National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula on Friday, April 4, sought the intervention of the High Court, imploring it to strike out an application accusing him of contempt of court over his ruling on the majority party in Parliament.
In a preliminary objection filed at the High Court, Speaker Wetang’ula and the National Assembly argued that the contempt of court application in relation to the said ruling was defective and in breach of their right to a fair hearing.
The National Assembly and the Speaker, through their legal teams, argued that the contempt of court proceedings were "an attempt to litigate a new cause of action" and therefore asked the bench to strike them out.
"There is no dispositive order that was made by this Honourable Court capable of being violated by the 3rd and 4th respondents to constitute the contempt proceedings," argued the Speaker and the National Assembly.
They added: "There is no order of the Court that required the 3rd and 4th respondents to do or refrain from doing anything capable of being enforced through contempt proceedings."
The contempt of court application was filed by 12 parties against the aforementioned Speaker's ruling. In his ruling, Wetang’ula had declared the Kenya Kwanza Coalition as the Majority Party and Azimio la Umoja One Kenya as the Minority Party in the House.
However, in February, the High Court in Nairobi declared Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition as the majority in the National Assembly, adding that Wetang’ula violated the law by declaring Kenya Kwanza as the majority.
According to the court, Wetang’ula failed to follow the law, and the declaration he issued on October 6, 2022, was unconstitutional. In that declaration, Wetang’ula claimed Kenya Kwanza was the majority with 179 members, while Azimio was the minority with 157 members.
The ruling, delivered by a three-judge bench comprising Justices Jairus Ngaah, John Chigiti and Lawrence Mugambi, noted that Wetang'ula should not have dismissed the Registrar of Political Parties' report, which showed that as of April 21, 2022, Azimio had 22 parties while Kenya Kwanza had only 15 parties.
Wetang’ula consequently moved to the Court of Appeal seeking conservatory orders to overturn the High Court ruling declaring Azimio as the majority.
The Speaker was dealt a major blow after the court refused to grant conservatory orders stopping the High Court ruling, stating that doing so would inadvertently endorse Wetang’ula’s claim that the Kenya Kwanza coalition was still the majority.
The court also noted that granting the conservatory orders would interfere with the hearing of the petition, which is currently before the High Court.
In light of the latest development, the three-judge bench directed that the respondents file their responses to the preliminary objection within ten days. The Speaker and the National Assembly were also directed to file their responses to the contempt of court application within the same timeframe.
The High Court will reconvene on July 17, 2025, for the hearing of the matter.
