Justin Muturi faults Supreme Court over gender rule directive

Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi has lashed out at the Supreme Court over its directive that MPs have until August this year to make a law that will implement the one-third gender rule.

Muturi said the Supreme Court itself had failed to ensure that not more than two thirds of the judges were from the same gender, over a year after it issued the ruling.

"How is it possible to ensure that in August of this year, during the lifetime of the 11th Parliament, not more than two-thirds of either gender are represented in this House? I don't know anybody who can give us the mechanism!" said Muturi.

The Supreme Court has seven judges. Only two of those are women, the Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal, and Lady Justice Njoki Ndung'u. The Speaker argued that if the court had failed to meet the gender requirement, then it ought not to be dictating to other Government institutions about the issue.

"Is the Supreme Court itself in observance of that gender rule? Do they have the moral high ground to say that this one is not observing this?" posed the Speaker.

He said there was no way MPs can come up with such a mechanism without amending the Constitution fundamentally, to either do away with the gender provision altogether or make it open-ended so that after elections, women will be nominated just to meet that rule.

Majority Leader

Muturi got the support of Majority Leader Aden Duale who said it was difficult to come up with a formula.

"It is good to make it clear that this matter was the hottest potato in the last Parliament. When the matter became too hot and the elections were near, we threw the matter to the Supreme Court," said Duale.

He added: "The Gender Commission, the Legal Affairs Committee, Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution and the Attorney General are the right people to hold this hot potato."