Skip to main content

We want 4,000 women Aspirants on 2017 Ballot Boxes

The celebrated Kenya’s new constitution was promulgated in 2010, giving women high hopes of being elected in various posts to attain the two-thirds gender rule as provided in the constitution. Unfortunately, compared to her fellow East African countries, Kenya has the lowest number of women representation, despite them playing important roles in various positions. It is therefore very clear that the forth coming elections will see a good number of women turn up for elective posts to achieve the two-thirds rule. Article 81b of the constitution states that not more than 2/3 of members of elective public bodies shall be of same gender, the dilemma of achieving these in the next assemblies hung in the balance as leaders still raise varied opinions. “We will face a constitutional crisis if this doesn’t happen. That is why we are working hard to ensure we have atleast 4,000 women aspirants on ballot papers,” says Dr. Jennifer Riria, chair of Tuvuke Initiative. Dr. Riria who is also Chief Executive Officer, Kenya Women Holding (KWH) urges women to come out in large numbers to vie for positions in the male dominated areas like governors. She regrets that despite women giving themselves for elective posts during the last elections, none of them got the governorship post. “The constitution stipulates that atleast a third of the governors should be women and if this doesn’t happen, we will face a crisis,” adds Dr. Riria. Dr. Riria was speaking at consultative meeting organized by Kenya Women Holding (KWH), Twaweza Communications and thirteen other partners including Association of Media Women in Kenya under the Tuvuke Initiative, a consortium providing leadership, for a peaceful and inclusive just society. Professor Kimani Njogu, Chief Executive Officer at Twaweza Communications noted that women face a lot of challenges both at the party and community level when they offer themselves as candidates. “
The patriarchal system in the society has ensured that women hold only a small fraction of leadership. Perceptions of women being inferior continue, consequently, men continue to dominate in the political, social and economic areas. There is therefore need to empower the women to fully participate in the coming elections as we look forward to having atleast 4,000 women aspirants on the ballot papers,”
says Prof. Njogu. He adds that women lack skills to present themselves and challenging the media when asked to explain why they are vying “The media will always focus on negative issues whenever they give a platform to women and this calls for women to be fully equipped so that they know how to answer this questions. Prof. Njogu urges women aspirants to make decisions to vie for the various elective posts in 2017 elections to avoid a constitutional crisis. The current parliament needed to have atleast 117 women to achieve the two thirds gender.
In May, members of Parliament boycotted the vote on a constitution amendment bill that sought to have gender parity attained through nomination of a lesser gender. Senators later boycotted sittings after the same bill was later reintroduced in the senate. .

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disruptive Communiction

The need for information has never been more important today with the outbreak of an epidemic of global magnitude. Despite the media being at the forefront in the fight against the Covid-19 virus, it has not been spared either. From the time the first case was reported in the City of Wuhan in China towards the end of 2019, the virus has wreaked havoc across the world leading to massive financial losses. Countries have come up with a raft of measures including lockdowns to contain the highly contagious virus. Recent survey by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance on Business Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on Kenya’s economy paint a gloomy picture. As reporters work diligently to give the world daily updates, they are equally mulling over the effects of the pandemic on their organizations which are dependent on advertisements. Social distancing and stay at home aspects have seen increased demand for alternative news sources with digital media filling the gap. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shadows of Silence

It was on a Wednesday morning as the sun began its ascent over the horizon, casting a warm, golden glow that painted the sky in hues of orange and pink, I found myself on a journey into the heart of a backstreet joint of Majengo area in Githurai, Nairobi County. I had heard whispers of its existence and activities after one of our partners from Community Pop John, Simone Ceciliani , gave me a chilling brief, a place where the vulnerable of society met and conducted their businesses in secrecy. As Simione and I headed to ‘Kije’ place as locally branded, the narrow pathway was dimly lit, and the air thick with loud music from all directions. The tales of forgotten dreams and desperations were evident as we encountered an area of a people living in the middle of a pub zone with commercial sex workers queuing at each entrance waiting for clients. Open sewer lines welcomed us as we put our body muscles to practice through the ‘hop, skip and jump’ motion. Mixed untold smell filled the air...
Post a Comment
Read more

http://www.afronline.org/?p=10487#more-10487

category: Health, Rights and Society, Zambia Study roots for enhancing proper use of ground Water 0 Nov18 Research published this month by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) shows that hundreds of millions of urban people in such countries already depend on this hidden resource. “Water taken directly from wells rather than being piped to users from surface-water supplies such as rivers and reservoirs is rarely taken into account, and it is therefore being used invisibly. This might mean that it is being used unsustainably but it might also mean that groundwater has even greater potential to supply poor communities than is currently thought,” the research says. The study titled Groundwater, self supply and poor urban dwellers: A review with case studies of Bangalore and Lusaka, is based on a paper presented from a review of literature sub-substantiated by two case studies of Bangalore, India, and Lusaka, Zambia, carried out by Dr. Jenny Grönwall, a freela...
Post a Comment
Read more