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{
    "id": 678071,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/678071/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 284,
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    "content": "the best for you to get those elections so that we have women sitting here so that we do not have somebody saying like one of the Senators commented that you are escorting delegations and that we cannot vote for our delegations. This is because we vote as a delegation but in consultation with the head of delegation. It would be a fresh breathe of air to have those positions filled by women. It is possible and can happen. The numbers will vary. In the National Assembly, to attain almost 150 Members, we need about 70 more added, if things remain the way they are but going into the election we expect that change. The foundation of this Bill is that it tries to address the issue of having a constitutional assembly, both at the National Assembly and the Senate, by having not more than two-thirds of the same gender within those particular bodies. Article 177 of the Constitution saved a situation for the county assemblies. It gave an important provision that at the end of the day, the number of special seats necessary to ensure that not more than two-thirds of the membership of the assembly is of the same gender was entrenched within the Constitution. Immediately after the elections, it was possible for county assemblies to seat, look at the numbers and calculate how many more are needed and embrace them. This did not happen for the National Assembly and the Senate. Article 97 of the Constitution deals with the composition of the National Assembly and Article 98 deals with the composition of the Senate. This Bill, therefore, tries to entrench the same principle within the National Assembly and the Senate. Clause 3 (2) is an additional clause. We realised that if we leave this within the Constitution as it is, it will be a problem for it to be enacted. Therefore, we are making a provision in this Bill to take legislative policy and other measures, including setting standards to achieve the realization of this particular clause. Without a clear affirmative action to address that specific clause, it becomes difficult for us to do that. Madam Temporary Speaker, allow me to go to the contentious clause. A lot of contributions that we are getting across this clause are to do with the misreading of the clause. Clause 1 tries to solve a problem of having nominations of one particular Member exceeding two specific terms. It is already addressing the problem of having a Member being nominated for the third and fourth time. When we talk of women Senators and leaders wanting to be nominated 15 times, it is a misrepresentation of the clause. This clause tries to cure a good. It states that a person should only be nominated for two terms. The eligibility refers to qualification; it does not state that a person must be there. We know that in any nomination procedure, some might be nominated once or twice. It is a political party decision to be made. Therefore, we are misinterpreting this clause given what I have heard from the debate since Thursday. I stood on a point of information and informed Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale. He told me that if I were his lecturer, I would have misled him. There is no misleading because this clause is very clear. We are talking about eligibility which does not infer “a must.” I will go along the lines of Sen. Wetangula, that if this clause is creating confusion, we can discuss about how best we can address it. I do not think that the spirit of this particular Bill was for the women leaders, especially those in this House or the National Assembly, to entrench themselves. That is not the interpretation that we had expected to come on board. 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"
}