President William Ruto has pledged to ensure his party will have a female deputy president in the near future.
Speaking during the launch of the G7 Council Women Governors Caucus Strategy event at Safari Park, Ruto said he would sit down with his deputy Rigathi Gachagua and agree that should the party front a man, the running mate must be a woman.
The president said this will ensure his party leads from the front in supporting women and consequently help in attaining the two-thirds gender rule.
“‘Riggy G’ and myself later on when we discuss our future politics we must also agree that going forward if a man is a candidate for President in our party the woman must be the running mate and if a woman is a candidate then a man can be a running mate” the president said.
“We will do this not because we want to do anything against men but because we want to balance so that we all move together."
The President said the same rule will be cascaded to counties where men governorship candidates will be required to have women running mates and vice versa.
Ruto said this was an issue that requires support from all party leaders irrespective of their political stance, saying the leaders have been at the forefront of backing women vying for leadership positions.
The President said the decision to have Embu Governor Cicily Mbarire as the chair of UDA was not by chance but deliberate.
“We must be intentional and deliberate about it otherwise it will never happen and I know fellow party leaders in other parties will agree with us,” Ruto said.
“I am sure the party leader in Wiper supported Wavinya Ndeti, the party leader in ODM supported Gladys Wanga and all the other party leaders supported their women candidates.”
G7 is a caucus bringing together the seven elected women governors in the country.
They are Council of Governors chairperson Ann Waiguru, governors Susan Kihika(Nakuru), Wavinya Ndeti(Machakos), Fatuma Achani(Kwale), Kawira Mwangaza(Meru) and Embu's Cecily Mbarire.
It seeks to empower and support women leaders in demonstrating efficient, transformational and strategic governance within the devolved structures.
Last week, Ruto urged Kenyans to vote for women leaders when given a chance.
The current number of seven women governors is a small but significant improvement on the results of the 2017 elections when three women were elected as governors.
They were Joyce Laboso for Bomet, Anne Waiguru for Kirinyaga and Charity Ngilu for Kitui.
