Lawyers revive case to axe Wetang'ula as speaker

A fresh case has been filed to kick out the Speaker of the National Assembly for ruling Kenya Kwanza is the majority party despite court orders saying otherwise.

The petitioners, led by Kenneth Njagi Njiru, want the High Court to find that Moses Wetang’ula cannot continue sitting as Speaker as he allegedly overturned the High Court’s judgment by declaring that Azimio la Umoja one Kenya Coalition Party remains the minority party in the lower house.

According to lawyer Kibe Mungai, the Speaker continued to advance the ruling administration’s agenda even after the court ruled that he could not hold the position or be Ford Kenya and Kenya Kwanza’s leader.

"Bearing in mind the finding of this Honourable Court that the 4th Respondent cannot simultaneously hold the position of Speaker of the National Assembly on the one hand and the position of leader of Ford-Kenya party and member of the Kenya Kwanza Coalition Leaders Party Summit and member of its parliamentary group, the ruling delivered on 12 February 2025 is unlawful null and void ab initio,” argued Kibe.

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"A declaration be issued to declare that the fourth respondent Hon. Moses Masika Wetangula cannot continue to serve as Speaker of the National Assembly unless and until he resigns as the political leader of Ford-Kenya and as leader in the Kenya Kwanza Coalition, the 19th and the respondents herein,” argued Kibe.

High Court Justices Jairus Ngaah, John Chigiti, and Lawrence Mugambi placed Wetang’ula in a problematic situation by declaring that he could not simultaneously hold the Ford Kenya party’s leadership and the speaker position.

Following the verdict, Wetang’ula was to either let Ford Kenya slip away or surrender the Speaker’s position. If Wetang’ula lets Ford Kenya go, he will be out of the picture in the party's day-to-day running, and it will be easy for President William Ruto to push for it to fold and join the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) bandwagon.

The bench headed by Justice Ngaah ruled that Wetang’ula and Kimani Kimani Ichung’wa never produced any evidence to show that the 14 members they alleged to have crossed over from Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party had any coalition agreement with Kenya Kwanza.

“It is worth noting that the speaker having being sued on his private and official capacity swore an affidavit in opposition of the case. However, he never deposited any evidence of a post-election coalition agreement as alleged by the speaker. None of the respondents, including Kimani Ichung’wa has exhibited any such agreement,” ruled Justices Ngaah, Chigiti and Mugambi.

According to them, Kenyans determined who the majority and minority coalition party in the National Assembly was on August 9, 2022.

The Judges observed that following the gazettement of the winners by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the submission of the pre-election coalition agreements to the registrar of political parties, Ann Nderitu, it was inescapable that Azimio was the majority in the lower house.

They said that the Speaker’s alteration of the matrix in favour of his coalition party was unconstitutional and illegal.

The speaker declared that the ruling coalition was the majority because 14 MPs allegedly defected from Azimio writing to him. Therefore, he concluded that Ichung’wa was the majority leader, Osoro was the majority whip and nominated MP Sabina Chege was the deputy majority whip.

However, the court found that the move was unconstitutional, as the speaker had admitted in his ruling that based on the IEBC gazette notices and the information from Nderitu, Azimio had the majority seats with 171 members, while Kenya Kwanza had 165.

In her statement, Nderitu said that only one of the 26 constituent parties forming Azimio was legally removed.

"As at June 2023, the only party that has legally exited the coalition is the Devolution Empowerment Party. All the other parties as gazetted on April 14, 2022 remain constituent parties of the first interested party (Azimio),” said Nderitu.