Give Two Thirds Gender Principle a Chance When it is Re-introduced

Kenyans celebrated Mother's Day a few days ago and the social media was awash with praises for our loving mothers. The hypocrisy of mother's day celebrations however, is how most of us are willing to testify of our mothers impeccable abilities yet deny those very women a chance at political leadership. Nothing could be more controversial.

A Bill that was supposed to level the playing field for women was not able to go through because some MPs feared it would be used to “reward people's girlfriends” or that “women are not ready for leadership” needless to mention that these are quite sexist statements..

Here's what those opposing the Bill are missing. The two thirds gender principle is not about women. No, it's about equality. The principle aims at preventing domination of one gender at the expense of another. Perhaps, the National Gender Equality Commission's (NGEC) overall goal should guide us here. There website notes, “The over-arching goal for NGEC is to contribute to the reduction of gender inequalities and the discrimination against all; women, men...” The gender debate is not about women but equality for all gender.

If anything, the duty of a member of Parliament and County Representatives is to represent Kenyans. This representation has everything to do with how Kenyans live at home. Who is better placed to offer accurate representation than one who is or has been involved in the day-day budgeting of the family and knows the needs of every member of the unit? To elect a woman is to simply give her an opportunity to perform the same job she's been doing, which is solving the needs of the people but on a bigger platform.

Take Rwanda for instance. The country has the biggest number of women MPs anywhere in the world and it is on an upward trajectory in matters development and many continue to wonder how a small a country as Rwanda can continue outperforming bigger countries endowed with more resources, the answer is sober leadership. And in truth a country is only as good as the policies and the laws it creates. With women MPs at 64% Rwanda is telling us why we need to trust more women with leadership.

South Africa, the largest economy in Africa with 40% women MPs also can attest to success. Namibia which is also outperforming Kenya on many fronts has a high number of women Parliamentarians too. And we don't have to stay in Africa; enough leading countries in the world have a good number of women parliamentarians; from Sweden to Finland. And these are the countries that are also leading in crucial areas like education with quite ingenious methods.

These examples should make us elect women, especially in Africa where women bear the brunt of both preventable and non-preventable disasters such as floods. We believe this is what informed the need to make the two thirds gender principle a constitutional issue. This principle only seeks to ensure we do not elect one gender at the expense of the other and if unfortunately we do, then the affirmative action applies but only as a last option.

As the government plans to re-introduce the Bill in Parliament once more we can only hope that our MPs put all blinders aside and protect all genders by passing the bill.

Posted by Mzalendo Editor on May 12, 2016

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