- Ruto’s newly constituted 21-member Cabinet comprises five women excluding Dorcas Oduor who is awaiting parliamentary approval.
- The National Women Conference of the NCCK says this violates the requirement that no gender should hold more than two thirds of elective or appointive posts.
Image: PCS
Women Church leaders under the NCCK now want President William Ruto to reconstitute his new Cabinet to include 10 women to meet gender equity.
They said the constitution provides that not more than two-thirds of people of the same gender should hold elective or appointive positions.
“We are therefore extremely disappointed that His Excellency President William Ruto nominated only five women as Cabinet Secretaries. Compliance with the constitution requires that there should be a minimum of 10 female Cabinet Secretaries,” they said.
It was one of the resolutions after a three-day National Women Conference organised by the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) held at ACK St Julian Center, Limuru.
Ruto’s newly constituted Cabinet comprises five women excluding Dorcas Oduor who is awaiting parliamentary approval as the next Attorney General.
These are Rebecca Miano (Tourism and Wildlife); Debra Barasa (Health); Soipan Tuya (Defence); Alice Wahome (Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development); Dr Margaret Ndungu (Information, Communication and the Digital Economy).
National Assembly’s Committee on Appointments rejected the nomination of Gender, Culture, Arts and Heritage, Stella Langa't saying she failed to demonstrate sufficient understanding of the docket.
Meanwhile, Parliament approved the nomination of Beatrice Askul as Cabinet Secretary for East African Community Affairs and Regional Development and all that remains is her swearing-in.
Besides reconstituting the Cabinet to reflect the two-thirds gender principle, the women leaders asked the President to apply the same in other appointive positions.
“We encourage you to extend this compliance to the Principal Secretaries, where there are only 12 women who constitute 23.5 per cent, as well as the other public service appointments,” they said.
They also prevailed upon Parliament and asked MPs to pass laws that do not make people “bitter” and referenced the recent passage of the impugned Finance Bill, 2024, which they termed as betrayal.
They said MPs have a chance to redeem themselves by passing laws that make the lives of the people of Kenya better.
“It is time for Parliament to withdraw all those food-related laws that are meant to make productivity and value addition difficult for the people of Kenya. Also, stop passing laws that increase taxation at a time when poverty is rising. Make life in Kenya better, not worse,” they said.
They demanded that Parliament should also pass laws that stop the marketing of unhealthy foodstuffs and that the products be required to carry warnings on packaged foods that are high in content of salt, sugar and saturated fats.
“We the women of Kenya have noted that ill health is increasing despite technological advances in the medical sector. The main cause of this has been the consumption of unhealthy foods by the majority of the population.”
The resolutions were contained in a communiqué of the National Women Conference signed by Nairobi, Coast and Lower Eastern regional representatives Rev Martha Kihika, Priscilla Moira and Canon Mary Mwaura respectively.
The leaders further decried growing cases of femicide in the country saying statistically, more than 30 per cent of women report physical or sexual violence by intimate partners.
They said the fact that the justice system appears unable to punish the perpetrators is a gross injustice that is worsening the situation.
“We call upon the Chief Justice, Lady Justice Martha Koome, to lead the Judiciary in ensuring that sexual and gender-based violence cases are tried speedily and sentences declared on the guilty persons be commensurate with the crimes committed,” they said.