Deputy minority whip in the Senate Edwin Sifuna now wants the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition to assume the position of majority side in the upper House to replicate the situation in the National Assembly.
Azimio on Tuesday occupied the majority positions in the National Assembly when MPs resumed sittings from the long December recess during a session dominated by a supremacy contest between the ruling Kenya Kwanza and the opposition Raila Odinga-led faction.
As debate was ongoing to reach a truce on how to implement a February 7 High Court ruling that Azimio was the bona fide political outfit to play the majority role in the National Assembly, Sifuna was in the Senate pushing for adoption of the court ruling in the House.
In his learned opinion, Sifuna argued that given that the constitution is silent on how to determine the leadership in the Senate, it should pass that this determination should be set in the National Assembly.
"Mr Speaker, the constitution is very elaborate; it starts out by defining what Parliament is then seperating the roles of the Senate and the National Assembly. It goes to be specific enough to the roles of each of those houses the matters that can be processed there and the matters that cannot be processed there," he said.
He continued: "On the question of which party is the majority party, there's absolutely no mention throughout the entire document of the constitution of the Senate.In my view, it means that the designation of the majority party is det in the National Assembly."
Sifuna explained that it would be an absurdity for Azimio to be the majority side in the National Assembly but the minority in the Senate.
He said should the situation remain as is, there would be a confusion because communication from a party's house leadership always comes from one person, this being him as the secretary general of Azimio.
"Hon speaker, will he write in the National Assembly as member of the majority party and here he writes as leader of the minority party? These are some of the absurdities that would arise," he said.
Following the August 9, 2022 elections, Kenya Kwanza got 163 MPs out of 290 seats in the National Assembly and 24 in the Senate, while Azimio had 180 MPs and 22 senators.
The leadership in the National Assembly, however, tipped in the balance in Kenya Kwanza's favour after 14 MPs shifted allegiance to the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition.
The move prompted Speaker Moses Wetang'ula to declare Kenya Kwanza the majority side in a decision he made in October 2022 which held that Kenya Kwanza had 179 MPs against Azimio’s 157.
But on February 7, a three-judge bench annulled the ruling in a landmark verdict delivered by Justices John Chigiti, Jairus Ngaah, and Lawrence Mugambi.
The judges said Wetang’ula acted unreasonably when he assigned the 14 MPs who had defected from Azimio to the Kenya Kwanza coalition saying he didn’t provide any evidence of any post-election agreements involving the said parties and the Kenya Kwanza coalition.
The speaker had claimed that the MPs from United Democratic Movement, Movement for Democracy and Growth, Maendeleo Chap Chap and Pamoja African Alliance had formally written to his office to denounce their association with Azimio.
But the judges said, in the absence of any proof, Wetang’ula's decision cannot be allowed to stand.
Sifuna said as believers of the rule of law, the Azimio side was going to enforce the court order to the letter.
"Once the court has pronouned itself, Senator Khalwale you look for another seat," Sifuna said in reference to the Kakamega senator's rank in the House as leadr of majority.
"We will not allow people to conflate issues, if Azimio is the majority party in the National Assembly, it follows that we are the majority in this House."
