MPs crowd around Kilifi North MP Owen Baya on Tuesday, February 11, 2025. /SCREENSHOTTuesday's sittings of the National Assembly were a scene of chaos as the House turned into a supremacy battlefield with the Azimio side assuming the role of the majority side in alignment with the court's ruling.
In a landmark decision delivered on February 7, a three-judge bench comprising Justices John Chigiti, Jairus Ngaah and Lawrence Mugambi, the High Court ruled that the Raila Odinga-led faction was the bonafide majority alliance in the National Assembly.
As the House settled down to the business of the day, Azimio sought to stamp its authority as the majority side by frustrating any attempts by Kenya Kwanza MPs from executing their role in the House as the majority side.
Among those who found themselves in unfamiliar territory was Owen Baya, who before the resumption of the sittings had been the deputy majority leader.
The Kilifi North legislature stood to table a report by the Auditor General but he was heckled down by members and denied the chance to table the papers.
"Honourable Speaker, I beg to lay the following papers on the floor of the House," he started off amid a shouting match between members of either side of the Parliament.
His attempts to proceed with tabling the papers were cut short as soon as he said, "The Auditor General's report..."
Azimio members walked to Baya's seat with House orderlies in tow, and as they exchanged words, Speaker Moses Wetang'ula attempted to calm the situation to little avail and resumed his seat.
In their ruling, the judges said Wetangula acted unreasonably when he assigned to the Kenya Kwanza Alliance 14 members of the Azimio coalition who had resigned from the outfit.
The speaker claimed in his ruling that the Azimio defectors drawn from four parties, namely the United Democratic Movement (UDM), Movement for Democracy and Growth (MDG), Maendeleo Chap Chap (MCC), and Pamoja African Alliance (PAA), had formally written to his office to denounce their association with the Raila-led outfit.
But the court dismissed the ruling saying Wetang'ula never provided any evidence of any post-election agreements involving the said parties and the Kenya Kwanza coalition.
