Cabinet: Two-thirds gender rule to be followed in hiring, promoting public officers

Cabinet: Two-thirds gender rule to be followed in hiring, promoting public officers

President William Ruto chairing a past Cabinet meeting. PHOTO | PPS

The enlisting and promotion of public service officers will from now on strictly adhere to the two-thirds gender rule.

This is according to the Cabinet, which notes that despite efforts to achieve gender parity among the country’s governmental bodies, Kenya is still lagging behind compared to its peers.

The Cabinet made the decision on Tuesday when it convened for its fourth official sitting chaired by President William Ruto.

The move was also informed by the fact that gender equality is a high priority for UN development goals for Kenya.

“The meeting reiterated that the gender equality plan remain immensely important and deeply tied to Kenya's socio-economic development,” read a statement from the President’s office after the meeting.

“In that regard, the nation’s apex policy organ adopted a policy that seeks to foster the contribution of all Kenyans to national development by integrating Gender Equality as a key ethos of the Public Service. Consequently, going forward all recruitments and promotions within all the ranks of the public service shall uphold the Gender Rule.”

In preparation for the aforesaid gender rule policy, the Cabinet ordered all ministries, State agencies and the Executive to ensure that all ministerial budgets are gender-responsive.

The development comes almost six months after President Ruto, then Deputy President, promised on the campaign trail that his administration would implement the elusive two-thirds gender rule within the first three months of assuming office if he won the polls.

He vowed to amplify the voices of Kenyan women by bringing them onboard the decision-making table.

“Within three months of the Kenya Kwanza rule, we will put a mechanism to actualize the two-third gender rule and immediately operationalize that mechanism so that women don’t have to wait longer,” he said in June.

“While we went through the many economic fora across the country, we listened to the women of Kenya. They told us many things about empowerment, leadership, and they gave us examples of how they want things to change.”

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