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{
    "id": 702559,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/702559/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 106,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Lay",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1022,
        "legal_name": "Joyce Wanjalah Lay",
        "slug": "joyce-wanjalah-lay"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for this opportunity. I rise to oppose this Bill. The reason why we are talking about women being marginalised is because this Bill affects us at this particular time. This is because we have fewer women in this House. The Supreme Court Advisory asked Parliament to come up with a formula on how we are going to achieve the two- third gender rule. Talking about progressive does not give us a formula. If this is about shielding Parliament from dissolution, even with this Bill, it will be dissolved. We will go home because we have not come up with a formula. I want to support the Member for Magarini. He has made a very good point. He said that at this time, we are the ones who are affected. I believe that the women of Kenya and the women of Africa are rising up. They are going to stand and win most of the seats in future. Our male Members should realise that time will come – and it will come very soon – when they will need this formula. One day, you will sit down and regret not passing a Bill that was brought here previously. This is because we are empowering our women. The male members of the society have taken a back seat. They are not even empowering the boy child. They are absent in their families. Even when it comes to school meetings, the majority of those who attend are women. If you go to churches, you will also find that the majority are women. We are doing their jobs. We are empowering the girl-child and the boy child at the same time. The men are missing in action. They are not there to mentor the boys. This shows that there is danger ahead. The danger is that women will be empowered. Women in future will take up these positions. The male Members of Parliament should come out clearly and tell us why they not are supporting the one-third gender principle. Is it because it is women who are going to be added to the membership of Parliament or is it because they want to cut down the number of constituencies? If that is the case, we have not seen anybody bringing that Bill to Parliament. They are only saying it but they are not acting. Let the truth be told. That is another way of reducing the number of constituencies. We have the current number of elected Members because everything was centralised then. People wanted representation. That is why they kept on calling for more constituencies to be created. After the new Constitution, we got devolved. We have the ward as the smallest unit or representation. We have the ward representative, who is the leader closest to the people. That tells us that we do not need to burden the taxpayer. If that is the formula we need, somebody should bring it to the House so that we do not have shallow talks without anybody taking action. It is time we bit the bullet and said; “yes, we need to reduce the number of constituencies and retain the 47 County Women Representatives.” If we retain the 47 County Women Representatives, we will not talk about gender balance again. 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."
}