Newly elected members of both houses will take their oaths of office on Thursday, at which time they will also vote on who will serve as Speaker and Deputy Speaker. How the remaining positions, such as the leaders of the majority and minority posts, will be divided up will also be discussed in the two concurrent sessions. They’ll discuss who should serve as majority and minority whips, too.
Several lawmakers elected under the Azimio One Kenya of Raila Odinga’s coalition have joined Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza party, despite the Azimio la Umoja coalition’s claims to have more legislators. The president-elect has also won over a large number of undecided lawmakers.
Moses Wetangula, a senator-elect from Bungoma, has been nominated by the Kenya Kwanza Alliance to become the next Speaker of the National Assembly. The Star has confirmed that former vice president and current Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka has picked papers for the Senate speaker’s office, Musyoka is still anticipated to fly the Azimio flag in the National Assembly.
Several leaders from both coalitions have shown interest in the Senate Assembly seat, so that’s where the main fight will be. Examples include Hassan Omar, a former senator from Mombasa, Isaac Mwaura, a former member of parliament, and Amason Kingi, a former governor of Kilifi, all of whom have picked up nomination papers to run for the Kenya Kwanza Alliance.
Wednesday’s meeting will likely decide who the alliance will support. However, thanks to the coalition agreement his PAA party struck with the President-elect, Kingi was said to be the alliance’s favored choice.
The addition of Kalonzo into the senate speaker’s contest complicates the matrix for the Azimio side, as the seat had previously been reserved for former National Assembly speaker Kenneth Marende.
After being identified by Raila as the coalition’s candidate for Speaker’s posts weeks before the elections, Marende withdrew from the contest for Vihiga’s governor seat.
Be the first to comment