NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 5 – National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya was forced to the shift to the Minority side of the House after the MPs allied to Deputy President William Ruto blocked him from presenting his amendments to the Political Parties Amendment Act during a Special Sitting on Wednesday.
As Leader of Majority, Kimunya has a reserved seat to the right of the Speaker. However, he was forced to vacate it after unruly MPs including Kimani Ichungwah (Kikuyu), Cornell Serem (Aldai) and David Sankok (Nominated) engaged him in a physical confrontation as they demanded for the verification of a vote that had just been concluded.
“It is the numbers that eventually will count and for the numbers to count every card and every gadget must be configured to work,” the Kikuyu MP protested.
The MPs accused Kibwezi East MP Jessica Mbalu who was presiding over Committee of the Whole House of being biased.
The House was expected to resume for the afternoon special sitting at 2:30pm after adjourning for lunch.
“It is an appropriate time to break for lunch so that we can come back for another session. It will also allow for more time for cooling of tempers and breathing in and breathing out,” Kimunya said.
The House managed to deal with three amendments out of 23 clauses.
The National Assembly rejected an amendment by Nambale MP Sakwa Bunyasi which proposed that a coalition political party shall only field candidates for election as President.
The action now leaves the door open for a “coalition party” such as Azimio La Umoja or One Kenya Alliance to field candidates from the President to Member of County Assembly just like member parties of the same coalition.
A total of 132 members voted against Bunyasi’s amendment while 111 voted for the amendment.
Garissa Township MP Aden Duale also lost out on his attempt to amend Clause 8(b) which provided that a coalition political party be allowed to submit coalition agreement to the Registrar of Political Parties at six months to elections.
Some 128 members voted against the amendment while 104 voted for the amendment.
MPs also approved Kimunya’s proposed amendment that will allow a coalition party to deposit a coalition agreement with the Registrar of Political Parties at least 120 days before the August General Election.
This is after MPs passed, by acclamation, an amendment proposed by Kimunya.
