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{
    "id": 706665,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/706665/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 89,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Chepkong’a",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1154,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kiprono Chepkonga",
        "slug": "samuel-kiprono-chepkonga"
    },
    "content": "I have seen four in the House out of 47. So, if it is a question of representation, this is not. It is a question of cost. The other one that we must consider is increasing the number of county women seats in the National Assembly. That, again, will lead to doubling the number of women elected in the counties. That would make 94 women come to this House as an additional number. Several countries in the world have implemented this concept of preserving seats in their electoral systems. Kenya is one of them and Article 97(1) talks about 47 County Women Representatives (CWR). Other countries have done that. In Uganda, they have reserved 39 seats from 39 districts. If you look at the Parliament of Uganda, you will find that it has not achieved the two-thirds gender rule but they are happy with it because they have done something called “affirmative action”. They have brought in 39 women who would never have been there. In Tanzania, they have reserved 15 seats for women out of 255. In Eritrea, they have reserved 10 seats out of 105 Members of Parliament. In Bangladesh, they have reserved 50 out of 350 Members of Parliament. So, they have 300 men, and women do not have a problem with men representing them there. In Afghanistan, they have reserved 64 seats in the lower house for women and in Belgium, the most progressive democracy they have reserved 17 seats for the Flemish and minority communities which includes women. In Argentina, they have reserved 30 per cent of the seats for women. What it means is that we also need to increase the number of women by 104 and that is untenable as we have given reasons. It is going to be a bloated Parliament as it is. The only viable option that we consider is that which has been proposed by the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs of progressive implementation of legislations to realise the two-thirds gender rule which we think is the most realistic in the circumstances of this country. Hon. Speaker, the question we asked ourselves, as Members of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs is whether we should increase the number of people to represent people who are poor and who have no roads, or do we tarmack the roads first. I have serious problems with roads in my constituency. We also have serious problems with schools. If we want to ensure that there is 100 per cent transition rate from primary school to secondary schools, we need to build more secondary schools. We also need to employ more teachers. As you know, we have a shortage of 80,000 teachers. We do not have a shortage of representatives in this House. I think we have sufficient representation. In fact, we are over-represented in this country. We are 49 million but have 349 Members as representatives. With those remarks, I beg to reply."
}