Low women representation robbing Gusii of a future - Bonchari MP hopeful
Ms Purity Kirera (3rd left) among leaders welcoming President William Ruto to commission the construction of a Cancer Centre in Kisii. Photo/Charles Magati
A female executive has voiced concern over dismally low women representation from Gusii region.
Purity Kirera, a director at Bomas of Kenya, says the absence of women in decision-making organs only mocks the efforts made by the country so far to improve gender parity.
“It only reinforces the belief that women belong to the kitchen which is not true,” said Ms Kirera, emphasising the need to vote in women.
Ms Kirera is already angling for the Bonchari parliamentary seat.
She is among the three(3) directors at the government-owned Bomas of Kenya.
Prevailing prejudices and weaker sex myths, she adds, all appear as militating factors ganging up to sideline women the more.
"Of course we need to initiate robust conversations so that we can change this," Ms Kirera told AVDelta News.
Kisii and Nyamira have not voted in a woman to parliament since independence.
Save for the Woman Representative seat, a position exclusively reserved for women, no other woman has been elected to parliament as an MP or a Senator.
In both respective County Assemblies, only Kisii has had a female Member of County Assembly (MCA).
Still it is a drastic revision down from 2017 when each had one directly voted female Ward Rep.
Majority others in the current assemblies largely consist of nominees.
At least three(3) women (unsuccessfully) vied for MP seats in the last poll.
On Monday, Ms Kirera attributed it to the apathy among the Gusii electorate to elect women yet other regions are already doing so.
"In the neighbouring Homa Bay, the electorate has put a woman into office as a governor and she is doing exemplarily well. We too from Gusii should do soul searching, we have women with credentials and who can lead too," she told AVDelta News during an interview.
And speaking about her political ambition to lead Bonchari as MP in 2027, Ms Kirera said she would be joining the race on account of her credentials and not on her gender as a woman.
“I am doing so as a worth opponent and contender, not as one out to play the gender card,” she stated.