Vote on gender Bill flops again on quorum hitch

Vote on the gender equity Bill has flopped for the fourth time after the House failed to raise the numbers to pass it.

Only 174 of the 349 members of the National Assembly were present in the House on Wednesday before the vote was taken against a threshold of 233 MPs.

For the Bill to sail through, it required a two-thirds majority or at least 233 of the 349 MPs in the National Assembly.

Several MPs walked out of the chamber when Speaker Justin Muturi directed the quorum bell to ring for 10 minutes.

“The Constitution has fixed a definite threshold of 233 MPs … for the House to a vote on second reading of Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2018,” said Mr Muturi.

This denied women MPs the requisite numbers to have the Bill passed through its second reading.

Mr Muturi at one point directed a manual headcount on the consideration that the electronic system was undergoing some upgrade. “To be absolutely sure and for efficiency, I direct we have a manual headcount. I am aware the system is undergoing some upgrade and maybe all the gadgets may not have been captured through electronic voting,” he said.

Court rulings since 2012 have directed Parliament to pass legislation to enforce the gender rule or risk being dissolved — but previous attempts have failed with female MPs accusing male lawmakers of deliberately blocking efforts.