Muturi rules out declaring MPs’ seats vacant even after defection

 

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi at a past event. He urged MPs who had changed parties to stay calm, as he will not declare their seats vacant. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

National Assembly Speaker Mr Justin Muturi has ruled out declaring vacant seats of MPs who have ditched their sponsor parties, a major reprieve for allies of Deputy President Dr William Ruto.

Mr Muturi cited a ruling by High Court judge Joel Ngugi that ordered speakers of county assemblies not to declare seats of ward representatives who switched parties vacant.

The pronouncement comes as thousands of aspirants defect to new outfits just 48 hours before the window for party hopping closes.

Individuals are required to join their preferred outfits by March 26, meaning they have two days to jump ship. Already, several political parties have started submitting lists of their registered members to the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP).

Yesterday, Tiaty MP Mr William Kamket sought Mr Muturi’s guidance on the legal requirement that elected leaders lose seats if they ditch their sponsor parties. 

“I seek your guidance on a matter of public knowledge relating to alignment of members to various political factions following the requirement of the resignation of candidates for nominations by various political parties, which are coming up next month,” posed Mr Kamket.

“Section 14(a) of the Act provides for the deeming provision on resignation, which includes that a member shall be deemed to have resigned if the member, among other things, joins in the formation of another political party or joins another political party,” he added.

In response, Mr Muturi said the injunction by Justice Ngugi also applied to MPs who had ditched their sponsor parties.

Elected leaders are required to notify their sponsor parties and clerk of various assemblies before defecting to new outfits. “Nobody has written to me to show he has resigned. Why should I take the role of the investigator? And as a House of records we should also take judicial notice of an order issued by High Court judge Joel Ngugi,” he said.

“Just hold your horses, relax, just compete with each other like any other. Nobody should do anything like expelling a member just because you have assumed some new office,” he told the House.

Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu yesterday told The Standard her office would provide details of the number of elected leaders who have jumped ship after the window elapses. It also emerged that 178 MPs had ditched their sponsor parties. They include 23 senators, 25 woman reps, and 130 members of single constituencies.

Having the lists of registered members at ORPP is crucial because any name left out is considered a non-party member, thus cannot participate in the outfit’s nominations or seek its ticket.

Fear of manipulated party primaries and realignments in the succession race have fuelled the current defections.

The set deadline is part of tough requirements imposed by the recently enacted political parties law that requires outfits to submit membership lists to the ORPP by March 26. This is at least 14 days before submission of the lists to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

Ms Nderitu said aspirants had until Saturday midnight to defect from their current political parties. “Before March 26, anybody who wants to participate on a ticket of a party should have joined that party. The electoral timelines do not consider weekends,” she added.

For elected leaders, ORPP said: “For us to act, there must be proof that the party has been notified... quite a number of people are crisscrossing. We expect the traffic to go higher in the next two days.”

She said voters were also defecting from parties that they were wrongly listed in, while others joined new parties.

So far more than 600,000 people have resigned from various parties using the provided platforms. Some 313,362 resigned through e-citizen while an additional 294,651 resigned using the USSD code by last month.

“As of February 28, the number of people who accessed the system using e-citizen was more than 1.5 million while those who have resigned from political parties were more than 300,000. Those who registered as members of political parties were 205,393,” said Ms Nderitu.

She added: “The people who have accessed the system through USSD code *509# were 624,746 while those who resigned using the code were 294,651.”

ODM has lost Kisii Senator Prof Sam Ongeri, who joined DAP-Kenya, while ANC lost Nominated MP Mr Godfrey Osotsi to ODM.

Others who have ditched ANC are Mr Ayub Savula (Lugari), Mr Christopher Aseka (Khwisero), Mr Oku Kaunya (Teso North), Mr Tindi Mwale (Butere) and Mr Titus Khamala of Lurambi. Senator Mr George Khaniri (Vihiga) has ditched ANC for Mr Cyrus Jirongo’s United Democratic Party.