Africa-Press – Kenya. Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Gladys Boss Shollei has said that more female MPs are needed in Parliament to push for women’s issues. Shollei said that many issues covering women end up being ignored in Parliament when it comes to seeking legislation.
For instance, she said, Suba North Member of Parliament Millie Odhiambo has been trying to have the surrogacy bill passed for the past 10 years. “In fact, when it was tabled to the last session, Parliament closed and went to recess so it lapsed. But I’m sure she will put it back on the floor of the House,” she said.
Shollei expressed confidence that this time round, the Assisted Reproduction Bill will pass and women will be able to use surrogate mothers. “So we need more women in Parliament because they are the only people who can push for this kind of legislation,” she said.
Shollei was speaking as Chief Guest during the one-year anniversary celebration of the Myra IVF Medical Center in Nairobi. She said it is vital that women get to access assisted reproductive services such as surrogacy and affordable InVitro Fertilisation (IVF) because the burden of infertility is usually left to them.
“So what Millie is trying to push is to have it documented that you can actually have a contract agreement whereby a surrogate is carrying the baby,” she said.
She said there would be some rules about age and so on, to ensure that nobody is exploited and so that it can be properly documented to the point the child is born.
“The child is handed over to you because in some cases, people go through the process of having embryo transfer, all the costs, but when the person has the baby, they agree to give the child to you,” she said.
She said this is going to be a great year for women because, for the first time, we have a Women’s Rights advisor to the President, Harriet Chiggai. “So we have hope because she can remind the President that we have to think about women’s needs,” she said.
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