Nairobi — National Assembly Moses Wetangula has reprimanded Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi for making unproven allegations of bias in the determination of a long-drawn leadership contest on the minority side.
Wetangula singled out Wandayi and toppled Jubilee Party official Jeremiah Kioni for alleging bias in the determination of the contest for the Deputy Minority Whip slot between Sabina Chege and Mark Mwenje.
The Speaker further castigated Deputy Minority Leader Robert Mbui accusing the the minority leadership of conducting itself in a dishonest manner which "stained" the House.
"I will only note that it is unfortunate and highly regrettable that the leader of the minority party just publicly cast aspersions on valid parliamentary processes, even after he and his deputy separately visited my chambers, and held a very cordial discussion with me on this pertinent matter," Wetangula said.
On October 19, Wandayi threatened a major showdown in the National Assembly should Speaker Wetangula fail to effect leadership changes on the minority side.
He cited frustrations by the Speaker, accusing him of delaying to implement a court order designating Mwenje as the Deputy Minority Whip weeks after the ruling was made yet the order suspending the decision to replace Chege was speedily effected.
In his explanation, Speaker Wetangula stated that the order for the dismissal of Chege's case was manually extracted and served to him on October 19, weeks after the ruling was made.
He added that there also existed doubt on whether the House was represented by counsel at the time the ruling was delivered.
"The conduct and statements attributed the leader of the minority party including the wild aspersions cast on the person of the speaker; leave a lot to be desired," Wetangula stated.
'Littered with insults'
"There are a stain on the privilege and prestige of the institution of Parliament. The speaker takes a very dim view of this kind of unproductive and unhelpful conduct," he said.
Speaker Wetangula dismissed Kioni's lamentations in a letter addressed to him saying it was littered with insults.
"A rumbling letter from the Honorable Jeremiah Kioni said to support the replacement of the Deputy Minority Whip is littered with insults and other unpalatable statements and is lost in its tone, which is obviously beneath the standard expected of a person who has sat in this Honorable House," he said.
The Speaker insisted that correspondence from the two warring factions painted a dim picture on the state of affairs in the Jubilee Party with the confusion affecting the conduct of business in the House.
Speaker Wetangula insisted it IS not his duty to organize how parties are run adding that state of affairs in the Jubilee party calls for an intervention from the competent authorities.
"Members the confusion of the Jubilee party has permeated the walls of this house and affected the transaction of Parliament or business,"
"We now find ourselves in a situation where a small fraction of the members of the party seems to be aligned with the minority party while 21 Out of the 28 members of the party have expressed their unwillingness to be associated with a minority party," he said.
Parallel Whip
Speaker Wetangula ruled that the Jubilee Party would be recognized as a parliamentary party directing Chege to whip Jubilee Party members in the house.
The Speaker explained that the recognition of the former ruling party as a parliamentary party will not affect the status given to the majority or minority parties in the National Assembly.
"That consequently the Hon Sabina Chege by virtue of the written support of 21 members out of 28 members of the Jubilee party in the House in the letter that is attended June 22, and on account of having been the last officially recognized member of the Jubilee party, forming part of the leadership is allowed to perform in the interim the role of the whip of that party in the House," Wetangula said.
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The National Assembly Speaker added the communication was on an interim basis until the internal wrangles within the Jubilee Party are resolved by the competent authorities.
"That the foregoing guidance is issued in the interim purely for purposes of facilitating the continuation of the business of the house until such time as the speaker will be properly seized of the final determination of the matters relating the Jubilee party by the competent authorities," said Wetangula.
Jubilee has faced leadership wrangles for months now with two groups claiming to be bona fide officials of the party.
One group has remained loyal to Raila Odinga-led Azimio coalition while the other shifted allegiance to President Ruto's Kenya Kwanza.
A good number of MPs have since shifted loyalty to Ruto, cementing his ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition's dominance in the National Assembly.
