Kenyan Members of Parliament allied to President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza coalition have scoffed at a recent High Court ruling that stripped their alliance of the majority status in the National Assembly, terming the verdict as having no practical effect.
The ruling, delivered by Justices John Chigiti, Lawrence Mugambi, and Jairus Ngaah, declared that Kenya Kwanza could not claim the majority status and deemed National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula’s continued leadership of Ford Kenya as unconstitutional. However, legislators have dismissed the ruling as impractical and overtaken by political realities.
Appearing on Citizen TV’s Daybreak show on Monday, Ugenya MP David Ochieng argued that Parliament should be allowed to settle the matter internally rather than being dictated to by judicial pronouncements. “I don’t want this to be an issue that depends on what the judges say. This should be left to Parliament to decide because that is how Parliament works,” said Ochieng. “This decision, how is it possible to implement it now?” he posed.
Laikipia Woman Representative Jane Kagiri echoed similar sentiments, arguing that the ruling was inconsequential since many parties had exited the Azimio la Umoja coalition after the 2022 General Election. She also highlighted allegations of coercion in the initial formation of the coalition, asserting that Kenya Kwanza would mount a legal defense against the ruling.
“The ruling has been overtaken by events because many of these parties have left, and I remember most of them raised issues of coercion for them to have remained under Azimio at the time,” Kagiri stated.
Eldas MP Adan Keynan went further to dismiss the ruling as an attempt to politically sabotage the ruling party, arguing that Kenya Kwanza’s majority status was determined through political realignments before the election of Speaker Wetangula.
“That judgment attempts to micromanage Parliament; it attempts to deal with political issues that ideally should be left to politicians. This ruling has no effect in law,” Keynan remarked.
The ruling originated from Speaker Wetangula’s October 6, 2022, decision to reassign 14 MPs from various parties to Kenya Kwanza, thus tipping the balance of power in favor of President Ruto’s coalition. The High Court ruled that the Speaker had no legal basis for these reassignments and consequently quashed the decision.
In response, Wetangula dismissed the court’s pronouncement as mere “ordinary comments” in law, emphasizing that no directive had been issued for him to vacate his positions as Speaker or party leader. He insisted that the ruling was non-binding and carried no practical implications for the leadership structure of Parliament.
