Low turnout led to the flop of a bill that would have guaranteed more Kenyan women in parliament as well other public offices in the East African nation.
Campaigners for women’s rights have termed the lack of quorum during Wednesday’s national assembly sitting as a deliberate move by male MPs to scuttle the voting process.
There were only 174 out of 349 members present at the time of voting. For the bill to pass 233 members must be present in the House and they must all vote in favour.
So just who in Kenya is afraid of women leaders?
This was the fourth attempt at passing the bill. Twice the Members of Parliament rejected it and twice the process was hit by a quorum hitch. A white headscarf protest by Women MPs has also failed to sway the vote.
“No Gender Bill, No Referendum”
Kenya Women MPs protest after bid to vote on Gender Bill flops a fourth time due to quorum hitch. pic.twitter.com/yirF7XfxEI #GenderBill #GenderBillMustFall #PleaseSackTheseCSs #Kenya pic.twitter.com/UhAiB7ylDI
— paul okonji (@paul_okonji) February 27, 2019
Marilyn Kamuyu, Lawyer and gender rights activist, says that men refused to comply.
“The men in the 12th parliament have refused to comply, you are not going to put this on women, if all the women showed up they couldn’t pass the bill.”
The fight for equal representation has been on for years, women seemed to gain their first win after the enactment of the 2010 constitution.
Since 2012, court rulings have ordered parliament to pass laws on the gender rule, but all attempts have failed on the floor of the house that experts say now put that very parliament at risk of dissolution.
“Every bill that has come to parliament has been as a result of court action,” Kamuyu said.
Critics of this law say women do want to fight it out with men on the ballot, but women argue they have earned their place. Women in the Kenyan parliament account for 22% against the legally required 30% far below her East African neighbours.
With the current impasse, women now want the country Chief Justice David Maraga to advice President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve parliament as it is illegally constituted, but Maraga remains mum on that petition.
