NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 8-National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang\u2019ula has dismissed the High Court\u2019s ruling on his dual role as Speaker and Party Leader of FORD Kenya party, \u00a0saying his party would appeal the High Court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
The National Assembly Speaker has termed the decision as mere \u201cordinary comments\u201d in law that are non-binding and have no practical effect.<\/p>\n
Through his legal advisor, Benson Milimo, Wetang\u2019ula clarified that the court did not order him to relinquish either office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to assure the nation and the Ford Kenya fraternity that there is absolutely no cause for alarm. What the court did was make comments\u2014what the law terms as \u2018obiter dictum\u2019\u2014which are non-binding and have no consequential effect,\u201d Milimo said.<\/p>\n
He further emphasized that at no point did the court rule that Wetang\u2019ula should vacate his position as Speaker of the National Assembly or cease being the Party Leader of Ford Kenya party.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThis means that Dr. Moses Masika Wetang\u2019ula remains the Party Leader of Ford Kenya as well as Speaker of the National Assembly. The Simba Party remains intact, stable, and ready to participate in the 2027 General Election,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
However, the ruling delivered by Justices John Chigiti, Lawrence Mugambi, and Jairus Ngaah was unequivocal.<\/p>\n
The judges found Wetang\u2019ula in blatant violation of the Constitution, stating that he should have stepped down as Party Leader upon assuming the Speakership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dual role is unlawful and unconstitutional,\u201d the court ruled. \u201cOnce he became Speaker of the National Assembly, he ceased to be the leader of Ford Kenya party.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling dealt a blow to Wetang\u2019ula\u2019s controversial October 6, 2022, decision in which he declared Kenya Kwanza as the Majority Party in Parliament, insisting it had 179 members compared to Azimio la Umoja\u2019s 157.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the High Court declared the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance coalition as the Majority Party in the National Assembly.<\/strong><\/p>\n It argued that Wetangula had violated the constitution in issuing the ruling on \u00a0October 6\u00a02022 on the floor of the house which was deemed \u2018Solomonic\u2019.<\/p>\n He had ruled that Kenya Kwanza has 179 members in the House against Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party\u2019s 157.<\/p>\n However, the ruling coalition emerged as the majority following a post-coalition agreement as 14 members from the opposition coalition and independent candidates shifted to Azimio.<\/p>\n \u201cBy assigning Kenya Kwanza the 14 members of the parties without any reason and declaring Kenya Kwanza as the majority leader, it follows that the Speaker violated the Constitution,\u201d the court ruled.<\/p>\n In the judgment, the bench emphasized that the Speaker is supposed to act as a neutral arbiter.<\/p>\n According to the three-judge bench, the Speaker\u2019s decisions should be independent and devoid of any political influence, emphasizing impartiality and adherence to constitutional principles.<\/p>\n \u201cThe speaker can\u2019t fault the registrar of political parties. She couldn\u2019t provide what she did not have\u2026The speaker ought to have exhibited the agreement which were alleged to have been presented during the debate without the post-election coalition agreements he had not basis to this regard\u201d court ruled<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 8-National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang\u2019ula has dismissed the High Court\u2019s ruling on his dual role as Speaker and Party Leader of FORD Kenya party, \u00a0saying his party would appeal the High Court\u2019s decision. The National Assembly Speaker has termed the decision as mere \u201cordinary comments\u201d in law that are non-binding and have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}