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Kenya: When Will the Gender Equity Rhetoric Become Reality?
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The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Amina Abdallah
Nairobi
LAST WEEK'S ANNOUNCEMENT of membership to parliamentary committees should ideally rest the politics and anxieties around their composition in favour of the legislative business they are intended for.
But a look at the composition of the committees, especially the critical ones, reveals a regrettable and sustained trend of gender, geographical and religious imbalances incongruent with an institution whose essence should be the pursuit of fair representation.
The most manifest disregard for an ideal equity is in the nomination of commissioners to the Parliamentary Service Commission.
Section 45 of the Constitution creates the PSC and stipulates the criteria for its composition. Chaired by the Speaker, it allows for seven MPs commissioners - four from the Government and three from the Opposition - nominated by the respective parties.
THE PSC IS REALLY THE EXECUTIVE management board of Parliament. It hires and fires staff, including the Clerk of the National Assembly. It decides on promotions, demotions, disciplinary measures and the general welfare of employees.
Save for death or resignation, these commissioners serve for the duration of a House existence. They cannot be sacked or replaced. In view of their quasi-permanent status, their composition should therefore, by necessity, be a study in careful and sagacious balancing act.
Yet the PSC as announced by the Leader of Government Business Kalonzo Musyoka had glaring omissions. There was not a single woman; there is no Muslim; there is no commissioner from Northern Eastern or Coast Provinces.
Failure to effect fair representation in the PSC is not an idle concern. First, it sets a bad precedent of outright and subtle discrimination not only within Parliament but in other public institutions.
It sanctions marginalisation and invariably incubates the politics of patronage and tokenism where a section of society is forced to rely on "connections" to get otherwise deserved considerations and to feel indebted for rights perverted as favours.
It means locking out from direct and crucial representation significant groups that have unique needs and requirements that may not be sufficiently appreciated by a third party.
For instance, without a woman presence in the PSC, it is unlikely the question of facilitated maternity leave for women MPs will get its rightful review and consideration. As it is now, maternity leave is at the discretion of the Speaker as no policy on the matter exists for Members of Parliament.
Without a Muslim among its membership, the need for a respectable place of worship for Muslims within Parliament will likely remain a back-burner issue.
In appreciation of unique attributes and requirements of the Northern Kenya, the Government has commendably set up a ministry specialising on the region's needs. Yet the PSC has few qualms locking out representatives of this perennially forsaken area!
Indeed, as if in cue, other parliamentary committees have taken up this discrimination in varying dosages. Of the 17 existing committees, nine of them do not have a single woman MP. Even more disagreeable, none of the seven women MPs has been nominated to any of the two influential watchdog committees: the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Investments Committee.
Even where outright prominence of the committee is not an issue, women MPs have especially found themselves short-changed. The important Standing Orders Committee that is responsible for review and implementation of House rules remains an all-men affair.
THIS EFFECTIVELY DENIES WOMEN a crucial forum to articulate necessary gender-specific concerns and to redress omissions that make Parliament such an insensitive male bastion.
For instance, there are no toilets for women within the chamber. On the face of it, that might look an innocuous omission. But that it is not becomes clear during critical votes that may go down to physical voting.
Once the division bell is rang and the exit doors closed, MPs can find themselves in the chamber for a long time.
And should nature come calling, women MPs find themselves with the disagreeable option of sharing men toilets!
The issue of the forced separation of women and their handbags in the chamber, too, remains a prickly topic that could benefit from one of them in the right committee.
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Ms Abdallah is a nominated MP
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