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{
    "id": 702641,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/702641/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 188,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "Love is a good thing. I rise to oppose the Bill presented by Hon. Chepkong’a. Instead of dealing with things that the next Parliament will be required to put together, and know many Members in this Parliament will not even be here to make those laws in the next Parliament, let us make laws that we have been charged to make in this term as the 11th Parliament. We need to actualise the Constitution and all its provisions for human rights, participation of everyone, including people with disability, the youth and inclusion of all genders and minorities in governance. We want a Kenya that is all inclusive. In East African region, the other countries have taken steps, and radical steps for that matter, in order to achieve this. Rwanda, for example, attained the 50 per cent threshold. In Kenya, we can achieve a one-third minimum if we do it properly. Hon. Speaker, you mentioned that there are no other live Bills in the House except the one that was rejected in April by Hon. Duale. I would like to mention that I know Hon. Aghostinho, on behalf of the human rights caucus, had brought a Bill that had passed through the Budget and Appropriations Committee and had been scheduled for debate in the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. The Bill never went beyond that stage. That Bill seeks to amend the Constitution along the same lines as the one we are discussing. It also proposes a formula which could help us attain the minimum number of 94 women in this House. It is part of the green amendment campaign. We also have a formula that could expand the size of the House without reducing the size of the House and get us more women to be elected ab initio as opposed to being nominated by the parties after the elections. It is time for us to put our hands together and reject the proposal by Hon. Chepkong’a. Hon. Speaker, you have just read for us the constitutional provision and progressive means that even the next Parliament can have the same window for five years to absolutely stop action on this issue. The Parliament after the next Parliament can also have the same five year window, unless I misunderstood you. It is time we took the bull by the horns and do justice. We need to put down our names in the history books of Africa and the world as the people who made sure that governance in Kenya became inclusive. I feel a little bit sad when this debate is reduced to who supports women and who does not. Hon. Jakoyo puts it in terms of those who love women and those who do not. I know he also loves them because he has his mother, sister and wife. None of us here hates women. Therefore, this debate should not be boiled down to that kind of thinking. The cost of having the two-third gender rule actualised in this Parliament is not so much. it is doable. The benefits are so much. The leadership that women Members of this House have been giving is outstanding, right from Chairs of Committees to the Deputy Speaker. We will be sending a message to young people around the country, both boys and girls, that each of them 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."
}