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Parliament will pass laws to implement the two-thirds gender rule before the end of its term, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula declared yesterday.

Wetangula said President William Ruto’s administration is keen to fulfil the commitment it made to Kenyans during the election campaigns.

“I want to assure Kenyans that in Parliament we have a debate going on brought by the President to ensure that this Parliament achieves the two-thirds gender rule,” he said as Kenyans marked the International Women’s Day.

The Speaker indicated that the relevant Bill will be processed by the end of the year.

Women rights groups have been pushing for implementation of the rule. Some have also accused President Ruto of failing to deliver on his campaign pledge to give half of his Cabinet positions to women.

“The President has every intention of fulfilling his campaign promises” said Harriet Chiggai, the women rights advisor to the President.

The two were speaking during the Fifth Peoples Dialogue Festival (PDF) hosted by the Centre for Multi-Party Democracy at the Nairobi National Museums of Kenya yesterday,

At the same time, Wetangula indicated he did not support the merger of political parties in the Kenya Kwanza coalition as propagated by the UDA leadership.

“Multiparty democracy is about competition but seeking shared solutions for the benefit of a country and its citizens,”  he said as he emphasised the need to inculcate the culture of dialogue in young people, saying dialogue is an essential element of a democratic society.

“The history of our country lies in dialogue. We fought for independence in the 1950s and when we overwhelmed the foreign occupants of our country they came to their senses and called Kenyans to Lancaster House for a dialogue that yielded our independence,” Wetagula said.

He added: “In 1992 Kenyans demanded to have multiparty democracy the constitutional change that brought the repeal of Section 2A was born out of dialogue. We should not forget that the 2010 constitutional change was as a result of long protracted dialogue.