While opposing the calls to scrap the Women's Representative seat, Githunguri Member of Parliament Gathoni Wamuchomba has warned Kenyans against electing incompetent women into the position.

In a statement on Sunday, June 8, the MP who started as the Kiambu Woman Representative described some of the women elected into the positions as mere 'cake matrons and dance hall queens' who cared more about fashion and dance moves rather than their constituents.

"Don't scrap the position of Woman Rep, it's a river mouth to many successful women MPs and Governors like Gladys Wanga. Just don't elect cake matrons and dance hall queens and expect them to get affirmed... to what? You only affirm positive traits, not dance moves and Kitenge fashion," she stated.

However, she affirmed that the position had served as a political launchpad for many women like herself who went on to occupy bigger political positions later and therefore it needed to be retained.

MP Lilian Siyoi, Fatuma Masito, Irene Mayaka, Jerusha Momanyi, Donya, Beatrice Adagala and Ruth Odinga during a visit to Magena Dispensary on April 11, 2025

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Parliament of Kenya

If retained, she claimed that women would get empowered to thereafter vie against men and have the political muscle to actually defeat them and be elected into other political seats, like Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga, who also started off as a county representative.

"I’m a beneficiary of an affirmative action seat in 2017. I did not have much muscle to punch politically. It was my springboard to spring back in 2022, and by the Grace of God, I did," she stated.

"I was elected competitively as a single Constituency Member. I defeated men, but that doesn't make me a man! I'm a woman who found favour with voters."

In 2018, Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Shollei tabled a motion in Parliament seeking to scrap the Woman Representative seat.

The constitutional amendment bill advocated for the pairing of constituencies to form one that would exclusively be reserved for women in a bid to foster the two-gender rule by the election of more women instead of nomination.

According to Shollei, the amendment would have more women elected into Parliament instead of being nominated, as the process had been marred by parties exercising favouritism in nominations.

“What I want my bill to achieve is adding more women to parliament through election and not through nomination, which is prone to misuse by party leaders who often nominate their girlfriends,” Shollei noted.

The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2019, sought to create at least 179 positions for women in Parliament and the county assemblies through elections and not party nominations.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Shollei

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