Wetang’ula urges court to dismiss resignation, contempt case over majority party dispute
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula. Activists want him to resign for defying a court ruling on the majority and minority parties in the House.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula wants a court to dismiss an application by activists seeking his resignation and imprisonment for allegedly defying a court ruling that the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition is the majority party in Parliament.
In documents filed in court on Friday, Mr Wetang'ula asked the court to quash the contempt proceedings instituted against him in February this year by a group of political activists over his decision on the leadership of Parliament.
Mr Wetang'ula says he enjoys parliamentary immunity from contempt proceedings and that such proceedings cannot be instituted against him in respect of actions taken in the exercise of the official functions of his office.
The case also concerns his dual role as leader of the Ford Kenya party and speaker of Parliament.
The activists, through their lawyer Kibe Mungai, want Mr Wetang'ula to be sent to a civil prison for six months for an alleged offence of re-designating Azimio as a minority party and Kenya Kwanza Coalition as a majority party against the findings of the court.
But in the fresh filings, Mr Wetang'ula says the application of contempt against him and in relation to the discharge of his official duties is in direct violation of the powers, privileges and immunities of Parliament as enshrined in Article 117 of the Constitution.
“There is no dispositive order that was made by this court capable of being violated by the Speaker and the National Assembly or enforced by this court in the exercise of its contempt jurisdiction. There was no court order that required Mr Wetang’ula and the National Assembly to do or refrain from doing anything,” he argues in the preliminary objection.
He is supported by the National Assembly, which argues that the activists’ application is an attempt by the activists to reopen the case.
“The application is an attempt to litigate a new cause of action in the present proceedings and seeks orders challenging the communication by the speaker of the National Assembly dated February 12, 2025 delivered after the judgment of this court. This cause of action can only be litigated through the institution of new proceedings,” says National Assembly’s lawyer Sandra Nganyi.
Apart from asking the court to cite Mr Wetang’ula for contempt, the activists also want the court to amend its final orders issued on February 7, 2025 to reflect that Mr Wetang'ula cannot continue serving as Speaker as long as he remains the leader of the Ford Kenya party.
This is because the court had ruled that Mr Wetang'ula's dual role was unlawful and unconstitutional and that he could not perform any other functions as a leader of a political party or political organ while he was the Speaker of the National Assembly.
They want the court to declare that Mr Wetang'ula's decision of February 12, 2025 declaring Azimio as the minority party and Kenya Kwanza as the majority party is null and void and unlawful based on questions about the veracity of his simultaneous positions as Speaker and leader of the Ford Kenya party.
"This court be pleased to find and hold that the Parliamentary proceedings in the National Assembly presided over by Mr Wetang'ula as long as he remains the leader of Ford Kenya party and a principal in Kenya Kwanza Alliance, are deemed as unlawful, null and void from the beginning," the court papers indicate.
They argue that the decision of the Speaker to retain the Kenya Kwanza Alliance as the majority party amounts to gross violation of the court ruling.
The dispute, which is ongoing before a three-judge bench of justices Jairus Ngaah, John Chigiti and Lawrence Mugambi, is scheduled for hearing on July 17, 2025.