Fate of five women who served in the past Cabinet remains unknown

President Uhuru Kenyatta should appoint at least nine women to his Cabinet to fulfil the gender rule, a group has said.

The women took to the streets yesterday to protest against 'discrimination' by the President, whom they accused of violating the two-thirds gender rule.

Meeting under the auspices of the Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness, the women said Mr Kenyatta erred when he omitted women in his recent nomination of nine CSs.

The group said it would mobilise women across the country to demand fairness in filling the Cabinet posts.

"It is unfortunate that no woman has so far been appointed or even nominated to the Cabinet. We demand justice. The President should act according to the Constitution," said the group's chief executive, Wangeci Wachira.

She said the President had furthered the marginalisation of women.

“We have 76 women in the National Assembly, which is 41 short of the required number. In the Senate, the threshold for the two-thirds gender principle is 23 members of either gender. Yet there are only 21 female senators. This trend cannot be allowed to continue,” said Wachira.

The fate of five women who served in Uhuru's first Cabinet remain unknown. They are Amina Mohamed (Foreign Affairs), Sicily Kariuki (Public Service and Youth Affairs), Raychelle Omamo (Defence), Judi Wakhungu (Environment), and Phyllis Kandie (East African Affairs).

Other groups, including Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and International Centre for Policy and Conflict (ICPC) have also accused Uhuru of failing to honour the gender rule.

“The only option now is to go to the CJ and ask him to take the necessary steps to ensure the gender rule is respected after MPs failed to pass the necessary laws,” said KNHCR secretary Patricia Nyaundi.

ICPC executive director Ndung'u Wainaina said: "Parliament is facing danger due to a bad precedent."