Jubilee offers second chance to its four defiant MPs but with a warning

Jubilee Party has told a court it wants to give four MPs it removed from House committee leadership positions another chance to air their grievances.

The party told Justice George Odunga that the four - Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, James Gakuya (Embakasi North), Silas Tiren (Moiben) and Kangogo Bowen (Marakwet East) - should consider terminating a case they filed in court challenging their removal.

The leaders filed the case against the party’s Leader of Majority Aden Duale and National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, challenging a decision to remove them from House committees they were heading.

But the party now says the matter can be resolved internally.

“We want them to come back home and we talk,” said Jubilee’s lawyer, Danson Mungatana.

Internal mechanisms

The party insisted that the High Court had no powers to hear the case as its internal mechanisms had not been exhausted.

The four MPs however insisted that they were elected as leaders by members of the respective committees, and that the party should respect the decision that saw them win chairman positions.

“The four had expressed their interest and were elected by MPs who exercised their independence. It does not mean they defied the party’s orders,” said the MPs’ lawyer, Frank Walukwe.

Before their removal, Mr Keter had won the Labour and Social Welfare Committee chairmanship while Mr Tiren took the Agriculture and Livestock Committee leadership.

Mr Bowen was chairman of the Environmental and Natural Resources Committee while Mr Mwangi was the Parliamentary Broadcasting and Library Committee chairman.

The judge will give a ruling on February 26.