The fate of the current Kenyan parliament is now entirely in the hands of President Uhuru Kenyatta after Chief Justice David Kenani Maraga formally advised the Head of State to dissolve the August House following their failure to enacts laws to achieve the two- third gender rule pursuant to article 261(7).
According to article 261 (7) of the 2010 Constitution, “If Parliament fails to enact legislation in accordance with an order under clause (6) (b), the Chief Justice shall advise the President to dissolve Parliament and the President shall dissolve Parliament.”
In the letter, the Chief Justice stated that Parliament has blatantly failed to pass the two thirds gender rule in accordance with article 27(3) despite four court orders compelling them to do so.
The issue of the two third gender rule has been a thorn in the flesh of the legislators who tried several times to pass it in parliament without success.
At some point, the male Members of Parliament had gone to the extent of skipping seatings just to frustrate the bill.
Some of the male legislators led by the majority leader Aden Duale argued that women should equally compete for these elective seats just like men without expecting such favors of two thirds from parliament.
Dissolution of Parliament implies that the 437 members of the National Assembly and the Senate will cease serving shall the President agree with Mr. Maraga’s recommendations.
