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RPP to formulate framework on inclusion of women and youths in politics

Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu (pictured) says her office is working on a draft framework which will assist making political parties’ nomination process transparent and accountable/ORPP

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 1 – Registrar of Political Parties (RPP) Ann Nderitu says her office is working on a draft framework which will assist making political parties’ nomination process transparent and accountable.

Speaking during the launch of two reports on the inclusion and participation of youth and women in the Eleventh and Current (12th) Parliament on Thursday, Nderitu said that the two groups which have much of the population are often left out of leadership seats because of skewed nominations.

“We have already as an Office, looked for MPs in a Caucus to get a Bill on-board to be discussed on how get party primaries. Our wish is that we have the goodwill of Parliament so that the ideas we are putting across in terms of putting clear accountability measures in the political parties primary is expected so that moving forward we can bring in more people, in a fairer way,” she explained.

The Registrar said that the debate of women and youth inclusion must be taken away from legal compliance.

Through the taskforce on Review of Political Party Primaries, Nderitu added that the objective of the forum is to obtain the experiences of Kenyans at the grassroot level from their involvement in party primaries.

“The Taskforce will identify issues for reform of the primaries process and receive input into the draft policy framework on the conduct of Party Primaries with recommendations and possible areas for legal reforms” she added.

The team appointed March has representatives from the Kenya Law Reform Commission, the Senate and the National Assembly, National Gender and Equality Commission, civil society, the electoral commission as well as Ndung’u’s office.

A report titled ‘owning the space’ which compiled by Mzalendo Trust notes that political parties must be compelled to create an enabling environment for the inclusion of the two groups – women and youth – by lowering nomination fees.

The report also recommends the prioritization of women and youth in key decision-making roles within political parties and the legislature.

The Political Parties Act 2011, which established the Political Parties Fund sets an allocation of not less than 0.3 per cent of national revenues collected, as a mandatory amount to be allocated to political parties.

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The Act stipulates the requirement for a political party to benefit from public funding.

For a political outfit to benefit from public funding, it must have at least 5 per cent of the total vote in tallies for the President, Members of Parliament, Governors and Members of County Assemblies in the last general election.

But Mzalendo Trust Lead Researchers Hillary Onyango and Sylvia Katua want the law changed to compel the Registrar of Political Parties to take into consideration the number of women and youth the party sponsored during a general election to be among the criteria used to compute a party’s allocation.

“ORPP should lobby for improvement of the formula for political parties fund to cover at least a number of parties in Parliament. There is need to go beyond gender parity or representation for party official to political parties presenting electoral candidates compliant to two-thirds gender threshold.”

“It is also important for political parties to come up with voluntary party quotas and ensure free, fair and credible primaries. Further, the public requires civic and political education on merits of gender representation,” read the findings of the report.

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