Wetangula Declares Kenya Kwanza as Majority in National Assembly

by Robinson Ndungu on Thursday, 6 October 2022 - 5:06 pm

A screengrab of National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula speaking in Parliament on October 6, 2022.

CITIZEN TV

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula has ruled that President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza has the majority of members in the 13th parliament.

While addressing a house sitting on Thursday, October 6, Wetangula declared that Kenya Kwanza is a coalition of parties with the majority members and as such satisfied the dictates of the law as the bonafide majority side.

Wetangula cited article 108 of the Constitution which states that the Leader of the Majority Party will be the leader of the largest party or coalition of parties.

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"That, with the 14 Members, the membership of the Kenya Kwanza Coalition stands at 179 Members while the membership of the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party stands at 157 Members.

This, by implication, indicates that the Kenya Kwanza Coalition is the Majority Party and the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party is the Minority Party in this House," Wetangula ruled.

The Speaker, before making the ruling, also addressed Azimio's engagement with its partner parties.

“In my understanding of sections 2 and 10 of the political parties Act- parliament permitted a coalition political party to elect to assume the character of party or caption.

In the last general election, it is evident that Azimio la Umoja One Kenya elected to behave as several political parties in several categories of election and as one political party as regards the election of the president,” Wetangula ruled.

“If it were to be considered as a political party, Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party has no elected member in this house today, it has no elected member under its banner.”

The Speaker further stated that he noted inconsistencies in documents shared by the Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu.

“May I report that surprisingly the Registrar of Political Parties this morning submitted to me the documents said to be the certified copies of the coalition agreements for the Kenya Kwanza Coalition and the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party. A perusal of the documents presented by the honourable Junet Mohammed and the Registrar of political parties reveals glaring inconsistencies in both documents.

With regard to signatures, there is no uniformity in the manner in which the various pages of the documents have been signed off. Some pages in the documents contain fewer signatures than others while page three of both documents, in particular, contains signatures that are hardly visible. The pagination of both documents is also inconsistent. I am inclined to think that these are superimpositions.”