Siaya Senator James Orengo has accused the Kenya Kwanza Alliance members of doing nothing to empower women during their stay in high echelons of the government.
Orengo, who was addressing this year’s International Widows’ Day celebrations held at the Siaya Institute of Technology grounds, lamented that senior Kenya Kwanza Alliance officials, led by Deputy President William Ruto have been promising women top positions while their record spoke the opposite.
“We want to know what the proponents did while they were in government to uplift the women programmes such as the Women Enterprise Fund to get more money from the national revenue so that they could have more extended reach,” said Orengo during the function which was presided over by the Chief Administrative Secretary for Public Service, Gender and Senior Citizens Affairs Mrs. Linah Jebii Kilimo.
Senator Orengo, who is vying for the Siaya gubernatorial seat in the forthcoming general election, said it was not enough to preach the “Bottoms – Up” policy.
He said that there was an urgent need for legislation of laws that would ensure that widows enjoyed equal rights as their departed husbands in terms of land and property ownership.
Flanked by Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo, Alego /Usonga’s Samuel Atandi and Siaya Woman Representative Dr. Christine Ombaka, Orengo lamented that many women continued to suffer injustice out of discrimination.
“For women rights to be honoured, we need more women in leadership,” he said and lamented that the country has, up to now, not been able to attain the constitutional thresh hold of one-third gender representation in both houses of Parliament and even in County Assemblies.
The Senator pledged to ensure that a charter championing for recognition of women and widows and their treatment with dignity is enacted into law by the Siaya County Assembly should he become the governor and challenged those who would be elected in the National Assembly and Senate to also push for the enactment of the same.
