The Carter Centre, a U.S.-based election monitoring organization, has warned Kenyan lawmakers that continued non-compliance with constitutional gender quotas could lead to parliamentary dissolution. The group's legal brief, released ahead of International Women's Day 2019, highlights systemic failures to enforce the two-thirds rule established by Kenya's 2010 Constitution.
Article 27(8) of the constitution mandates that no more than two-thirds of members in public bodies be of the same gender. The Supreme Court reinforced this requirement in 2012, ordering the National Assembly to pass implementing legislation within five years of the constitution's adoption. Failure to act violates constitutional guarantees of gender equality, the court ruled.
The legal brief notes that a bill to enforce the gender rule was reintroduced in February 2019 but failed to secure a quorum for voting. Current representation shows women hold 76 of 337 parliamentary seats, 41 short of the two-thirds threshold. In the Senate, 21 women serve—two below the one-third quota required for representation of marginalized groups.
Implementation of the gender rule would only take effect after the 2022 general election, according to the brief. The Carter Centre emphasized that legislative inaction risks violating constitutional principles and undermines Kenya's commitment to gender equality.
