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{
    "id": 702642,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/702642/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 189,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "can aspire to leadership. As a presidential candidate in the United States of America (USA), Hillary Clinton is fighting a bruising battle, but she is showing all signs of cruising to victory. She is doing it gracefully in a very nasty campaign. To show that we do not send girls to school to become second fiddles or to be limited in certain realms, but we send them to school to get education so that their full potential can be unleashed for the development of this country, their creativity and ideas should be respected. When it comes to issues of peace, security and sustainable development, putting more women leaders at the table, even in the private sector, leads to a massive growth of the economy. Our country is thriving in a way that is a little bit different and that could take us to the next level. Recently, President Obama was in our country. He told us that going to a soccer game and leaving half of your team behind does not make sense. As the National Assembly, it is our duty to think of how to bring to the table our full squad of brilliant people like Dr. Naomi Shaban. We should also bring on board people like Hon. Korere, who has a background of human rights at the grassroot levels. Let us bring all these people here and have them in our Committees, so that they can share their ideas with us. Let them help us to balance the Budget of Kenya. Let them give us a new thinking in terms of how to fight the war against terrorism and bring peace in our country and within the region. The Member of Parliament for Nairobi County, Hon. Shebesh, can assist us to deal with the issue of indignity arising from huge populations living in deplorable conditions in slums in Mombasa, Kisumu and Nairobi. If we bring on board mothers with that background and sensitivity, they will add value to what we do here. Their presence here will not be in vain. That is the argument I want to ask all Members to help us advance. Let us reject the Chepkong’a Bill and find a way of engaging the Speaker’s Office with a view to bringing a proposal that will help us to elect more women in the forthcoming general elections. We should not to wait for them to be nominated as top-up in the way it has happened in county assemblies. That is an important step, but it is not ideal for democracy even though our county assemblies are using Article 177 of the Constitution. Most of the female Members of the county assemblies got there through nomination because the people were not convinced to overcome their cultural reasons for not electing women or they knew that, after all, the women would be nominated through a top up mechanism. The economic cost of the mop up mechanism is a little bit expensive. We can have leaner county assemblies if women are elected upfront, or if they are given ways of competing upfront, to enable us comply with the law rather than to wait for it to happen at the other side. It is a struggle. Those of us who understand this principle and want to fight for it should not give up. Those who think it is a luxury to bring more women to the table of leadership should think twice. Even God, in His wisdom, created Adam and Eve. He did not create Adam and Adam or Eve and Eve. He created the full diversity to start this together. With those few remarks, I beg to respectfully oppose Hon. Chepkonga’s Bill and encourage my colleagues who are willing to find compromise legislation. Let us engage each other and bring it to the House. I beg to oppose."
}