Africa-Press – Kenya. The Court of Appeal has dismissed a petition by Speaker Moses Wetang’ula that sought to overturn a High Court ruling declaring the Azimio Coalition as the majority in the National Assembly.
In a ruling delivered by a three-judge bench on Friday, March 21, the Appellate Court refused to grant conservatory orders stopping the High Court ruling, stating that doing so would inadvertently endorse Wetang’ula’s claim that the Kenya Kwanza coalition was still the majority.
The court also noted that granting the conservatory orders would interfere with the hearing of the petition, which is currently before the High Court.
While delivering the ruling, the judges also dismissed claims that the High Court ruling delivered on February 7 would bring the operations of the National Assembly to a halt.
“Concerning the argument that the High Court judgment has highly disrupted the work of the National Assembly, there is no sufficient evidence before us,” the court ruled.
However, the Court of Appeal declined to pronounce itself on the matter regarding Wetang’ula’s dual role as Speaker of the National Assembly and leader of Ford Kenya.
“In the circumstances, we cannot pronounce ourselves on the same in an application for a stay of proceedings or execution as the one before us. We can only stay a positive order that was issued by the trial court,” the Appellate Court stated.
Today’s ruling comes a month after the High Court in Nairobi declared Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya colation as the majority in the National Assembly adding that Wetang’ula violated the law by declaring Kenya Kwanza as the majority.
According to the court, Wetang’ula failed to follow the law and the declaration he issued on October 6, 2022, was unconstitutional. In the declaration, Wetangula claimed Kenya Kwaza was the majority with 179 members while Azimio was the minority with 157 members.
Justice Mugambi noted that Wetang’ula should not have dismissed the Registrar of Political Parties’ report which showed that as of April 21, 2022, Azimio had 22 parties while Kenya Kwanza had only 15 parties.
“By assigning Kenya Kwanza colation 14 members from other parties without justification and declaring it the majority, Speaker Wetang’ula violated the constitution,” the judges ruled.
The court also ruled that Wetang’ula’s dual role as the speaker of the National Assembly and the same time Ford Kenya party leader was unconstitutional.
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