NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 26 — United Democratic Alliance (UDA) presidential candidate William Ruto has promised to formulate a policy on the two-thirds gender rule within 90 days and ensure the required threshold is attained within a year.
Ruto who spoke during the presidential debate on Tuesday said he had assembled legal experts to propose policy interventions that may not necessarily require constitutional changes to implement.
“The fact that we do not have as many women leaders is a negative for us. There’s something we’re losing; the women leadership component that is not in our arithmetic is taking away from us,” he said.
“I believe that having women leaders would actually enrich our governance and leadership as a nation,” Ruto added.
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance leader said he would ensure women, who lag behind in representation are elevated to positions of influence in Parliament and the Executive where they have equal status with their male counterparts on crucial national matters.
Ruto has criticized Odinga saying he had no clue on what he intends to do in his bid for the presidency.
Speaking in a post-debate interview Ruto said he had a solid plan to transform the country’s economy through targeted investments in agriculture, manufacturing and policy interventions to avail affordable credit.
“I’d have hoped that my competitor would have been here. Unfortunately, and it is understandable, that there’s only one plan in this election: the Kenya Kwanza plan, the other side has sketches and that is why they are not here,” he told a pool of reporters shortly after emerging from the debate.
Ruto went on to state Odinga’s camp lacked the political will to fight corruption since such a move would be resisted by its key partners.
“We are the only side that has a plan on fighting corruption, conflict of interest and state capture. The other side (Azimio) are actually hostages. They’re sponsored by people who perpetuate conflict of interest and they missed this debate so as not to offend their sponsors,” he said.
During the debate snubbed by Odinga, Ruto defended his track-record saying he had done enough under a difficult political environment to discharge his mandate in line with his oath of office.
