Gatundu South Member of Parliament Gabriel Kagombe was kicked out of Parliament on Thursday, June 29, over his dress code.
The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) allied MP was first asked by the National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula to justify his choice of headgear (which resembled a turban) or risk being thrown out of the chambers.
Taking to the floor of the house, the first-term legislator announced that he had recently embraced a new religion that required him to don the headgear.
“Since the last time I attended Parliament, I joined a new church that requires me to wear the headgear to important formal functions,” he explained.
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Hard-pressed to explain which church he had joined, the MP told members of the house that it was a newly registered church.
“It is called the Church of Love and Acceptance,” he defended himself arguing that it would be wrong for the Speaker to kick him out of the house in contravention of Article 32 of the Constitution.
The Article accords Kenyans' freedom of religion by stating, “Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.”
Wetangula remarked that he had never heard of Kagombe’s church and as such, he was kicked out of Parliament.
“The chair takes judicial notice of the only sect I know that dresses as such are the Akorino, and so I order you out of the chamber to go and change,” Wetangula ruled.
According to Speakers Rules (2017), members are required not to enter the chamber, lounge or dining room without being properly dressed.
Male parliamentarians are allowed to be dressed in a coal collar, tie, long trousers, socks and shoes, or service uniform, religious attire or such other decent dressing as may be approved by the Speaker from time to time.
