FALSE: The president has not kept his promise of nominating 50% women in the cabinet once elected 

The cabinet nominations for women by  the Kenya Kwanza government has not met the 50% mark that was promised during campaigns.

 

Speaking during the launching of Kenya Kwanza Women Charter at Nyayo National  Stadium, the President promised that he was going to incorporate women by 50% in his cabinet once he won the presidency.

 

“I commit to actualise the two-thirds gender rule and to put in place mechanisms within the first three months of the Kenya Kwanza gov’t; we shall allocate 50% of the cabinet to women,” President Ruto said.

 

Before the unveiling of the cabinet secretaries by the president, Kenyans on social media were hopeful the issue of the 50% allocation of the cabinet secretaries was going to be met.  Maal Maker Thiong in his tweet  cited his hopes that the president would keep his promise of giving women 50% positions in the cabinet.

Nominations of the cabinet secretaries have been done and the government will been constituted by 27th November 2022

 

Ruben Fm looked into the claim to verify if women got 50% of the cabinet slots as promised. The number of women in both the cabinet secretary position and principal secretary fails to make it to the 50% threshold.

 

President William Ruto named his cabinet nominees on Tuesday 27th October 2022.The 22 cabinet nominees consisted of only 7 women nominees which by a far did not meet the 50% promise. This is roughly 32% of the cabinet nomination.

 

After the vetting of the cabinet secretaries, President William Ruto nominated his principal secretaries on Wednesday, November 2, 2022. The women nominees are 12 in number out of 51 slots available for principal Secretaries. This is only 23.5% which does not meet the 50% threshold that he promised during his campaigns.

 

The claim by President William Ruto to nominate half of his cabinet as women as promised is false.

 

This fact check has been produced by Ruben Fm with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck  and  African Fact Checking Alliance Network