FRANK KAGABO finds out what we can expect from women in parliament

Monday this week saw the second parliament sworn in with the first woman speaker in Rwanda and the East African region.

Rose Mukantabana was elected by 70 out of the 80 MPs in the lower chamber of parliament. She defeated Abbas Mukama, a man who had been in the first parliament.

The little known Mukantabana was until recently a human rights advocate for marginalised groups like women and children. The weight of support behind her proves that she had appeal across the board.

Girl power
According to observers, the second parliament is likely to come under close scrutiny for a number of reasons.

Foremost, it will be recalled that women form a majority in the house. This in itself says a lot about the character of the second parliament.

As a majority the issue at stake is whether women will be voting as a block on issues that really affect women.
All this remains to be seen.

But what is clear is that the leadership of the country considers female majority in the house a positive outcome of the recent democratic elections.

Speaking at the swearing in, President Paul Kagame elaborated on the importance of putting women at the fore front of national leadership. He was quoted in the media saying that it is a vote of confidence in women by the electorate.

"This means a vote of confidence that Rwandans gave to women and this was mainly because they have contributed much to the country’s development in the past few years,” said Kagame.

Thus, this historic development renders women the opportunity to put issues that play a key role in their lives at the forefront of the national legislature’s policy agenda.

Indeed, this was also captured in the president’s speech when he called upon women legislators to use the opportunity to promote the rights of women especially in fighting gender-based violence.

The face of the new parliament goes along way in explaining the fact that chauvinistic male discrimination that was a hallmark of many African societies is on the wane, at least in Rwanda.

Again this was well captured in the words of the president when he explained that a women majority in parliament implies that all forms of discrimination are no longer acceptable to the masses.

And this, they made clear in the way they voted.
"The fact that Rwandans elected the majority of their representatives in parliament as women illustrates that any form of discrimination has no room in this country,” said Kagame.

Beyond emancipation
Women having been catapulted onto the national scene will now have to prove skeptics wrong. Many will at different times seek to portray emancipation with a dose of stigma.

Thus, products of emancipation in different fields always have a need to prove their substance and competency among colleagues who did not arrive at their stations via emancipation.

The contribution of women on the floor of the house and in committees will be watched closely. Thus many will want to see if the decision to empower women as the majority in national legislation will translate into qualitative improvement of debate in the house.

What is clear at the same time is that government may not have a hard time passing legislation or bills because of the majority the ruling party and its coalition enjoy in parliament.

Moreover, the existence of a win-win kind of political situation as opposed to a winner takes all system of governance somehow leaves little room for a deadlock on the floor of the house.

It will certainly be easy to reach a consensus on a number of bills proposed because all political parties are partners in the governance of the country.

Social welfare takes precedence
But above all, as was exhibited in the first parliament, many MPs join the house with a unity of purpose. Many have the development of the country as their core interest and as such they are expected to pursue this line rather than partisan politicking.

Patson Mugabe, 25, a student at Kigali Institute of Science Technology says that he would expect legislators to continue working for the development of the country by assisting the executive in all ways and at the same time providing checks and balances to avoid executive excesses.

"MPs have a duty to look out for what is in the best interests of the country.”

Francis Kaboneka MP appreciates this. Speaking to this report following his re-election to the house he said that he will focus a lot of his efforts in helping to change the mindsets and attitudes of the people in order to foster development.

Also speaking after being elected, MP for the disabled Claver Rwaka underscored this point. He said that the biggest problem of the disabled is poverty and that is where he would focus his efforts.

Thus, MPs are expected to carry out legislation that empowers the masses to lift themselves out of poverty.

Ends