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{
    "id": 575803,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/575803/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Anami",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2773,
        "legal_name": "Lisamula Silverse Anami",
        "slug": "lisamula-silverse-anami"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. First and foremost, we want to appreciate that we had many protracted court cases at the very beginning. People were seeking to be nominated. That can explain the situation as it is now but, we cannot repeat. We should not be anxious to repeat the mistake that was made that time. It also calls upon us, as a country, to put mechanisms in place that will facilitate elections and nomination of this gender. I also wish to underline the fact that gender disparity may tilt against the female gender but, we should not take it for granted and think that that is what the case will be throughout. We are setting law for the future. There will be time when the male gender will want this special attention. The spirit of the Constitution being that we should bring everyone on board and appreciate that both gender have a purpose and reason to be citizens of Kenya and that they have a contribution to make for purposes of having balance, we should be anxious to correct the mistakes that were made. There is the spirit of public participation and citizen participation, in the nomination and even election of these MCAs. How I wish that in this amendment we could find a way of setting standards for people to be chairpersons for certain committees, to have certain basic skills and abilities to deal with that sector. This will pull us back and it should not just be the question of one-third gender rule but a question of who is doing what so that the spirit of fair distribution of resources and opportunities can be upheld. The principle of inclusiveness is very fundamental here. Even after these MCAs were included following the court cases, still we have had some changes. Many changes of Speakers, Deputy Speakers and chairpersons of the different committees at the county level but the female gender has been excluded. This is arising from the behaviour of governors. We, at that time, saw our dear governors wanting to create regimes for themselves so that MCAs could not impeach them. This is what may also have contributed to this disparity. This needs to be interrogated seriously and the Senate needs to rise to the occasion to address this issue case by case so that we can have this necessary balance and obey the principle of inclusiveness. We need to stabilise county governments and require that county assemblies play their oversight role and enjoy the independence that they need to have as an arm of the county governments. If this has to be done, then we need to have legislation that affirms this; the position of county governments. I think the challenge goes beyond county assemblies. It is the first test on county governments. Some county assemblies think they are answerable to governors to the extent that they behave as if they are staff of the governors. If we affirm this rule and create the one-third gender balance, perhaps we will have better county assemblies and they will play their oversight role effectively. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}