- She noted that this shows how limited Kenyan women are in the political leadership space.
- The legislator said because of this, women don't get opportunities to lead in strategic areas.
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Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba now says that President William Ruto has failed Kenyan women.
Speaking on TV47, Wamuchomba said that the President has fallen short of the pledges he made to women during campaigns.
She noted that this shows how limited Kenyan women are in the political leadership space.
The legislator said because of this, women don't get opportunities to lead in strategic areas.
"The women's space in the political arena is very limited and the available space is very suffocating. We can't breathe, especially with the Kenya Kwanza government," Wamuchomba said.
"Women in politics have not been given opportunities to be in strategic positions for leadership and those that have been placed there, are there because to me it is a platform for use."
She said that during campaigns, President William Ruto promised to have an inclusive and balanced administration in terms of gender but that has not been the case.
The Githunguri MP added that they even bargained for a retention strategy, to which Ruto agreed but when the time for party nominations came, he went back on his word.
In the strategy, all elected women would not be subjected to party nominations.
"We requested him as our party leader to allow women already in Parliament not to be subjected to nominations so that we can have as many retained as possible. It's called retention strategy then he said good. Came nominations and he changed his mind and subjected every woman in his party to a political party nomination," she said.
"We lost strong women like Cate Waruguru (ex-Laikipia Woman Rep), Joyce Korir (ex-Bomet Woman Rep), Joyce Emanikor (ex-Turkana Woman Rep), Lilian Cheptoo (ex-West Pokot Woman Rep), and one other. We lost five women."
The MP said that while Ruto chose this route, Raila Odinga did the opposite and he retained about six women who were serving in different capacities.
"Raila was true to his word. He is not my buddy or political friend but on that one, he did a very honourable thing. He gave all the women of ODM an opportunity not to be subjected to political party nominations. He retained Roza Buyu, Eve Obara, Milly Odhiambo, and Lillian Gogo. He retained about six women, we lost," she said.
"Can I sit here and tell you that UDA is friendly to women? I can't. Because if we had the five we lost plus what we have now, we would have had the highest number of women parliamentarians in that National Assembly. We also agreed in our indoor meeting that he is going to make sure he appoints 50-50 into his leadership opportunities. Executive, the leadership of the National Assembly, and the leadership of Parastatals and government agencies. When he became president, he did not fulfil."
Wamuchomba faulted the President for going to the extent of making the promises in public and even signing a charter with women, knowing that it wouldn't be fulfilled.