Women MPs oppose appointment of male counterpart to replace Rachel Shebesh in House Committee

By Alphonce Shiundu

Nairobi, Kenya: Women MPs Thursday protested bitterly when the Jubilee coalition replaced Rachel Shebesh (Nairobi) with Stephen Kinyanjui (Kinangop) in the crucial House Business Committee.

Majority Leader Adan Duale and Majority Chief Whip Katoo ole Metito said Shebesh had “resigned voluntarily” from the House Business Committee because she had too much work as a result of her nomination to represent the Parliament of Kenya in the Pan Africa Parliament.

“It was becoming difficult for her to give her input to the House Business Committee and therefore she requested that she should be replaced,” said Metito (Kajiado South).

But Esther Murugi (Nyeri Town) protested and told Duale and Metito that they were being unfair to the women lawmakers.

“If you look at the composition of all committees, the men are many than women. It is only fair that if a woman steps down, she is replaced by a man, not a woman,” said Murugi.

There are 47 elected women representatives, 16 elected women MPs, and a handful of nominated MPs in the National Assembly.

But the Speaker Justin Muturi intervened and told Murugi that MPs should not take on more committees than they can handle.

“We are not overworked. If we are overworked we’ll say so. But give us a chance to represent our people,” said Murugi.

But Duale and Metito said there were 349 MPs who had to be divided in the 29 committees, and that the agreement was that an MP had to belong to at least two committees. They said that when a male MP Zebedeo Opore lost his seat following an election petition, his position was taken up by a woman, Florence Kajuju (Meru).

Another MP Oscar Sudi (Kapseret) was also taken to sit in the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee in place of Maalim Mahmoud, who left the committee citing other commitments.

Michael Aringo (Butula) complained that he had only been given one committee, but Duale and Metito assured him that they will give him a second committee.