National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula has said that he will make the ruling on which coalition between Kenya Kwanza and Azimio la Umoja coalition has majority MPs in the House on Thursday afternoon.
Addressing the members after the end of the evening debate session Wetangula said his ruling will be made at 2:30pm on October 6.
“I will consider the matter that you have prosecuted before the house and I will give you a reasoned ruling touching o the facts, the jurisprudence the constitutionality of the issue and any other matters that we conversed on Thursday, October 6, 2022, at 2:30pm,” he said before adjourning the sitting.
Earlier in the day, Wetangula refused to name the Majority and Minority leaders saying the matter of who has the majority elected members between the two coalitions needed deliberations by the MPs.
He asked the MPs to debate the matter and that he would make his decision later in the day, saying that he needed more time.
“I will reserve the rest of today’s sitting to allow the House to address me on this matter so that I can retreat to make a reasoned ruling and guidance to the house,” Wetangula said.
Tiaty MP William Kamket while making submissions on the floor of the house sought to defend his decamping from the Azimio la Umoja coalition to Kenya Kwanza, saying that his party KANU never saw the agreement that they signed.
“Freedom has come,” he said. Kamket sought the engagement of other members on which agreement superseded the other between the pre-elections or the post-election agreement between parties or a coalition.
Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa said that there was no way parties that want to leave Azimio should be prevented from doing that. He urged Speaker Moses Wetangula to make the ruling in favour of Kenya Kwanza.
Robert Mbui, Kathiani MP, said that the issue was not too difficult for the speaker to decide since it was an issue of black and white.
He said that the election results show that Azimio coalition had the most MPs elected, adding that the parties decamping to Kenya Kwanza started to do so after William Ruto had been declared President.
He added that the Azimio coalition will not have numbers in a month’s time after the lapse of the agreement in the Azimio coalition expires.
“Mr Speaker I think it is a simple decision Azimio la Umoja is the majority party,” he said.
Speaker Moses Wentangula ruled that the Azimio agreement that had been tabled on the floor of the house by Suna East MP Junet Mohammed was not complete and was therefore not admissible. “This document is inadmissible and you shall make no reference to it,” he said.
On his part, Junet Mohammed defended the document saying it is the same document that is with the registrar of political parties. He said the expunging of the agreement put the house in a precarious position to debate about the Azimio coalition and those leaving it since there was nowhere to refer.
In her submissions, Jubilee nominated MP Sabina Chege said that the agreement binds parties that were in the Azimio coalition whether they read it or not since they appended their signatures to it.
Mutuse Mwengi, Kibwezi West MP, said that his party wrote to the registrar of political parties asking for the Azimio coalition agreement and did not receive it.
He added that a follow-up letter got a reply from the registrar saying that she had received instructions not to give them the agreement. He said that Maendeleo Chapchap had been coerced into joining Azimio coalition, saying that every elected MP has a right to decide on where they belong.
In the Senate, Speaker Amason Kingi officially named the leadership of the house in the afternoon session.
Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot was named Senate Majority leader with Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja deputizing him.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale is the Majority Whip with Samburu Senator Steve Lelegwe serving as his deputy.
Kilifi Senator Steward Madzayo is the Minority Leader while Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua is the Deputy Minority leader.
Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo is the Minority Whip with her Narok counterpart Ledama Ole Kina will deputize her.
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