Deputy President William Ruto has lost to President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga’s team on proposed political parties’ law.
The promoters of contentious Political Parties Amendment Bill 2021, flexed their numbers to shoot down attempts by William Ruto’s team to block the formation of a coalition party, the major reasons for the push to amend the Political Parties Act 2011.
President Uhuru’s Jubilee and Raila Odinga’s ODM reached out to other smaller parties and often won on numerous amendments by a narrow margin during the stormy proceedings characterized by chaos.
During a special parliamentary sitting on Wednesday, December 29, Deputy Speaker Moses Cheboi threw out a number of proposals by Members of Parliament allied to the DP.
Among them were proposals by Kikuyu MP, Kimani Ichungwah, Dagoretti South MP, John Kiarie, and Kilifi North lawmaker, Own Baya.
The strategy by William Ruto’s camp seemed to run down the clock by forcing a physical vote on every contentious issue.
This includes dragging proceedings to ensure the Bill was not passed on deadline.
William Ruto allies had moved an amendment seeking to strike out the clause on the formation of a coalition party saying it was unconstitutional.
“We cannot legislate on what is not provided in the constitution. should we proceed with this amendment, this House will legislate in vain,” Kandara MP Alice Wahome said.
The debate was characterised by physical confrontation disrupting the voting as legislators could be seen pushing each other, some even exchanging heavy fists and punches prompting the debate to be suspended for the better part of the Day.
This saw Sigowet-Soin MP Bernard Koros seriously injured a move that prompted session speaker Chris Omulele to suspend leader of minority John Mbado for five days.
