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{
    "id": 669312,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/669312/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 71,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "In 2013, we have very strong women who vied for gubernatorial and senatorial positions, but we did not get even one governor elected as a woman neither did we get a Senator. We only got three county assembly speakers who are women. That tells us how far we are and need to go. In the Tenth Parliament we actually had 18 single-Member constituencies out of 210. We now have 16 out of 290 constituencies. What does that tell us? We are celebrating that we have a higher percentage of women, but how many are actually able to go out there, get a fair nomination, run for office and be elected? We are dipping and not growing, if you look at it that way. Most of us are serving on affirmative seats. How many are able to campaign and actually undergo a fair nomination to be elected to Parliament? We are going down in terms of percentage and that is something we need to worry about. Yesterday, the Kenya Women Parliamentarians hosted some congress for lunch, comprising of five men and three women from the United States (US). They were actually awed that we are so many and thought that we are doing very well. Even in the US – and they are a democracy that is over 200 years old – they are only at 17 per cent, but they also do not have the quotas that we have. They look at us and think that we are doing very well. We told them of the struggles that we have even to try to get laws passed in Parliament. They look at our Constitution as a very progressive one, and yes it is. It clearly states that not more than two-thirds will be of the same gender, but how will we implement that? We tried to get the numbers in the National Assembly to pass that law and it was impossible, yet when we try to pass some laws, like the security laws, it is very easy to martial the numbers. We were deliberating on what exactly we do wrong. Why are women judged so harshly when it comes to political representation? There is a narrative that women are not contributing or adding value, yet it could be just ten out of the 86 that we have that are not doing well. Again, maybe 30 of the balance of a 418- Member Parliament are men and nothing is said about them. That portrays the picture of what we have to deal with everyday. We are headed for elections and I can assure you that it is not easy to run for office. If some of us who are running for offices next year are having it tough, how can an ordinary woman out there with no platform or resources run for office and be assured of a fair and level-playing ground? How can an ordinary woman run for office and win? I have a very good track record of women where I come from. In my home constituency, Gilgil, out of five elected Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) three are women. I do not think there is any other in this country that can beat that record. We have proved that they can perform even better. Exactly where do we go wrong? That is what this conference was trying to find out. When you look at political parties even today, you can never find many women in the normal vertical structures. They are very few, thanks to the one-third threshold. You will find them mostly in the women league. You could be in the youth league of ODM, like Sen. Kanainza; you are never in the mainstream. How many women actually append their signatures in the nomination certificates, as secretary-generals of political parties in this country? Maybe there is only Sen. Elachi, who is the Secretary General of the Alliance Party of Kenya (APK). I do not know of any other. That is where we start to be disadvantaged. You work very hard in your constituency, but just as Roosevelt said: “As 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"
}