joseph Ole Lenku.
The leaders also declared their support for a Parliamentary system of government with an expanded executive.
Watch a video of Wanjala's speech below courtesy of NTV:
