Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba on Monday morning called out the Kenya Kwanza Government accusing them of using women for political clout and then abandoning them after elections.
Speaking on Citizen TV on September 16, Wamuchomba said that one of the biggest misses the Kenya Kwanza Government has done is leave women behind.
She accused the President of using goofs to entice women during the campaigns, seemingly in a bid to put forward that women’s needs would be put first.
She admitted to joining the UDA party because she believed in their potential to empower women in the political space saying, “As a woman leader, the reason why I actually joined the party was because I believed in the women’s political space.”
President William Ruto and Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba in Karen on August 18, 2021.
PCS
However, she critically expressed her disappointment in the Kenya Kwanza Government for failing to adhere to the two-thirds gender rule despite several promises during campaigns.
Referring to a Women Charter signed at the Railways Club, Wamuchomba said that President Ruto had committed himself to ensuring all sectors in the government, including both parliaments, the cabinet and counties achieved the two-thirds gender rule.
She noted that none of those promises have come to pass despite the National Assembly having supposedly held the two-thirds gender rule debate 8 times.
She, therefore, believes that this is a result of a lack of effort from the government whatsoever.
In what she calls the president’s first goof, President Ruto fronted several women during the General Election and then subjected them to primaries where most of the promising ones ended up losing.
Even when it came to the appointment to Cabinet and other non-election seats, she said that he did not consider women for the seats in a manner that could bridge the two-thirds gender rule.
However, women in politics are not the only ones she believes have been left behind. She noted that the attempt to increase sanitary towels tax in the rejected Finance Bill and withdrawal of Linda Mama, a crucial reproductive health provider during the doctors’ strike as just some of the things women have had to persevere.
“I sympathise with the women of Kenya. The women of Kenya are used as the catalyst of politics. Look at the way women dance, women dress and attend meetings. Right now, I’m seeing Kenya Kwanza are reviving Inua Mama and the men are pegging into Inua Mama activities to go and do their dirty tribal politics,” she stated
It is for this reason that she believes the government has done very little in terms of empowering women as compared to the previous government, headed by then President Uhuru Kenyatta, which she also served in.
Despite an executive order issued in December 2023 to fill the gaps regarding the gender rule, things are yet to change.
For his two years in office, Wamuchomba gave the President a solid 30% rating in terms of performance.
Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba speaking on May 15,2024
Photo
Parliament of Kenya
