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{
"id": 189325,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/189325/?format=api",
"text_counter": 66,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ms. Mathenge",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Development",
"speaker": {
"id": 77,
"legal_name": "Esther Murugi Mathenge",
"slug": "esther-murugi"
},
"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. (a) I am aware that in line with the National Policy on Gender and Development of the year 2000 and the Sessional Paper No.2 of 2006 on Gender, Equality and Development and the Circular of November, 2006, directed that at least 30 per cent of all the appointments and promotions in the Public Service be women. Indeed, in his Kenyatta Day Speech of 2006 the President reiterated that 30 per cent of new employees recruited into the Public Service and appointments to public offices 1880 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 16, 2008 should be women. (b) I am further aware that the appointment of Permanent Secretaries made on 21st April, 2008 failed to observe the said Circular because, out of the 44 Permanent Secretaries, there are only six women. However, the Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs is not the appointing authority for Permanent Secretaries. (c) In order to ensure that the letter and the spirit of the Circular are implemented, the Ministry issued a Circular on 15th December, 2006 to all the Accounting Officers to ensure that this directive was followed. We have further implemented and required all the Ministries to have a Gender Desk, which should monitor and advise us on gender issues in every Ministry. Out of those Ministries, 22 have responded and have the gender desks and also 69 parastatals have the gender desks. The gender officers in those offices have also been inducted and have also been made to understand the role that they should play in mainstreaming gender issues in the Ministries. Mr. Speaker, Sir, although not all Ministries have submitted the returns, the information so far received and analyzed by the Department of Gender and Social Services confirms that there are still serious disparities regarding the recruitment and promotion of women. We have, therefore, set up a Gender Desk in the Ministry. We have realised that in order for equality to be achieved, women have to be, first, economically empowered and secondly, they have to be given information to enable them realise and use their skills to full potential. This Gender Desk is, therefore, empowered to disseminate information to all the women of Kenya, and to monitor what every Ministry is doing in relation to the promotion of women and accessing of information by the women. Mr. Speaker, Sir, however, I would wish to say that women will continue to suffer inequality, because of lack of economic empowerment. We also know that women are the most powerful drivers of household incomes, yet they are the most affected by poverty in Kenya. Indeed, the face of poverty depicts the face of a woman. That is why the Government introduced the Women Enterprise Development Fund to ensure that women become economically empowered. The Ministry is, therefore, doing as much as it can to ensure equality."
}