Women demand gender balance in CA top posts

 Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro.

Dodoma. Constituent Assembly proceedings turned chaotic yesterday as women members demanded a rule that would guarantee that one of them was elected either the chairperson or deputy.

The women shot to their feet and chanted for their rights after some men tried to downplay their demand that the regulations state categorically that when the candidate for the post of chairperson was a man, a woman should vie for the position of deputy and vice-versa.

Members of the committee appointed to fine-tune the CA standing orders and male members who spoke out against the proposal had a hard time explaining why gender parity should not be taken into account.

The issue saw the Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, differ with her Zanzibar counterpart, Mr Abubakar Khamis. While Dr Migiro was of the view that accepting the gender parity proposal was not against the law, Mr Khamis insisted that doing so would contravene the Constitutional Review Act.

The commotion broke out after Dr Christina Mzava tabled a schedule of amendments to include a sub-section in Section 8 of the Standing Orders which would protect women’s interests. According to Dr Mzava, all she wanted was to ensure gender equality in top positions in the CA.

But Mr George Simbachawene, who responded on behalf of the committee, said it was impossible to incorporate Dr Mzava’s recommendations in the CA Standing Orders. Doing so, he argued, would violate the Constitutional Review Act, which outlines the qualifications of candidates for chairperson. If gender was to be included as one of the factors for the chairpersonship or deputy chairpersonship, Mr Simbachawene said, Section 23 (2) of that law would have to be amended.

Mr Simbachawene, who had the backing of Mr Khamis and other members of the committee, added: “Section 23 (2) of the Constitutional Review Act states that if the CA chairperson is from Tanzania Mainland, the deputy should come from Zanzibar and vice-versa. Legally, you cannot put two conditions in one place. Since we have one condition in this, if you want gender to be one of the factors, we need to amend Section 23 (2)--and we don’t have that mandate.”

Those remarks added fuel to fire as more women rose up in arms. Dr Ave-Maria Semakafu (representative of education institutions), Dr Migiro and Ms Lediana Mng’ong’o joined forces to oppose Mr Simbachawene. Dr Semakafu reminded her colleagues that Tanzania was for both men and women. She urged them to borrow a leaf from President Jakaya Kikwete in his appointment of the 201 CA members, where he considered gender parity. “If you look at your table, Mr Chairman,” she added, “you will find out that it has been dominated by men as all the clerks are men.”

Dr Migiro said that although the law had not cited gender among the factors to run for the CA chairmanship or vice-chairmanship, the session was not barred from including the condition in its Standing Orders.

Mr Ezekiah Wenje (Nyamagana-Chadema) was also booed by the united women when he tried to shoot down their demand. Mr Wenje said there was no need for CA Standing Orders to include Dr Mzava’s recommendations as the Constitution Review Act gives equal opportunity for women and men to run for the CA top positions.

“One shouldn’t be elected CA chairperson or deputy chairperson simply because of gender,” he argued. “One should be elected into the positions only upon meeting the conditions provided by the law.”

His remarks sparked chaos in the CA as women rose and started singing as they demanded their rights. The Interim Chairperson of the CA, Mr Pandu Ameir Kificho, had a rough time trying to contain the situation as his orders were simply drowned out by the singing and shouting.