• High Court in 2017 ordered the National Assembly to craft laws that would enable implementation of the two-thirds gender rule.
• Constitution requires both levels of government to ensure that neither gender has more than two thirds of public officers, whether elected or appointed.
Image: MERCY MUMO
The Law Society of Kenya will not relent in its push to have Parliament dissolved over its failure to enact the two-thirds gender law.
LSK president Nelson Havi said either President Uhuru Kenyatta or Chief Justice David Maraga will be liable for misconduct if Parliament is not dissolved.
“It is a one-way ticket and there is no plan B. The CJ has to write to President asking him to dissolve Parliament or he will be answerable for misconduct. The President on the other hand will also be liable for misconduct if he does not heed the advice of the Chief Justice,” he stated.
“The question is; who will take responsibility for misconduct- The President or the Chief Justice?”
Maraga is supposed to write to Uhuru advising him to dissolve the House after receiving seven petitions seeking the dissolution.
The High Court in 2017 ordered the National Assembly to craft laws that would enable implementation of the two-thirds gender rule. The court order followed a case filed by the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness.
The government appealed through the Attorney-General’s office but the matter was dismissed in April.
LSK and the other petitioners; former Marakwet West MP David Sudi, Margaret Toili, Fredrick Mbugua, Bernhard Aoko and Stephen Owoko argue that Parliament has deliberately refused to enact the law.
Havi said Kenyans must understand that the matter is an issue of acting in accordance with the law.
“The law was designed that it is compulsive, not permissive. Not an issue that is at the discretion of the CJ or the President,” Havi told the Star.
Elgeyo Marakwet Woman Representative Gladys Shollei said there is a lack of political goodwill to implement the gender rule.
“All it needs is for the majority party to take charge. Jubilee’s constitution states that it has and is committed to ensuring gender rule is implemented. It then would be a case of whipping members to vote in favour of the Bill,” she said.
Shollei said the President should do what is required of him by the law. “This is not about women, it is about the rule of law. The President and MPs took an oath of office to protect the Constitution. That is all we are asking for,” she added.
Section 27 of the Constitution requires both levels of government to ensure that neither gender has more than two-thirds of public officers, whether elected or appointed.
Under the rule, the dominant gender should only occupy 66 per cent of public offices. Currently, men dominate the National Assembly as only 59 out of 349 MPs are female.
There have been four attempts by the National Assembly to enact the Gender Bill with the most recent one being on February 27 last year.
In the last attempt, the National Assembly lacked the quorum of 233 MPs to vote for the Bill given it requires two-thirds to pass it.
On Sunday, Lugari MP Ayub Savula backed the appeal to dissolve Parliament for failing to pass the gender rule.
Savula urged CJ Maraga to advise Uhuru on the way forward.
He asked why some of his colleagues would resist a law that would give women an equal opportunity in the decision-making processes.
Edited by R.Wamochie