Female MCAs distracted by male MCAs’ revealing clothes – County Assembly Speaker

Male Ward Representatives in Embu County have been prohibited by the County Assembly Speaker, Kariuki Mate, from wearing revealing clothes because they ‘distract their female colleagues’.

Mr. Mate noted with concern that male MCAs were increasingly dressing in shirts that exposed their muscles. Worse still, they left these tight-fitting shirts unbuttoned to show off their chests.

Mr. Mate also put female MCAs on the spotlight saying they wear very short skirts, bare-back sleeveless tops and low-cut blouses that expose their cleavage.

The Speaker asked whether Ward Reps were making good their threats to strip naked after the resignation of immediate former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru.

Kithimu MCA, Michael Njeru, sparked off the dress code debate after he asked whether Mbeti South MCA Muria Nyaki was appropriately dressed.

Mr. Mbeti had walked into the legislative chambers in a short sleeved Kaunda suit.

The Speaker lamented visitors to the Assembly would easily mistake members of staff for MCAs because the Ward Reps were widely inappropriately groomed.

He noted that most male MCAs remove their ties and hang them on the assembly door immediately after sittings are concluded, only to pick them up in the next session.

Mavuria MCA, Joseph Mwaniki, quoted late satirical writer Wahome Mutahi’s book, ‘How to be a Kenyan’, saying some Ward Reps had a tendency of dressing in ridiculous and outrageous attire that only qualified as circus costumes for clowns.

On his part, Muminji MCA, Newton Kariuki, observed that female MCAs also wore unsuitable clothing.

He said the ladies were increasingly wearing see-through, bare-back and cleavage-exposing dresses that left very little of their anatomy to the imaginations of their male counterparts.

Nthawa MCA, Ngari Makenge, called for leniency from the Speaker by saying that strict enforcement of an official dress code would see the County Assembly empty.

However, Deputy Speaker Ibrahim Swaleh opined that Kaunda suits were widely acceptable in African parliaments.

He cited the late Mzee Julius Nyerere, George Anyona and Njeru Kathangu as key personalities who dressed in non-conventional suits.

The Kirimari MCA’s sentiments were echoed by his Kagaari South counterpart, Robert Ireri, who said what mattered for MCAs was mental aptitude but not smart dressing. The Speaker, however, ruled him out of order.

After throwing Nyaki out of the House and ordering him to go and dress properly, Mr. Mate said the Assembly would unveil a code of conduct that will stipulate the dress code for both MCAs and members of the Assembly staff in a month’s time.