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After five months of back and forth, court rulings and threats from all different quarters, Nominated Member of Parliament Sabina Chege has finally been removed as the National Assembly Deputy Minority Whip.
Speaker Moses Wetangula’s ruling on Wednesday afternoon brought to an end the confusion that has been in the minority party over her leadership, with Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje taking over as deputy to his Suna Eest counterpart Junet Mohamed.
The saga has rumbled on since April 6 when the minority coalition party made a communication to the Speaker with an intention to replace Sabina with Mwenje, after she indicated that she would henceforth be working with the government.
“That there currently exist no bar against the decision made by the minority party to replace its Whip. Standing order 20a(5) requires the Speaker to communicate the decision to replace the Whip to the House, in this regard, Hon Mark Mwenje forth replaces Sabina Chege as the Deputy Whip of the minority party,” Speaker Wetangula ruled.
This was after the Kiambu High Court threw out a case by Sabina challenging her removal from office and directed her to exhaust the party resolution mechanism.
The Speaker however lamented the disarray in the Jubilee Party having received several conflicting correspondences over the status of the party in the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party.
In his ruling, Wetangula directed Jubilee Party to be recognized as a Parliamentary party, in view of having more than 18 MPs required by the standing orders, and 21 MPs supporting Sabina Chege.
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“The Jubilee Party is hereby recognized as a Parliamentary party, but this recognition does not in any way elevate it or affect the status given to the majority party and the minority party by the Constitution and the standing orders,” he stated.
While thanking the Speaker for his ruling, Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi however said Sabina has been holding the office illegally for 5 months, hence wanted Mwenje to be adequately compensated.
“Our position as a party is that Sabina has been holding that office illegally, Mwenje has been working since the 30th of May 2023, and he deserves to be compensated for the work he has been doing,” Wandayi told the House.
However, his counterpart in the majority, Kimani Ichung’wah differed with him insisting that the decision should take effect from Thursday.
“The decision takes effect from today, there were issues that stopped you from making that decision including embargos from the courts, the only issue that lingers in my mind is that why would Mwenje be a deputy minority whip of the minority coalition and yet Jubilee is a Parliamentary party?” Ichung’wah posed.
“It may be construed that Mwenje has then defected from Jubilee and joined either Wiper Party or ODM, and that would then force a by election.”
