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{
    "id": 1028645,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1028645/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 310,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Godfrey Osotsi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13172,
        "legal_name": "Godfrey Osotsi",
        "slug": "godfrey-osotsi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to contribute to this very important Motion. I rise to also support this policy. It is long overdue. As we are aware, various institutions including the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) have come up with similar policy and member states were also required to do the same. All the same, I think it is better late than never. As many Members have said, women have gained immensely in the BBI Report. We want to encourage the slow readers and the scientists to read very fast so that they can join the rest of us in saying that we have made a major breakthrough in terms of women empowerment through the BBI. One of the things I am happy about in the BBI is that recently the Chief Justice wrote an advisory calling for the dissolution of the Parliament. It all appeared like the responsibility to ensure that gender balance was on Parliament. The BBI has spread the responsibility to political parties, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and even the Executive to ensure that all these institutions ensure that we have gender parity. That is very important. It is very unfair to put that responsibility on Parliament alone yet Members are not involved in choosing who comes to Parliament. We want to tell the IEBC to ensure that as recommended in the BBI, the list they get comply with the gender balance rule that has been provided in the BBI Report. One thing I want to say from my experience is that I hope the laws that will emanate from the BBI Report will be very specific. For example, the BBI Report says a third of those listed on the political parties list must be of either gender. I know most political parties will simply fill those slots with regions where they do not have support. In law, we must insist that there is some quota in the strong holds of political parties, so that we eventually have, progressively, more women being elected to Parliament. The other very important thing is that the Executive will now have to comply with the gender balance principle. We cannot talk about Parliament and not talk about the Executive. We want to see the gender balance rule being obeyed even by the Cabinet, the Judiciary and key institutions in the Government. That is provided in the BBI Report. I urge the slow readers, such as Nominee 001, to try and read very fast, so that they are on the same page with the rest of us, so that women can get the gains that are included in the BBI Report. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the global performance is 25 per cent representation of women in Parliament. In Kenya, we have set the threshold at one-third, which is about 33 per cent. So, we need to work hard so that we can achieve that high target that we have set for ourselves. However, reading the BBI Report, I am very confident that we are going to achieve it. The Member for Taita has talked about the removal of the County Woman Representative (CWR) position. As we talk about that, let us also talk about the 70 positions which are also going to be available for women."
}