Gender activists want Parliament dissolved

A group of gender activists has written to Chief Justice Martha Koome asking her to advise President William Ruto to dissolve the 13th Parliament for failing to implement the two-thirds gender rule.

Daisy Amdany of Crawn Trust, Wangechi Wachira of Creaw and lawyers Marilyn Kamuru and Elizabeth Kabari want Koome to invoke her constitutional powers as did her predecessor David Maraga.

“On September 21, 2020, the then Chief Justice Maraga issued an advisory to the President to dissolve Parliament for the failure to enact legislation required by the constitution. The President did not dissolve Parliament and Parliament has never been dissolved,” the letter reads.

“Since September 2020 to date, Parliament has not enacted the necessary legislation. We therefore provide this letter to call on you as the Chief Justice to meet your obligations under Article 262(7), Article 259(1) (a) (b) and (d), Article 259 (3) (a) and (8) and Article 1,2,3.

The letter comes after Parliament failed to implement the Multi-Sectoral Working Group On The Realisation of The Two-thirds Gender Principle report.

Formed by former Gender CS Aisha Jumwa, the taskforce’s job was to develop and formulate a framework for implementation of the two-thirds gender principle.

On February 27 this year, the team presented a report to the Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetang’ula that recommended constitutional amendments to provide for a top up of 55 special seats.

It also recommended that Elections Act 2011 be amended to provide for submission of party lists.

“It is notable that the report of the Multi Sectoral Working Group comes at an opportune time. As you will recall that last week, this House adopted the Nadco report," Wetang'ula said upon receiving the report.

"On the issue of the Two-Thirds Gender Principle, the committee recommended that the group finalises its work and recommend a framework of implementation of the Two-Thirds Gender Principle and submit its report to Parliament for consideration.”

Amdany, who is also the the task force’s co-chairperson, said it is unfortunate that five months later, nothing has happened.

During an editors' meeting hosted by African Woman and Child Feature Service, she lamented the status of the report which is gathering dust in Parliament.

“The Nadco report influenced the formulation of nine bills and unfortunately the two-thirds gender principle got lost in the bills,” she said.

Amdany said the current circumstances are similar to the ones that forced Maraga to advise the former President to dissolve Parliament.

“We draw to your attention to Article 2(4) which provides that any act or omission in contravention of the constitution is invalid. Failure to issue an advisory to the President on the dissolution of Parliament pursuant to Article 261(1), which requires the chief justice to advise the President to dissolve Parliament, would constitute an omission in contravention with the constitution,” the letter says.

The team says the current litigations do not bar the CJ from advising the President to dissolve Parliament.

Article 261(7) says dissolution of Parliament is a two-part process initiated by the Chief Justice but with obligations.

“The only circumstances under which the CJ should not issue an advisory to the President to dissolve Parliament as per Article 262(7) is if Parliament has already enacted the required legislation,” the letter says.

In its report, the task force had recommended additional 55 seats in Parliament.

The 53 additional seats at the National Assembly would cost Sh2 billion per year while the two seats in the Senate would cost Sh115 million per year.

“Daily government revenue collection is 5.19 billion per day in the FY/2023 and so the annual amount for an added 55 members to the National Assembly and the Senate to bring it to constitutional compliance, is equivalent to less than a day's revenue collection in Kenya,” the report said.