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{
    "id": 858321,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/858321/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 353,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "parties will have to compensate through what we call the “party list”. That is what we are doing at the moment, at the county assemblies to nominate the 12 members. We will submit the list for consideration after election. What is the value of affirmative action? Some say that those who have benefited from affirmative action do not see the value. I want to disagree; Hon. Cecily Mbarire is sitting across. I will confirm that Hon. Cecily Mbarire, if she allows me to use her as an example, came in through affirmative action in the 9th Parliament. She was nominated. Because of that the people of Runyenjes saw it fit to give her an opportunity to serve them as an elected member of a constituency in the 10th and 11th Parliament. It is because of the political exposure that she got and the political capacity she was given. We have Hon. Millie Odhiambo serving Suba North for the second term. She came in the first term as a Nominated Member of Parliament. I want to confirm that if there is any other Member in this House apart from Hon. Duale who has brought as many Bills as Hon. Millie Odhiambo, I am yet to see that Hon. Member. It is, probably, Hon. Amos Kimunya when he was a Cabinet Minister. The rest of us are trying to catch up with Hon. Millie Odhiambo in terms of introducing Bills to this House. I will give the example of Hon. Martha Wangari who was nominated to the Senate in the last Parliament. She is now representing a single constituency. We have Hon. Sarah Korere and Hon. Lesuuda who have been elected from Samburu, a community we consider to be conservative. Samburus have elected two women Members to Parliament this time to single constituencies. That is because of affirmative action. I am sure if Hon. Korere and Hon. Lesuuda did not show their leadership qualities when they came in as a nominated Members, they would not be with us here as Members of their constituencies. I will give another example of Hon. Aisha Jumwa and Mishi Mboko who came in through affirmative action seats in the 47 women representatives. Now they are representing single constituencies. That is what gives me confidence that if we allow more women to access leadership through affirmative action, I have no doubt in my mind that what we have been praying and pushing for over the years of wanting more women to be mainstreamed in Parliament will be realised automatically. We may not even need to wait for 20 years to realise this very important principle. In the event that 20 years shall lapse, Parliament will decide whether they can extend it for a further 10 years or terminate it with attendant consequences at that time. I want to plead and beseech my colleagues; this is not an issue of women. In fact I want to disagree and say this is an issue for the country called Kenya. This is an issue that must be addressed. We look very bad. Even the Supreme Court has pronounced itself. It gave us up to August 2015 to pass this important legislation, we failed. I would hate to see a situation where we are fighting Okiya Omtatah in court because this House is unconstitutional and we have been defeated as a country. I do not want to go on record as having sat in a Parliament that was found wanting in terms of passing legislation that would have mainstreamed the two-thirds gender rule in the Constitution. This is something we were aware and campaigned for. By the way as I conclude, if you look at Article 81, it is really shocking that all the provisions of Article 81 have been implemented except the two-thirds gender rule. It talks about freedom of citizens to exercise their political rights. We have been doing that. It also talks about fair representation of persons with disabilities. We have been doing that although we need to do more. It talks about universal suffrage, secret ballot, freedom from violence, conduct of elections by independent body, transparent process that we have been shouting about, but this one The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}