The High Court is set to deliver its judgment today in a case challenging the control of leadership in Parliament.
Justices John Chigiti, Lawrence Mugambi, and Jairus Ngaah are scheduled to issue the ruling at 10:30 am.
The case was filed in 2023 by 12 individuals who identified themselves as 'registered voters'.
They contended that 171 members of the National Assembly were elected on the tickets of political parties that formed the Azimio coalition while 165 members of the National Assembly were elected on Kenya Kwanza coalition parties’ tickets.
They stated in their court documents that going by the results, the Azimio coalition became the majority party in the National Assembly after the August 9, 2022 General Elections.
The petitioners were also aggrieved that although Moses Wetangula was elected the Speaker of the National Assembly, he held and still holds the position of the leader of Ford-Kenya party; that he is a member of the Kenya Kwanza Forum of Party leaders; and, that he is an ex officio member of the coalition parliamentary group of Kenya Kwanza.
"Wetang'ula is conflicted to the extent that, going by his political inclination, he would be biased towards driving the Kenya Kwanza coalition political agenda in the discharge of his functions as the Speaker of the National Assembly," they said.
The petitioners’ other grievance arises from how Wetangula handled a dispute or disputes that arose in the National Assembly on which of the two coalitions, Azimio and Kenya Kwanza, formed the majority party and who, in these two coalitions, was to be recognised as the bona fide majority leader in the House.
Wetangula in response to the case said the validity of the coalition agreement of the Azimio coalition could not be determined by the Speaker of the National Assembly.
He also argued that "in so far as the petition seeks to determine a dispute between political parties and coalitions, the court lacks the power to entertain the dispute" the Reason being that the petitioners had allegedly not exhausted all the available dispute resolution mechanisms.
