National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula’s ruling on Majority has presented fresh hurdles to the political détente between President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, deepening political uncertainty.
The new development could undo months of political stability occasioned by the broad-based arrangement that pacified the restive population following the deadly youth-led protests.
Observers are warning the matter could spiral out of hand should Raila’s quest for AUC chairmanship flops.
The former Prime Minister is facing high-stakes continental elections this Saturday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Heads of Azimio in Parliament Junet Mohamed and Millie Odhiambo on Wednesday led their troops out of the chambers in protest of the ruling that denied Azimio the majority status.
“We do not feel any broad-based in Parliament, we are not there (..in broad-based),” a charged Junet said after leading a walkout from Parliament. “It is going to be messy, it is going to be noisy and it will have casualties.”
To demonstrate their anger, Azimio has formally written to the speaker withdrawing their members from the House Business Committee–a crucial team that prioritises businesses to be transacted by MPs.
“As the Whip, I have already written to the speaker withdrawing our members, the Standing Orders allow me to dewhip my members,” MP Odhiambo said.
Azimio had forwarded the names of Robert Mbui (Kathiani), TJ Kajwang’ (Ruaraka), Sarah Korere (Laikipia North) and Adan Keynan (Eldas) to the HBC.
The ruling has put the President in a difficult position balancing between his internal party interests against the stability of his administration should Azimio sever the ties.
This is the first time Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza is clashing with Raila’s Azimio in Parliament since the formation of the broad-based government.
The Star has, however, established there were efforts on Tuesday night by the Ruto camp to resolve the matter before it gets out of hand.
Sources told the Star that State House reached out to both majority and minority sides with the aim of having the matter sorted.
“There have been calls since we walked out but so far nothing concrete,” a lawmaker in the leadership told the Star on the phone.
MP Odhiambo (Suba North) maintained Azimio remains the majority side by dint of the High Court ruling.
“Being a lawyer, I will respect the court order and if I respect the court I am the majority leader,” Millie said.
Outside Parliament, Azimio-allied legislators maintained their hard-line stance, threatening to cut ties with Kenya Kwanza over the House dominance.
Embakasi East MP Babu Owino urged Azimio to walk out from any dealing with Kenya Kwanza, citing Wetang’ula’s ruling, which he noted, was in bad taste.
“The courts said the majority party is Azimio. It is not the work of the Speaker of the National Assembly to determine and state that Kenya Kwanza is the majority coalition but to interpret the judgment that was issued in court,” Babu said during an interview with Citizen TV.
“Therefore, the speaker has acted in contempt of court and that court decision was mentioning the speaker adversely that he was a culprit in it due to the fact that he is a speaker and a party leader, it is a complete conflict of interest.”
“I advise the Azimio coalition to leave this broad-based government as it is now the bed-based Parliament.”
Ruto’s party has backed the ruling by Wetang’ula, which held that Kenya Kwanza was the majority party in the August House.
In a statement, UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar maintained that the courts did not declare either Azimio or Kenya Kwanza the majority.
UDA argued that whereas the petitioners sought the prayers, the judges never granted a direct declaration to that effect.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the High Court never declared the Azimio coalition as the majority party or Kenya Kwanza as the minority party,” Omar said.
He said the High Court “categorically declined to grant the order and decreed that the rest of the prayers in the petition were declined”.
The ruling party said compliance with the judgment required the input of the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties
.
“Publicly available information held
by ORPP confirms the distribution
of membership as of February 11 to
be 165 for Kenya Kwanza, 154 for
Azimio, 14 for non-affiliates and four
vacancies.”
