The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) wants President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve Parliament for failing to initiate implementation of constitutional provisions that would ensure gender balance in both levels of government.
The LSK last Friday asked Chief Justice David Maraga to write to President Kenyatta to advise him on dissolving Parliament, on grounds that no laws have been crafted to enable implementation of Section 27 of the Constitution.
The LSK petition adds that Parliament’s failure to craft the laws on gender balance is also a violation of court orders. The lawyers’ lobby says that the Constitution calls for the Chief Justice to write to the President in the event that lawmakers defy court orders related to crafting Acts of Parliament.
Section 27 of the Constitution requires both levels of government to ensure that neither gender has more than two thirds of public officers, whether elected or appointed.
Dissolving Parliament would mean that Kenyans would return to the polls to vote in new representatives.
In 2012, the Supreme Court advised that the constitutional provisions on gender balance in government be implemented for the 2013 General Election.
The High Court in 2017 ordered the National Assembly to craft laws that would enable implementation of the two-thirds gender rule. The court order followed a case filed by the Centre for Rights and Education and Awareness (CREAW).
The Court of Appeal dismissed the Attorney-General’s case last April, and the LSK now says that Parliament has deliberately refused to initiate the gender balance process in government offices.
LSK President Nelson Havi argues that aside from failing to enact laws involving the two-thirds gender rule, Parliament itself is not balanced in regards to gender.
Under the two-thirds gender rule, the dominant gender should only occupy 66.66 per cent of public offices. Currently, men dominate the National Assembly as only 59 out of 349 MPs are female. This means that the 290 male MPs occupy 83 per cent of available seats.
In the Senate, the 47 male lawmakers account for 70 per cent of the available seats.
“Parliament is in contravention of the Constitution by neglecting, refusing and/or failing to perform its constitutionally imposed obligation to realise the two-thirds gender rule encapsulating the principle that not more than two thirds of the National Assembly and the Senate shall be of the same gender.”
“Parliament as currently constituted does not meet the constitutional gender threshold and ought to be dissolved forthwith. The constitutional obligations of the Chief Justice and the President of the Republic of Kenya in this regard are unambiguous and unequivocal,” Mr Havi says in the petition.
Last April, another petition was filed at Mr Maraga’s office by activist Margaret Toili, seeking to dissolve Parliament.
Mr Maraga at the time argued that it would be better to await the process of enacting the Representation of Special Interests Groups Bill of 2019 before taking any action.
