To achieve this, the head of state tasked the UDA party chairperson Cecily Mbarire to formulate a new set of laws that will require a male presidential candidate to have a female running mate and vice versa.
“We must be intentional and deliberate about the place of women in leadership. We have agreed with Deputy President that moving forward when we are done, in the party, if a presidential candidate is male, then a woman must be the deputy or vice versa. The same will apply to counties,” he noted
“This time round we must get the 2/3rds gender rule right. In the bill that will be submitted to parliament, we will ensure more women get elected to parliament. For the 290 seats, at the very minimum we must have at least one third being women,” added Ruto.
At the same time, he applauded female leaders for their resilient and for standing beside him through his difficult political times. “When I ran into political turbulence as deputy president, more women on my side stood by me than men. In the last election, for some reason, more women voted for me than men.
“It is not just politically correct to say we should have women leaders; it’s the constitutional and moral thing to do. No man, however prejudiced, did not come from the womb of a woman,” added Ruto.
The G7 is a coalition comprising the seven women governors elected in Kenya. It aims to empower and bolster women leaders by fostering effective, transformative, and strategic governance within the decentralized systems.
They include Ann Waiguru(Kirinyaga), Susan Kihika(Nakuru), Wavinya Ndeti(Machakos), Fatuma Achani(Kwale), Kawira Mwangaza(Meru) and Cecily Mbarire(Embu).
This comes ahead of celebrations of the International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8.
