• Team wants the expanded executive to provide for the positions of President, Deputy President, Prime Minister and two Deputy Prime Ministers.
• They also propose amendment to the constitution to reduce the number of constituencies by 50 per cent.
Image: COURTESY
Women legislators supporting the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM party leader Raila Odinga now want the Constitution amended to allow for an expanded executive.
While submitting their memorandum to the Building Bridges Initiative on Thursday at the KICC, the team said the Presidency and the executive should be expanded and accommodate more women in top seats.
They want the expanded executive to provide for the positions of President, Deputy President, Prime Minister and two Deputy Prime Ministers.
The team also want two seats to be preserved for women by default in the extended executive.
Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu said that the three positions to be created should automatically go for women.
“ Since independence, the two top seats have been going to men. The three that should be put in the constitution should actually go to women,” Ngilu said.
Ngilu said similar criteria should be applied to national and county government top seats during elections.
She said that in elections, a male presidential candidate should pick a female running mate and vice versa.
“This pattern should follow in the gubernatorial level where the governor candidates and running mates will be of the opposite gender,”
Ngilu added that a 50-50 gender rule balance should also be applied in the appointment of cabinet secretaries and other state public officers.
The team is also advocating for a 50-50 gender rule balance in appointment of principal secretaries, high commissioners, diplomatic and consular representatives.
Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru said the two-thirds gender rule has not been considered in the current Senate and Parliament.
“The composition of Parliament does not meet the gender threshold to the dethronement of women and there is a need to amend the Constitution to protect the gains of women,” Waiguru said.
In order to achieve the two-thirds gender balance, the team said the 50-50 mix member should be represented in the legislature.
Waiguru said the mix member representation makes sure that the party with the highest support nationwide or in the region has majority seats in the legislature.
According to their submissions, the mixed-member representation will have certain seats in the legislature preserved for a constituency representative and individual parties which will be used as accountability to compensate unfairly and unbalance partisan results in constituency elections.
They also propose an amendment to the Constitution to reduce the number of constituencies by 50 per cent.
They said the 50 per cent seats left will be filled through party lists constituting of names of candidates based on a zebra list of female-male, female-male.
Samburu West Member of Parliament Naisula Lesuuda said the changes in the Constitution should not diminish the rights of women.
“No amendments in the constitution should erode or derogate the rights of women, youths, persons with disabilities, minority groups or marginalised communities,” Lesuuda said.