120 days to fix it: Leaders trade blame over gender rule failure as court deadline looms
President William Ruto chairs a Cabinet meeting at State House, Nairobi.
What you need to know:
- Kenya's broad-based Cabinet comprises 22 Cabinet Secretaries, six of whom are women, down from seven following the latest reshuffle.
- That reshuffle saw former President Uhuru Kenyatta's allies brought into government amid efforts to ease political tensions after anti-government protests against President Ruto's administration.
On June 30, a three judge bench of the High Court sitting at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi declared President William Ruto's Cabinet unconstitutional for violating the Constitution's two thirds gender rule, ordering him to reconstitute it within 120 days.
During Citizen TV's Daybreak show on Thursday, High Court advocate Titus Makhanu questioned the government's commitment to gender equality, pointing to the role of Presidential Women's Rights Adviser Harriet Chiggai.
“Hon Chiggai sits as a Presidential Adviser on matters of women and children, yet this government has consistently failed to implement the two thirds gender rule. In fact, the very Cabinet she advises has been faulted for failing to comply with the Constitution. That is the hypocrisy we are seeing from this government,” he said.
In response, Ms Chiggai argued that the two thirds gender principle should be viewed across all arms of government, noting that progress had been made in several institutions.
“When you talk about the two thirds principle in this country, we must look at the broader picture,” she said. “The Judiciary is at 56 per cent, the Attorney General's Office is at 54 per cent… we are in the auditing process, and we are actually going to ensure that women are well placed within all government institutions,” she added.
She maintained that achieving the two thirds gender principle remains most challenging in Parliament, attributing this to the Constitution's lack of a straightforward mechanism for increasing the number of elected women.
“You realise you can't just wake up and top up the numbers in Parliament,” she said. “We have a deficit of one in the Senate, and if we do the mathematics, about 16 to 21 in Parliament. What does that mean? For us to achieve the two thirds in Parliament, we must go to the referendum.”
She went on: “So the formula is just about top up, and then let's take it back to Kenyans. Why are you shouting at the government all the time about two thirds, yet you have an opportunity to elect women in political spaces? So for me, I throw it back to Kenyans. We are going to the 2027 elections to elect women in those positions.”
High Court ruling
Addressing the High Court's ruling on the Cabinet, she said President Ruto's broad-based administration was formed through consultations with coalition partners, who submitted nominees for Cabinet appointments.
“If the government was a UDA government alone, then we should be able to say UDA government has not achieved that and cannot achieve that. When you ask other political parties to bring names of people to be nominated, they bring men; that is their selected people, you know,” she said.
Kenya's broad-based Cabinet comprises 22 Cabinet Secretaries (CSs), six of whom are women, down from seven following the latest reshuffle. That reshuffle saw former President Uhuru Kenyatta's allies brought into government amid efforts to ease political tensions after anti-government protests against President Ruto's administration.
Jubilee links
Uhuru, who leads the Jubilee Party, heads the third-largest party in the National Assembly by elected membership, according to Parliament's records. As of the parliamentary party list published on 25 February 2025, Jubilee had 28 elected MPs, behind the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) with 145 and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) with 83.
The decline in women's representation followed the nomination of former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo as Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, replacing Dr Margaret Nyambura Ndung'u, one of the seven women who had served in Cabinet.
President Ruto also nominated former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe to return to the Agriculture and Livestock Development Ministry. Kagwe previously served in former President Kenyatta's Cabinet as Health Cabinet Secretary, where he led Kenya's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Former Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui was nominated as Cabinet Secretary for Investment, Trade and Industry.
The nominations came nine days after President Ruto held talks with former President Kenyatta at his Ichaweri home in Gatundu South Constituency, Kiambu County, a meeting widely viewed as part of efforts to broaden political cooperation.
However, speaking to the Gender Desk on Thursday, Jubilee Secretary General Moitalel Ole Kenta dismissed suggestions that the party had nominated anyone to President Ruto's Cabinet, insisting that those appointed acted in their individual capacities and not on behalf of the party.
He said Jubilee was neither consulted nor involved in the selection process and maintained that, had the party been asked to submit nominees, it would have ensured women were included.
“If it was Uhuru who had suggested their names, you would have seen the face of Kenya. You would have considered a woman, and there would have been consultations with the party organs. That was not done. Those individuals just went on their own. They were not seconded by Jubilee in any way,” said Kenta.
He also backed the High Court ruling, saying President Ruto should move swiftly to reconstitute the Cabinet.
“We identify fully with the court's judgment. The Cabinet should be dissolved because the Constitution must be respected,” he said.
He argued that complying with the gender principle is not optional but a constitutional obligation, adding that President Ruto's response to the ruling would demonstrate his commitment to women's rights.
“Unless President Ruto is saying women don't matter in this country, he must ensure that the Cabinet complies with the two-thirds gender rule. We are very particular and very sensitive about gender interests and rights, and if Jubilee had been involved, we would certainly have included a woman,” he said.
ODM links
The broad-based Cabinet also includes four CSs with ODM links. Three are well known: John Mbadi (National Treasury), Wycliffe Oparanya (Co-operatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development), and Hassan Joho (Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs).
The fourth, CS for East African Community, ASALs and Regional Development Beatrice Askul Moe, was publicly identified as an ODM member during her parliamentary vetting.
According to the National Assembly's vetting report, Eliud Karanja Matindi objected to her appointment, arguing that she was a member of and affiliated with ODM. He further stated that she served on the party's Elections Committee and only resigned after her nomination as a CS.
In her response to the committee, she confirmed that she had officially relinquished her ODM membership and resigned from the party's Elections Committee. She said her resignation, confirmed in an ODM statement dated July 31, 2024, and by a letter from the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties, was intended to comply with Article 77(2) of the Constitution, which bars State officers from holding office in a political party.
In a text response, ODM's Acting Secretary General Catherine Omanyo said the Constitution vests the power to nominate CSs solely in the President.
“Articles 132(2) and 152 of the Constitution of Kenya are very categorical on who nominates and thereafter appoints Cabinet Secretaries,” she said. “It is a constitutional responsibility domiciled in the office of the President and only exercised by him alone as the appointing authority.”
She added that political parties in a coalition arrangement have only a limited role.
“Political parties in a coalition setting can only propose for his consideration,” she said.
