With the Kenyan legislatures not agreeing on whether to pass the gender bill, It has been revealed what could happen should the bill not pass. The article 261 of our Kenya constitution give Chief Justice David Maraga the authority to dissolve the Parliament.
If the GENDER BILL does not pass, Article 261 of the constitution gives POWERS to Maraga to DISSOLVE Parliament. Given his HISTORY, Maraga WILL DISSOLVE Parliament. MPs should be AFRAID. Very AFRAID. https://t.co/VrAiSCGNdS #GenderBill
— Mutahi Ngunyi (@MutahiNgunyi) November 21, 2018
We all Know how the CJ works.If he sees the Parliament is not serious and doing what it should be doing then he will not hesitate to dissolve it.
In practice as well, the two houses of Parliament do not comply with the gender requirement. There are 76 women in the National Assembly including 23 elected MPs, 47 woman representatives and six nominated members.
The Senate has 21 women members of whom 19 are nominated while three were elected.
Kenya ranks low in women representation with only 22 per cent of MPs being women. Rwanda ( 61 per cent) and Ethiopia ( 50 per cent) are the only African countries that have achieved the two-thirds gender rule.
MPs opposing the Bill argued that creating additional parliamentary seats would cost Kenyan taxpayers millions of dollars in extra salaries.
Others have questioned how nominations of candidates would be conducted, suggesting that politician’s wives, girlfriends and mistresses would be given seats by proxy.