Former Head of Government Delivery Services Peter Mbae has asserted that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) will demand the national assembly speaker’s seat after gaining the lucrative departmental committee chairs in parliament.

The Orange party is expected to reap richly in the Parliamentary Committees reconstitution process that was started on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, with a motion moved by Silvanus Osoro.

The process saw MPS approve names of members of parliament to serve in different committees for the start of the house’s fourth session.

Speaking during a live interview with a local TV on Thursday, March 6, 2025, the governance expert said that the writings were on the wall with development being part of a calculated scheme that was long time coming as retribution to MPS allied to Rigathi Gachagua.

Mbae, a close ally of impeached deputy president Gachagua who resigned from his position as head of government delivery services (GDS), decried an undertaking he termed as a mere exercise of dishing out names and positions.

Dishing out

“We have to agree to the fact that the seats are gone, like I mentioned it is what we said is coming and it is happening and it’s only getting worse. It is towards the 50 per cent purge of all people who refused to vote towards the impeachment of Gachagua. It started with the senate and we said it is moving to the National Assembly,” he said.

The experts also opined that the whole process as part of ODM’s incessant demands that targets the speaker’s seat and other positions as its end game.

“The truth is that names are being dished out with commands that it shall be. I’m sure ODM is going for speaker seat and might go as well for many others, it will be messy as it goes on,” he added.

Ramifications on Ruto

The governance pundit weighed that developments will further alienate Mt Kenya politicians and voters from President Ruto.

“There will be political implications for sure. A big one. The argument is even if the president said he had issues with Gachagua as a person, why punish the entire mountain by getting seats from them and giving them to ODM? People are asking, all these positions were held by prominent Mt Kenya people, why not give them to people who voted for Gachagua to go home?

“This what people are saying; the president seems he’s done with the mountain. According to him he’s done with the mountain and has now turned to other new allies towards 2027,” he added.

Kiharu constituency Member of Parliament (MP) Ndindi Nyoro was among those who fell victim to the reconstitution of Committees of the National Assembly.

The youthful lawmaker was stripped of his role as the chairperson of the budget and appropriation committee.

Nyoro has, however, been retained as a member of the budget and appropriations committee

Other former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua’s allies were also axed.

MPs Wanjiku Muhia, James Gakuya, and Onesmus Ngogoyo, who are all allied to Gachagua, have also been stripped of their committee roles.