Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange party wants the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to degazette Harold Kipchumba as the nominee to replace National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi at the National Assembly.

The party argues that Mbadi was nominated to the House because he was a “worker and can only be replaced in the order of priority in the list with another “worker”.

In a letter addressed to the IEBC chair, Erastus Ethekon, party Secretary General Edwin Sifuna wants the commission to instead nominate youthful loyalist John Ketora.

According to Sifuna, Article 90 and 97 (1) (c) of the Constitution, as read together with Section 37 (1) of the Elections Act, show that the next in line to replace Mbadi is Ketora and not Kipchumba, as IEBC had gazetted.

“We submit John Ketora to be allocated the vacant seat as the male Member of the National Assembly in the place of John Mbadi to represent workers. Ketora is the next in line in our party list in the category of workers and the same gender,” said Sifuna.

Section 37 (1) states that If a representative from a political party list dies, withdraws from the party list, changes parties, resigns or is expelled from his or her party during the term of the representative, the seat of the representative shall be allocated to the next candidate of the same gender on the respective political party list.

“Kindly proceed to allocate the party’s seat as a male member of the National Assembly representing workers in accordance with Section 37 (1) of the Elections Act to Mr John (above) Ketora,” reads part of the letter sent to Ethekon and seen by People Daily.

ODM’s protest comes after Mbadi, who had been nominated under the workers’ category, was replaced by Kipchumba, nominated under the Persons with Disabilities (PWD) category.

While the appointment of Kipchumba was seen as a win for PWDs, it is a blow to the ODM Youth League, which had recently urged Raila to consider naming Youth League president Ketora for the post.

In a special Gazette Notice dated July 22, 2025, Ethekon announced that 10 special seats had been reallocated following the resignations and passing on of previously nominated MPs.

Ethekon further said the changes were also to accommodate adjustments to correct inconsistencies in party lists nominations submitted during the 2022 General Election.

According to Ethekon, IEBC carried out the process based on the priority in which nominees were listed by respective parties, as submitted during the 2022 election, in accordance with Article 90 of the Constitution and Section 37(1) of the Elections Act, Cap 7.