The already ballooning wage bill is likely to get a new pump following a proposal to increase the number of MPs.
Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale is sponsoring the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2018 to address the shortfalls of the two-third gender rule.
The bill proposes to give women special seats in both Parliament and the Senate.
“The Bill seeks to give effect to the two-thirds gender principle through the creation of special seats,” reads the Bill in part as quoted by the Star.
Its adds: “That will ensure that the gender principle is realised in Parliament over a period of twenty years from the next general election.”
Duale’s Bill will also limit the number of times a person can be nominated to the bicameral Parliament or county assembly to two.
The Bill further stated that the number of special seats will be determined after the general elections and will be shared based on the strength of political parties in Parliament.
The law stipulates that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender but the current Parliament is in breach of this law.
In Parliament, there are 76 women instead of 112 to realize the two-third gender principle. Out of the 76, 23 were elected, 47 women representatives and 6 were nominated.
In the Senate, there are 21 women. Three were elected while were 19 nominated. The shortfall here to realize the gender principle rule is 12.
Duale’s bill comes against the renewed push by Thirdway Alliance to slash the number of MPs.
Party Leader Dr Ekuru Aukot has proposed that a plebiscite be held and reduce the number of MPs from the current 349 to 100.
In his letter to the IEBC, he seeks to reconstruct the Senate and National Assembly voting process by doing away with all constituencies as currently set.
If his proposal was to go through, there would be only 100 MPs while Senate would have 94 members.
“You will have addressed the question of over- representation, you will have brought down the wage bill and you will address the question of equality and discrimination of women. In terms of cost, it costs us Sh32 billion per year to run Parliament. We will reduce it to Sh5 billion,” Aukot stated.