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{
    "id": 701975,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/701975/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 289,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Wahome",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1700,
        "legal_name": "Alice Muthoni Wahome",
        "slug": "alice-muthoni-wahome"
    },
    "content": "women or men. This is because gender has been confused. It is true and I believe that we meant women. It is women who are not in the Kenyan decision-making tables. Look at all these seats. I want to commend my brother who is still here because I have seen his stand and support regularly. I am sure he is here to oppose this particular amendment that is being brought. Hon. Chepkong’a who has left this House and is the owner of this Bill should not deceive this House that this was a Committee Bill. That is because Hon. Priscilla Nyokabi, as the Vice-Chair and other Members of the Committee have said that they never agreed in the Committee. We negotiated and discussed with Hon. Chepkong’a and, without any fear of contradiction, agreed that he will be withdrawing his Bill in favour of ‘Duale Two’. He undertook to withdraw this retrogressive Bill. The word ‘progressive’ does not apply in this document. He agreed and at no time did we agree that he will come back after the loss of ‘Duale Two’. It is the backyard and underhand dealings that have brought this country to where it is. I am willing to be cited for contempt that the Supreme Court was wrong on this question. When it talked about progressive application of Article 27, where did those words come from because they cannot be found in Articles 27, 81 or 100? Let him know that, at that time, the country was at a standstill. The women of this country went to the Supreme Court and stopped it because its constitution then and today is unconstitutional. It should not have any authority to determine constitutional matters at any level if there are no three women sitting in it. They are now recruiting. We do not want to see another male judge in the Supreme Court. This is because the women of Kenya will actually go back and stop it at a very critical time of our year or term of this Parliament. Parliament is a let-down in respect of this particular case. We have tried and held discussions. When I see Hon. Kaluma, Hon. T.J. Kajwang’ and Hon. Jakoyo, I see very far in terms of political hypocrisy in this matter. When I see Hon. Chepkong’a and Hon. Duale saying this Bill is good, I see very far. I believe the political heavyweights in this country across the board are not behind the two-thirds gender principle. If they were, we would not be here allowing a Chair of a very serious Committee to come back with this particular amendment. Let us not negotiate this principle by asking if we should have 10 or 30 women. Article 27 of the Constitution does not have those numbers, but it talks about two-thirds. Mathematics or scientific calculation of two-thirds has figures and a formula, and that is what we have been refusing to come up with because of failure of political goodwill. It is only when it comes to women that we talk about numbers and that the House will be very big. Why did we add the constituencies from 210 to 290? Why do we have 47 governors plundering the economy of the whole country? Why can we not speak and say the resources going there can be managed by only 7, 8 or 16 governors, so that we can speak to the question of saving? Why can we not reduce or remove the Principal Secretaries (PSs) and leave the Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) as the Accounting Officers because when we come to accountability, there is confusion as to who should be held accountable? You know the PSs and CSs take us round. These are places where we should look for saving. Why can this House and Hon. Members not speak of reducing their salaries instead of saying more women will mean--- They are confusing and creating incitement by saying that the 47 women have not done this or that. That is incitement of the country against women and this country cannot survive without women. Many of the Hon. Members in this House have said they have more than one woman in their houses and bedrooms. So, it is not possible for them to say that the women are many when we know in 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."
}