Sub Saharan Africa

The government is urging Members of Parliament to support a Bill that backs party nominations to fill special seats in Parliament and the Senate, to meet the gender representation rule.

Attorney General Githu Muigai in an interview with Capital FM News advised MPs to pass the Bill published by Mutula Kilonzo when he was the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister to avoid a constitutional crisis.

19-year-old Proscovia Alengot Oromait is now the youngest Member of Parliament in African history after running for and winning the MP position left vacant by her father in Usuk County of eastern Uganda. The teenager had been planning to go to university, but was derailed following her father's death when she felt the pull to go into politics. Oromait beat out eight other candidates, having garnered 11,059 votes (her closest rival got 5,329 votes).

Women Parliamentary Caucus members  have strongly demanded Minister of Health Khumbo Kachali, who is also the country’s Vice-President, to return back the  hospital beds from Mponela Hospital where they were snatched to be given to Mzimba for political campaign purposes.

Chairperson of the female lawmakers Cecilia Chazama said the beds should be returned to the establishment “within 24 hours”.

Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Juliana Mphande said over 20 female MPs will not accept anything less than returning the beds which were reportedly snatched at night.

Parliament on Wednesday paid a fond farewell and tribute to Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma as she heads for Addis Ababa to chair the African Union commission.

President Jacob Zuma led praise for one of the country's longest-serving post-apartheid ministers, calling her a patriot and her departure a loss for the country, but a gain for Africa.

“She will be sorely missed in the country. But we know that we shall feel and hear her footsteps in Addis Ababa,” he told a joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa State, says the party has witnessed high level of interest by its members for the forthcoming local government elections in the state as over 600 persons out of which 57 are female have indicated interest in securing the ticket of the party to contest the elections.

Secretary of the party, Mr P Elisha who spoke to newsmen in Yola, yesterday, said no fewer than 92 persons are vying for the chairmanship tickets while 577 are slugging it out for the 226 councillorship seats in the state.

A study has called on all stakeholders to work consciously to increase the number of women who will win the District Level Elections (DLEs) in 2014 and other such future elections. "The Performances of Women Candidates in the 2010 District Level Elections: In the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions of Ghana," asked District Assemblies, traditional authorities, civil society organisations (CSOs) and others "to keep all hands on deck, to get more women win the 2014 DLEs" and all other such elections.

The United Nations body on gender equality, "UN Women", on Friday pledged to cooperate with the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

After an audience granted by the chairperson of the Assembly, Veronica Macamo, the representative of UN Women in Mozambique, Valeria de Campos Mello, said "We shall continue to help where possible. We want to strengthen the capacity of the Assembly in implementing laws concerning gender, and the dialogue between the Assembly and vulnerable and HIV-positive women".