By Mercy Imali
Committee on Implementation and Oversight of the Constitution (CIOC) seeks to scrap Women Representative seats. The CIOC plans to introduce a ‘Sunset Clause’ to render the seat obsolete after the next general election.
The controversial proposal has women leaders sharpening their claws vowing to shoot it down. Men, have continually called the position useless and said it simply swells the country’s wage bill. It was introduced in the 2010 Constitution as an affirmative action strategy.
The reintroduction of the Sunset Clause follows uncertainty about the length of time it would take to terminate affirmative action. It was initially contained in the revised harmonised draft Constitution, popularly known as the Naivasha Accord, but dropped by a parliamentary committee.
The proposal comes only five months after male MPs frustrated the enactment of a bill intended to put more women into Parliament. The two-thirds gender bill failed a record four times,