The jinxed Gender Bill, MPs to make 4th attempt today

The jinxed Gender Bill, MPs to make 4th attempt today

Members of the National Assembly will on Wednesday vote on whether to support of reject the two thirds gender bill which seeks to raise women representation in elective positions.

All eyes will be on the August House as legislators vote on the enactment of Constitution of Kenya Amendment Bill 2018 which seeks to effect article 81b of the Constitution that states that no more than two thirds of members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.

This will be the fourth attempt to pass the bill which has failed three times before due to lack of the requisite numbers.

The Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) is now banking on the support of the mover of the bill, Majority Leader Aden Duale to lobby his fellow male counterparts to support the bill.

Being a constitutional bill, for it to sail through, it requires at least 233 members to support it.

In February 2017, a bill sponsored by then Nominated Senator Judith Sijeny failed because the house could not raise the required numbers.

A similar scenario played out in November 2016 where a bill sponsored by then Justice and Legal Affairs committee chairman Samuel Chepkonga suffered a quorum hitch.

Five months before that, another attempt also flopped after garnering 178 votes.

Voting on the fourth attempt was postponed late last year, due to quorum issues.

At the moment the national assembly has 75 women, 22 of whom are elected, six nominated while 47 were elected as woman representatives.

The senate on the other hand has three elected women while 18 are nominated.

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Gender bill

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