The March 2013 polls saw women take 19 percent of representations in Parliament.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 24 – The National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) is in the process of formulating a gender policy that will be used to guide the two-thirds gender rule in public institutions.
The commission’s chairperson Winfred Lichuma says they’re yet to find a mathematical formula for the two-thirds gender representation in the Senate and National Assembly.
“The Honourable Attorney General did set up a technical working group and we are making a call to Kenyans to submit their proposals,” she said.
The March 2013 polls saw women take 19 percent of representations in Parliament. This was made possible by the creation of 47 seats for women as well as policies requiring parties to nominate women into Parliament.
Lichuma says even though the number of women representatives in Parliament has increased, it still lies way below the expected 33.3 percent if the two-thirds gender rule is to be observed.
The Attorney General subsequently constituted a Technical Working Group on the Implementation of the Supreme Court ruling on the attainment of the two-thirds gender principle.
The group comprises the NGEC, Attorney General Office, Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Office of the Registrar of Political Parties, Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution, Commission on Administrative Justice, Parliament, Kenya Women’s Parliamentary Association and FIDA-Kenya.
She says that members of the public should forward their views on how to get a mathematical formula for the two thirds-gender rule as it ought to be in place by 2017.
“The court did make a ruling, that is the Supreme Court; that the realisation of the two-thirds gender rule was progressive but it further went on and said that by August 27, 2015 that we must have the legal framework,” she said.
The Technical Working Group is encouraging members of the public, institutions and constitutional experts to submit their proposals by October 6, 2014.
Submissions can be made through either email to twothirds@ngeckenya.org, hand delivery or postage to the NGEC offices Solution Tech Place, 1st Floor.
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