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JK says govt keen to ease women’s plight
2006-07-16 10:20:21
By Correspondent Richard Makore
President Jakaya Kikwete has said the government has started to make a critical assessment of laws that oppress women, with a view to scrapping them.
He has also pledged that it will strive to stamp out cruel and inhuman practices, such as the killing of elderly women falsily accused of being witches.
The President made the remarks in Dar es Salaam yesterday, at a functioon organised by the CCM women’s wing, UWT, to congratulate him for being elected the ruling party’s new chairman, and to bid farewell to his predecsssor, retired president Benjamin Mkapa.
He told the audience assembled at the Diamond Jubilee Hall that the goverment’s determination to create a legally and socially conducive environment for women was manifested by appointment of one of them to head the legal and constitutional affairs ministry.
The President said merit was the major criterion for the appointment of women in the Cabinet, who, he said were discharging their roles exemplarily.
The President however pointed out that drawbacks against women’s development included the tendency by some of them to back-bite, mudsling and dislike one another.
He decried the tendencies, but stressed that those appointed to strategic positions were admirable performers, some of who outshined some men.
President Kikwete stressed that women should be front runners in spearheading campaigns against anti-social practices such as female genital mutilation.
One of the measures for empowering women, he said, was the planned allocation of 500 million shillings to every region, for which they would be given priority.
He said a proper system of ensuring that the money reached the targeted beneficiaries had been conceived.
The UWT national chairperson, Anna Abdallah, appealed to the CCM chairman to appoint women to key postions whenever opportunities occured.
He specifically requested that the three vacant slots in the National Assembly to be given to women.
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