Source: The Star
All the country's 47 women's representatives will sue Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich if he delays to give them the certificate needed to facilitate the proposed Women Fund Bill.

Nyandarua women's representative Wanjiku Muhia said they have noted with concern that there is no political good will to ensure women's representatives have money for development.

"We initiated the bill last year. It has gone through Labour and Budget committees but it got stuck due to the delay of the certificate from the Treasury. This is what we want urgently to be able to take the bill to Parliament," she said.

Muhia was speaking during the closure of a four-day women conference at Africa Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa in Nyahururu town on Saturday.

She said the CDF managed by MPs is for infrastructural development and there is a dire need to introduce the women fund to complement the infrastructural development.

"We have noted that our role as women leaders is unappreciated by some of our colleagues and women leaders have been discriminated against. If our counterparts have CDF, Uwezo Fund, cash transfer, bursaries and equalisation fund to manage, what is the problem with women having a development kitty also?" Muhia said.

She said the women want 0.5 per cent of the national budgetary kitty equivalent to Sh3.4 billion to enable them undertake the social aspect of development.

"We want to support the boy child and start mentorship programmes in the counties. We also want to support social activities like cottage industries and empower families economically. In a nut shell, we want to complement what the CDF is doing in the constituencies," Muhia said.

The MP also urged the President not to sign the Marriage Bill as "it is against traditional laws". She said the bill should be taken back to Parliament for MPs to deliberate on it further.

Among other contentious issues in the bill is that men do not have to notify their first wives when they intend to marry the second and other subsequent wives.

• Kenya