The Court of Appeal has rejected a petition filed by Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, which sought to overturn a High Court ruling that declared the Azimio Coalition the majority in the National Assembly.
In a decision issued on Friday, March 21, a three-judge bench denied Wetang’ula’s request for conservatory orders to block the High Court ruling, stating that granting such orders would inadvertently support Wetang’ula’s claim that the Kenya Kwanza coalition remains the majority.
The court also emphasized that issuing the conservatory orders would interfere with the ongoing petition before the High Court.
Additionally, the Appellate Court dismissed Wetang’ula’s argument that the High Court ruling, delivered on February 7, would paralyze the operations of the National Assembly, noting that there was insufficient evidence to support that claim.
The judges refrained from addressing the issue of Wetang’ula’s dual role as Speaker of the National Assembly and leader of the Ford Kenya party.
They clarified that they could not rule on this matter in the context of an application for a stay of proceedings or execution, stating that they could only intervene on positive orders already issued by the trial court.
This ruling follows a February 7 High Court decision that declared Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya Coalition as the majority in the National Assembly, asserting that Wetang’ula violated the law by declaring Kenya Kwanza as the majority.
The court found that Wetang’ula’s October 6, 2022, declaration, which claimed Kenya Kwanza had 179 members and Azimio had 157, was unconstitutional.
Justice Mugambi, in his judgment, pointed out that Wetang’ula had ignored a report from the Registrar of Political Parties, which showed that as of April 21, 2022, Azimio had 22 parties, while Kenya Kwanza had only 15.
The court ruled that Wetang’ula’s decision to allocate 14 members from other parties to Kenya Kwanza without justification was a violation of the constitution.
Furthermore, the court ruled that Wetang’ula’s dual role as both the Speaker of the National Assembly and leader of Ford Kenya was unconstitutional.
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