High Court suspends case to jail Wetang'ula for contempt

Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetang'ula. [File, Standard] The High Court has suspended the hearing of an application by 12 activists who are seeking to have National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula jailed for six months over his alleged defiance of a court ruling that declared the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition as the Majority Party in Parliament. On Friday, a three-judge bench consisting of Justices Jairus Ngaah, John Chigiti, and Lawrence Mugambi declined to hear or give directions on the contempt of court case against Wetang'ula, citing the fact that the same dispute is pending before the Court of Appeal. Wetang'ula, along with four UDA MPs led by Kimani Ichung'wah and the Maendeleo Chap Chap party, moved to the Court of Appeal seeking a suspension of the High Court decision that nullified the Speaker's ruling designating Kenya Kwanza Alliance as the Majority Party. "In view of the matter pending before the Court of Appeal, this court cannot deal with the application until the appellate court rules on the stay application, which is slated for March 21, 2025," Justice Ngaah, who led the bench, stated. Consequently, the judges directed that the case be mentioned on April 4, 2025, to confirm the outcome of the Court of Appeal's decision on the matter. In the case, the group of activists, led by Kenneth Njagi is urging the High Court to find Wetang'ula guilty of contempt of court and to jail him for continuing to disregard the court verdict on the majority party leadership in the House. Through lawyer Kibe Mungai, the petitioners are also requesting the court to declare that Wetang'ula cannot continue serving as Speaker as he allegedly overturned the High Court's judgment through the back door by declaring that the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition remains the minority party in the lower house. "Mr. Wetang'ula cannot continue serving as Speaker as long as he remains the leader of the Ford Kenya party," Kibe asserts. In the February 7 verdict, the judges ruled that Wetang'ula's dual role was unlawful and unconstitutional, stating that he had no capacity to perform any other functions as a leader of a political party or political organ while serving as Speaker of the National Assembly. The petitioners have urged the court to declare all proceedings in the House conducted after the judgment null and void. "This court should 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 the Ford Kenya party and a principal in the Kenya Kwanza Coalition, are unlawful, null, and void from the beginning," the court papers state. They argue that the Speaker's decision to retain Kenya Kwanza Coalition as the Majority Party amounts to a gross violation of the court's judgment issued by a three-judge bench. The bench, headed by Justice Ngaah, noted that Wetang'ula and Ichung'wah failed to provide evidence that the 14 members they alleged to have crossed over from Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition had any coalition agreement with Kenya Kwanza. "It is worth noting that the Speaker, having been sued in both his private and official capacity, swore an affidavit in opposition to the case. However, he did not provide any evidence of a post-election coalition agreement, as alleged by the Speaker. None of the respondents, including Kimani Ichung'wa, presented any such agreement," ruled Justices Ngaah, Chigiti, and Mugambi. The judges observed that the Kenyan people determined the majority and minority coalition parties in the National Assembly during the August 9, 2022 General Election. They noted that after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) gazetted the winners and the pre-election coalition agreements were submitted to the Registrar of Political Parties, Ann Nderitu, it was clear that Azimio was the majority in the lower house. Therefore, the judges ruled that the Speaker's alteration of the matrix in favor of his coalition party was unconstitutional and illegal. Wetang'ula had declared Kenya Kwanza the Majority Party with 165 MPs, and Azimio the minority party with 154 members. "The Speaker of the National Assembly has once again usurped and arrogated to himself the constitutional power to determine the Majority and Minority parties in the National Assembly, despite the express findings and orders of this court, which determined that the said question was resolved by the Kenyan people exercising their sovereign power during the General Election held on August 9, 2022," the activists stated in the court papers. According to the petitioners' lawyer, the Speaker was supposed to recognize the Azimio Coalition as the Majority based on the results of the 2022 General Election. He was not supposed to request the Registrar of Political Parties for evidence on which coalition has the majority members, the lawyer argued. "In view of the court's findings in the judgment, the Speaker was supposed to implement the ruling by ensuring that the Azimio Coalition took its Majority Party positions, following the quashing of the earlier ruling dated October 6, 2022, which unlawfully stripped Azimio of Majority status," said Mr. Kibe. According to lawyer Kibe, Wetang'ula's decision to request information from the Registrar of Political Parties and use it to retain Kenya Kwanza as the Majority Party constitutes contempt of the court's judgment. "The only effective remedy for the unlawful ruling of the Speaker delivered on February 12, 2025, is to quash or set it aside," lawyer Kibe argues.

High Court suspends case to jail Wetang'ula for contempt

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High Court suspends case to jail Wetang'ula for contempt

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