Kalonzo: Azimio is dysfunctional we can’t go into 2027 with it
"We are actively consulting and reorganising.”
5d agoPERPETUA ETYANGRealtime
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ulaWetang'ula termed the court's decision as mere "ordinary comments" in law that are non-binding and have no consequential effect.
“I want to assure the nation and the Ford Kenya fraternity that there is absolutely no cause for alarm," Wetang'ula said in a statement through his legal adviser, Benson Milimo.
"What the court did was make comments—what the law terms as ‘obiter dictum’—which are non-binding and have no consequential effect,” he said.
According to Milimo, the ruling has no effect whatsoever on the Speaker’s status clarifying that the court did not order him to relinquish either office.
"At no point did the court state that Wetang’ula should vacate his position as Speaker of the National Assembly or cease being the Party Leader of Ford Kenya," he said.
“This means that Moses Masika Wetang’ula remains the Party Leader of Ford Kenya as well as Speaker of the National Assembly. The Simba Party remains intact, stable, and ready to participate in the 2027 General Election."
The High Court, in a ruling delivered Friday by a three-judge bench, found that Wetang’ula’s dual role as both Speaker and leader of Ford Kenya was unconstitutional.
“The dual role is unlawful and unconstitutional,” the court noted. “Once he became Speaker of the National Assembly, he ceased to be the leader of Ford Kenya,”
Justices John Chigiti, Lawrence Mugambi and Jairus Ngaah delivered the ruling.
The ruling deals a blow to Wetang’ula’s controversial October 6, 2022, decision in which he declared Kenya Kwanza as the majority party in Parliament, insisting it had 179 members compared to Azimio la Umoja’s 157.
"The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition political party nominated members under the names of its constituent parties," he said.
He said Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party comprised 26 political parties but some parties left the coalition thereafter.
Some other members, he said, had also denounced the party citing letters he received from those others who were voted in PAA party ticket distancing themselves from Azimio coalition.
"It is indeed an established Parliamentary practice that the Speaker is not a mere conveyer belt of information. The Speaker must apply his mind to any communication document before it is presented to the house or admitted for use in the house," he said.
