MPs made impassioned pleas for the enactment of a bill to achieve the two-thirds gender principle.
In one of the liveliest debates in recent times, the legislators found common ground in support of the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, with female members spicing up debate with pleas for love from their male colleagues to ensure gender parity in the House.
Majority Leader Aden Duale (Garissa Town) set the mood for a lively session last week after he said he would support the bill for the sake of his mother and his yet to be born daughters.
"...I have five sons and I'm looking for a daughter. So, I decided to support all the women and daughters of this country. Finally, apart from the almighty God, my mother played a big role and I am under obligation to pay her back," said Mr Duale, who sponsored the bill that seeks to ensure that the National Assembly and Senate conform to the two-thirds constitutional principle.
Florence Kajuju (Meru), asked men to support the bill as a show of love for women parliamentarians. She expressed surprise that men only show love in the house, but rarely replicate the same on national platforms.
"...we know that men love us. They love us so much that they always give us what we want in our houses. However, they cannot tell us they only love us in the house. Let them also love us here in Parliament," she argued before challenging Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang to follow in the footsteps of Suba MP John Mbadi in showing love for women.
"I can see Hon Mbadi is expressing a lot of love and I am happy. I wish Hon TJ could also do the same because we have been in school together and he knows the kind of love we have shared all along," said the MP.
Even quotes from famous world leaders were roped in to reinforce arguments.
"You do not take a person, who for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then you say, 'you are free to compete with all the others', and still just believe that you have been completely fair," Gladys Wanga (nominated) said quoting former American President Lyndon Johnson.
Deputy Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo (Gem), the only MP who opposed the bill, warned that there would be over-representation if it was enacted.
He vowed that he would not be party to a bill that would be an additional burden to the taxpayer.
He angered legislators with his reference to women members of county assemblies as "busybodies".
"Wee wacha! Wee kwenda Midiwo!" they shouted as Harison Kombe (Magarini) tried to ask him to apologise "for spoiling the mood of the House".
