Court sets date for hearing Wetang'ula ouster case

National Assembly's Speaker Moses Wetangula at the Parliamentary Sitting after the long recess at Parliament ,Nairobi. January 16th,2025. [Elvis Ogina,Standard] The High Court has set July 10, 2025, as the date to hear the case seeking to remove Speaker of the National Assembly, Moses Wetang'ula, for ruling that Kenya Kwanza is the majority party despite court orders stating otherwise. Justices Jairus Ngaah, Lawrence Mugambi and John Chigiti on Friday rejected the National Assembly's and Wetang'ula's requests to first address their objection to the new case. Instead, they directed that the objection be heard together with the application filed by the petitioners, led by Kenneth Njiru. In his objection, Wetang'ula claimed that no order had been served on him, nor was there a directive requiring him to either desist from an action or comply with one. The Speaker alleged that the new case was intended to unlawfully prevent him from executing his duties. "There is no dispositive order that was made by this Honourable Court capable of being violated by the third and fourth respondents (National Assembly and Mr Wetang'ula), or enforceable by this Honourable Court in the exercise of its contempt jurisdiction. There is no order of the Court that required the third and fourth respondents to do or refrain from doing anything capable of being enforced through contempt proceedings," argued Wetang'ula's lawyer, Judith Guserwa. The National Assembly's lawyer, Sandra Nganyi, contended that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case, as a related dispute was pending before the Court of Appeal. The new battlefront over who is the majority and minority in the lower house emerged after the Court of Appeal declined to halt the contempt proceedings. In the case, the petitioners want the High Court to find that Wetang'ula is unfit to continue serving as Speaker, as he allegedly circumvented a High Court 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 promote the ruling administration's agenda. "Bearing in mind the finding of this Honourable Court that the fourth respondent cannot simultaneously hold the position of Speaker of the National Assembly on the one hand, and the position of leader of the Ford-Kenya party and member of the Kenya Kwanza Coalition Leaders Party Summit and its parliamentary group on the other, the ruling delivered on February 12, 2025, is unlawful.'' argued Mungai. He urged the court to find that all the proceedings in the house, after the judgment, are null and void. The lawyer asked the court to find that Wetang'ula could not continue sitting as a speaker. "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 tight corner 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.

Court sets date for hearing Wetang'ula ouster case

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