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{
    "id": 639029,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/639029/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 278,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Midiwo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 184,
        "legal_name": "Washington Jakoyo Midiwo",
        "slug": "jakoyo-midiwo"
    },
    "content": "We have agreed to look at the socio-economic audit report. Having seen the draft, I know for a fact this is one of the issues raised in the report. It would be nice to deal with this issue in a more responsible manner. We cannot just have a certain number of Members of Parliament because we want to meet some principle without looking at how much it is going to cost us. A lot of the things in the current Constitution were conceived by activists and people in the civil society. We are now paying for it. Somebody must be bold enough to say that we cannot afford to pay for it. If I will be that person, so be it. I want to keep my friends, but if it means that I will lose them because of what I believe our country should be, so be it. The principle of affirmative action cannot be a constitutional principle. It cannot be cured by constantly changing our Constitution. It is not just an issue. It is the responsibility of the male gender to bring up the female gender in our country. It is our responsibility to do it. We have agreed to do it. We must accept the responsibility. However, if it is costing us, we must agree to look for an alternative. In proportional representative systems in places like South Africa, it is easy to do. If you read the proposals in the Political Parties Bill, which is before the House, you will find that all these shenanigans have found their way into that Bill. It is a sure way of giving the women of Kenya lip service without talking about how to sort out this issue once and for all. Leadership is not being provided with regard to this Bill. It has been tried. We have gone through this before. This Bill will fail on arrival because we fear biting the bullet. This Bill gives the possibility of a scenario where no woman is elected as a Member of Parliament except as a women’s representative in the 47 counties, and then you want to nominate an additional 47 women. In other words, we want to increase the size of Parliament to 400. Jakoyo Midiwo will not be party to that. You will not have my vote to increase the number of Members in this House. I support the two-thirds gender rule, but I will not support this Bill. We are not being productive given our numbers. Article 90 of the Constitution, which we keep referring to, gives the county assemblies power to nominate busybodies to the assemblies and squander public funds. Take my county, for example, out of 30 elected ward representatives, there are 18 additional nominated women, which is not a third of 30."
}