Wetang'ula wins Speaker race after Marende concedes

Former Bungoma senator Moses Wetang'ula is now the Speaker of the National Assembly after his competitor in the race, former Speaker Kenneth Marende, conceded Thursday evening.

The National Assembly had gone into round two of voting for the coveted Speaker’s post after the first round failed to produce an outright winner.

In the first round, Mr Wetang’ula led with 215 votes against Mr Marende’s 130 votes compared to Moses. To win in the first round, one requires a two-thirds majority, or at least 234 of the 348 members in the House. In the second round, the candidate who gets majority votes is declared the winner.

However, as MPs prepared to go for a second round of voting, the Clerk received communication that Mr Marende had conceded, leading her to declare Mr Wetang'ula the winner.

In a battle of the wills between the country’s two leading political formations, Kenya Kwanza had fronted the Ford Kenya leader while Azimio had both Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and Mr Marende. Mr Wetang’ula was projected to have an upper hand should Kenya Kwanza, which politically has more MPs, voted as a block.

Wetang’ula is now the eight Speaker of the House since independence