It has emerged that voters in more than half of the counties did not elect any women to the county assemblies, and have to create a large number of special seats to meet the gender threshold set in the Constitution.
The Constitution demands that not more than two-thirds of members of the county assembly can be of the same gender and special seats be created to meet the quota in the event that the condition is not met in an election.
The list of elected ward representatives that is awaiting publication in the Kenya Gazette shows that counties such as Mombasa, Marsabit, Kiambu, Kakamega, Baringo, Homa Bay and Embu did not elect a single woman to the county assemblies and will on average have to nominate at least 10 women to comply with the constitutional demand.
Data from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) shows that none of Kenya’s 47 counties elected enough women representatives to meet the one-third rule leaving nomination as the only way to meet the legal threshold.
Failure to vote in at least 484 female candidates to make up a third of the 1,450 elected county representatives means that the Treasury will have to fork out more than half a billion shillings yearly in salaries to nominated women representatives.
“We warned Kenyans in advance that failure to elect women to the county assemblies will have serious financial implications,” Micah Cheserem, the chairman of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), told the Business Daily in an interview.
“This is the price we must pay for ignorance so that we learn a lesson. It is a constitutional requirement so it has to be fulfilled.”
The CRA said that the gender requirement for county assembly had to be met immediately unlike that of the National Assembly and Senate which the Supreme Court said would be achieved progressively by August 2015.
County assemblies are charged with the mandate of making laws and playing the oversight role over county budget and the county executive committee.
They must approve individuals nominated by the Governor to be part of the county executive committee and pass legislation related to areas where the regional government has authority.
The constitution gives the county governments the authority to oversee entertainment, health services and public works such as sewerage, storm clearances, water and sanitation, public transportation and issuance of trade licences.
“A county assembly consists of the number of special seat members necessary to ensure that no more than two thirds of the membership of the assembly is of the same gender,” states Article 177(1b) of the Constitution.
Mr Cheserem estimates that about 600 women will have to be nominated to the county assemblies to satisfy the gender threshold – setting up the Treasury for a higher public service wage bill.
Ultimately, the failure to elect female representatives will cumulatively cost the taxpayer about Sh2.9 billion in remuneration of special members over a five-year term.
CRA reckons that counties that did not elect any women to the assemblies will spend more on salaries and allowances for the extra members, compared to counties that elected a sizeable number of female contenders.
“This is money that could be channelled to development of infrastructure and service delivery,” Mr Cheserem said.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission has set the basic salary of a member of the county assembly at Sh79,200 per month. “It is the taxpayer who will bear the burden because all expenses on the nominated candidates will have to be met from money allocated to that particular county,” said Ms Winfred Lichuma, the chair of the National Gender and Equality Commission.
The commission has moved to the High Court seeking an order to compel political parties to only nominate women to the National Assembly and county assembly in order to achieve gender balance.
“In the just concluded elections it is unfortunate that at the county assembly level the one third gender rule was not fully met and parties must now nominate candidates to meet the legal threshold. Unfortunately the lists presented do not comply with the male and female representation quotas as required,” said Ms Lichuma at a press briefing Wednesday.
There are a total of 1,450 elected county representatives plus a further 376 members made up of eight candidates from each county to represent the youth and persons with disabilities.
The additional nominated members will be appointed by political parties in proportion to their strength in the county assembly.
For example, out of the 55 wards in Nakuru County, only eight elected women meaning that a further 16 must be nominated to the county assembly to meet constitutional requirement.
- Business Daily Africa
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