The plot to oust Moses Wetang’ula as Speaker of the National Assembly is thickening, with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition planning to impeach the man who is under siege over controversial decisions he has made in the House.
More than 35 angry Azimio MPs on Wednesday evening left no doubt there is no love lost between their coalition and Mr Wetang’ula and that it is payback time as they revealed that they will initiate the process to remove the Speaker either through impeachment or court process.
Leading the Azimio MPs, Mr Junet Mohamed (Suna East), Mr Robert Mbui (Kathiani) and Millie Odhiambo (Suba North) accused Mr Wetang’ula of failing to abide by the court ruling that nullified his October 6, 2022 communication that declared President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza coalition the majority side in the House.
Mr Wetang’ula ruled that Kenya Kwanza has 165 MPs and therefore the majority side, and Azimio 154 MPs in the 349-member House.
“Arising from the foregoing, the Kenya Kwanza Coalition is the majority party, and the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition party is the minority party in the House,” ruled Speaker Wetang’ula.
This came as the Nation was told in confidence that Mr Wetang’ula shredded the opinion of the National Assembly’s legal department that advised him to recognise Azimio as the majority side in the House.
The National Assembly legal team had also advised the Speaker against appealing the High Court ruling in the interest of the unity of the House.
When asked if they will initiate impeachment proceedings against Mr Wetang’ula, Ms Odhiambo and Mr Mohamed responded: “you just said it”.
Speaker Wetang'ula gives directions on House leadership divide
“That is the route we will go,” said Mr Mohamed, noting that Azimio will withdraw its membership from the House Business Committee that was constituted yesterday. The committee sets the calendar of the House including prioritising the business to be transacted.
The Standing Orders provide that the quorum of the committee shall be the chairperson and at least a third of the other members, meaning that with Azimio withdrawing, the committee will still have the quorum only that its decisions may lack credibility.
The three-judge bench of justices John Chigiti, Lawrence Mugambi and Jairus Ngaah said that the Speaker violated the constitution in declaring Kenya Kwanza the majority coalition.
The court noted that there was no evidence that MDG, UDM, PAA, CCM and MCCP parties that Mr Wetang’ula alleged to have left Azimio and joined Kenya Kwanza Alliance made steps to comply with the Political Parties Act requiring them to sign a post-election agreement with Kenya Kwanza coalition.
“By assigning the 14 MPs from MDG, UDM, PAA, CCM and MCCP to Kenya Kwanza Alliance without evidence of post-election agreements or justification, and declaring Kenya Kwanza Alliance the Majority, the Speaker acted arbitrarily and violated (Article 101 of) the constitution,” the judges said.
“Speaker Wetang’ula’s ruling declaring KK Majority did not have a legal or factual basis,” they concluded.
The Azimio MPs accused Mr Wetang’ula of violating the constitution, including putting the dignity of the House in disrepute by arbitrarily violating the constitution and overturning court judgments with impunity.
Mr Wetang’ula was also faulted for blocking the media from accessing the main Parliament buildings, with Ms Odhiambo saying it’s against the open democratic space brought about by the current constitution.
On Tuesday, as the National Assembly convened for the first day of the fourth session of the 13th Parliament after the Christmas recess, Ms Odhiambo wrote to the Speaker requesting that the Azimio coalition be recognised as the majority side.
This was followed by Mr Mohamed, Mr Mbui and Ms Odhiambo declaring themselves Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader and Majority Whip, respectively, in the letter to the Speaker as they occupied the designated slots in the debating chamber.
However, when Mr Wetang’ula declared Kenya Kwanza the majority side, the MPs stormed out of the chamber accusing him of dictatorship and turning the House into a Court of Appeal to overturn the decision of the High Court.
“The contradiction in the Speaker’s communication is just glaring. This is a communication that will be taken back to the court for quashing. The House is not the Court of Appeal to overturn the High Court decision as Mr Wetang’ula has just done,” said Mr Mohamed.
He further noted that Azimio remains the majority side in the House, achieved through the sovereign will of the people at the ballot during the August 9, 2022 General Election.
“It is going to be messy, noisy and with casualties given the manner in which Parliament is being run without regard to law. Going forward, it is not going to be business as usual,” said Mr Mohamed.
“The least we expected from the Speaker was for him to tell us that there is a stay of the court judgment. We must be guided by the law,” said Ms Odhiambo.
Unlike his peer in the Senate, Amason Kingi, who resigned as party leader of his Pamoja African Alliance (PAA) to contest the speaker’s seat, Mr Wetang’ula refused to resign as Ford Kenya party leader . He has continued to be the leader of a party that has six MPs in the House he presides over.
In the High Court judgment, the judges said that it is unlawful for Mr Wetang’ula to hold a leadership position in Ford Kenya party and continue being the Speaker of the National Assembly.
This means Mr Wetang’ula has to give up the leadership of Ford Kenya party or the National Assembly.
The court said that, being a public officer, he is expected to be neutral or impartial and therefore he cannot be a leader of a political party.
Previously, Mr Odinga has stated that Mr Wetang’ula should not continue to be Speaker of the National Assembly as well as the party leader of Ford Kenya, and the impeachment pronouncements by his MPs appear to be the likely route to deal with a man they consider arrogant.
Also putting Mr Wetang’ula in the soup is his refusal to fold Ford Kenya and join President Ruto’s UDA party.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, although having resigned from his ANC before he was appointed to the Cabinet, oversaw his party’s folding into UDA.
The Azimio MPs were also infuriated after Mr Wetang’ula told the House that his deputy, Gladys Boss, had written to the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (RPP) to ascertain the relative majority in the House, which they said is against the Standing Orders.
Standing Order 2B of the National Assembly states that the Clerk shall obtain from the RPP a certified copy of any coalition agreement entered into by two or more parties in the National Assembly.
This is for purposes of ascertaining the relative majorities in the House and facilitating the transaction of the business of the House.
According to Mr Wetang’ula, “the letter from the Registrar of Political Parties did also convey that five parties had exited the Azimio coalition”.
The parties, according to the Speaker, are: People’s Liberation Party, formerly Narc Kenya of Martha Karua on December 6, 2024; Maendeleo Chap Chap Party on January 25, 2024; and Devolution Empowerment Party on April 11, 2023.
There was also the United Democratic Movement that exited on November 23, 2023 and PAA on February 27, 2023. He went on to state that MDG had initiated the process of exiting the Azimio but was yet to finalise it.
The Speaker further told the House that as of February 11, PAA, MCCP, UDM and the National Ordinary People Empowerment Union are not members of any registered coalition or coalition political party. This is despite having ruled on October 6, 2022 in a communication that was vitiated by the court that the four parties are members of Kenya Kwanza.
“The contradiction is the Speaker’s ruling that assigned the four parties to Kenya Kwanza. Today, he has disowned this. This is not a man to trust,” said Mr Mohamed.
