Why not the 50/50 Gender Rule?

The capacity of the media to state the obvious is staggering. The capacity of women leaders to repeat the obvious beggars belief. If it is now dawning on the media and women leaders that political parties routinely sideline women in their leadership, the future of the country is in ever greater jeopardy than we ever appreciated. Looking at the line-up of political parties in Kenya, one would be mistaken for thinking, and believing, that Kenyan women are yet to graduate from primary school, let alone secondary school or university, or that they have scaled the heights of the private sector. The men who have traditionally called the shots in KANU seem to be calling the shots in Kenya's political parties. Even Martha Karua's NARC-K or Charity Ngilu's NARC, regardless of the leadership of the two lionesses of Kenya's Second Liberation, are dominated by men and seem to pursue agendas that have been championed by men for decades.

The Constitution delivered a shock to this system of patriarchy when it mandated the equality of the sexes, ordering that no more than two-thirds of any gender could occupy elected or appointed positions in the public or private sector. Now, while political parties serve a public purpose, they are arguably private organisations. They are not established by law but they are regulated by statute. Officials of political parties are not public officials, but they are responsible for the nomination and election of public officials. They must, therefore, abide by the Two-thirds Gender Rule and ensure that no more than two-thirds of any one gender occupy offices in the parties. This is a rule that has apparently been flouted by all political parties and continues to be flouted 18 months after the Constitution was promulgated.

Despite the hype that accompanied the promulgation of the Constitution, its implementation is not going to be easy or without challenges. The Two-thirds Gender Rule is one example of the paradigmatic changes that will need to be made to ensure that many of the gains of the Second Liberation are protected. The changes upend many received orthodoxies, the least not being the primacy of the masculine gender in the destiny of the nation. The place of women leaders in defining the next phase of the development of the nation has been affirmed by law, but it will take a complete change in how we view the place of the woman in national development to ensure that everyone plays their proper role going forward. Many pundits have speculated that the recent wave of gender-based violence against men is a sign that the family structure is being destroyed by the spectre of women taking their rightful place in leadership.

The next general elections must elevate as many women as possible to the National Assembly, the Senate and the 47 county assemblies. The formation of the next government must also follow this path: more women must be appointed to the Cabinet and as Principal Secretaries. It is not just about ensuring that women form at least one-third of the leadership of the nation or that women's issues receive attention from the government, but it is also to ensure that women are recognised as part of the fabric of the nation no longer in need of coddling or patronage. It is unconscionable that half the population is not reflected in leadership or decision-making. It is time that even the mightiest of the mighty accept that the time for the old rules is over and that women have valuable contributions to make in the governance of the nation. It is time that they became part and parcel of the national narrative.