Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 600706,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/600706/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 279,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "use that – you have your own seat – to discourage communities to vote for women for the seats that they will go for. Madam Temporary Speaker, we also know that there are other very many challenges that discourage women. It is not that women do not try to vie and that has been an argument that why do we wait to be nominated for tokenism. We also have to agree as a nation that we have challenges which are addressed in this Report. There are challenges to do with finances, resources and violence against women who are vying. Chair, you were elected, you vied again and we saw the challenges that you had even at your political party. We have to agree that we face challenges even for those who want to vie. It is a lie and a fallacy to say that women do not present themselves for elective positions or even to be board members or anything under the sun but we also have to be alive to the challenges that are there and agree to address them as a country. That is what this Report is doing. Further, we hope the respective groups that are to pick up on some of these issues can then pick up after this and implement it. As a country, we are so good at talking and discussing issues but when it now comes to the implementation, it is the same challenge that we are having even with the two-thirds gender balance which is expressly in our Constitution, that no position will have more than two thirds of one gender. Madam Temporary Speaker, we also passed the Constitution overwhelmingly when we knew that it was there. However, when it comes to implementation, we see a lot of pull and push. It is something that we should just agree as a people that this is one of the things that we agreed on and see how best do we go about it. We also appreciate the steps that have been taken because I also sit in the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) and the larger association of all of us as women. We have seen men who have come out to support the implementation of that rule. There are two Bills in the National Assembly and we are still engaging the Majority Leader, Adan Duale and the Chairperson of the Committee on Legal Affairs, Samuel Chepkong’a. They are willing and we hope that all our colleagues in the National Assembly will pick up on this matter as something that we have to do as a country. It is because it is in the Constitution and we passed it. Madam Temporary Speaker, we also thank his Excellency the President and his Deputy for being at the forefront on this issue. We hope that they will give more support to ensure that this is finally passed. We have come a long way and we have seen other areas where affirmative action was needed and not just in leadership. For example, for a long time, many girls were not making it to public universities through the then Joint Admissions Board (JAB). Over time, it was discussed and felt that the cut-off points to university for girls should be lowered a little bit so that they could attain higher education. That is not to say that girls are not as bright as boys or that it is favouritism for the girls. Our education system accepted that girls have specific and unique challenges that keep them from attaining the marks that would take them expressly to universities. We know issues to do with girls being given extra chores at home which will then make them not revise or study. We know issues of poverty where our girls have been missing school because of their menstrual cycle and lack of sanitary towels. The The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}