Kathiani MP Robert Mbui has blamed the ongoing debate on the majority coalition in Parliament on the unprocedural ditching of parties by parliamentarians.

Mbui, who is set to assume the deputy leader of the majority side position in Parliament pending the speaker’s determination on the matter, asserted that MPs should remain faithful to their respective parties and coalitions that got them elected.

The Wiper Party MP further added that members who abandon their parties ought to resign and seek a fresh mandate from the electorates.

“We are here because politics and parliament have become very indecent. It’s important that when people are elected in a certain coalition, they should spend their five years in that coalition,” Mbui posited.

“If anyone feels he doesn’t want to belong to that coalition, the law is clear you seek a new mandate. Here people are elected through one party and in the middle of the term they jump ship and go to another party. This business of people just crossing is the problem why we are here today.”

“Our leader Raila Odinga once belonged to a party and later felt dissatisfied. He left, went for a by-election, got re-elected and came back to the house,” he added.

Respect court

The MP also echoed earlier sentiments by Junet Mohammed for the Kenya Kwanza side to be ready to adopt the looming changes in the house leadership roles.

“Let’s respect the court ruling. The majority is Azimio and the minority can take up their side,” Mbui concluded.

During his address earlier on Mohammed urged the Kenya Kwanza side to adhere to the courts decision that ruled Azimio as majority side of the house.

“As you are aware and have alluded we have a court ruling consisting of three judges. A court ruling has only two decisions, there is no third way about it. One is to obey it and second is to exercise that right of appeal,” Junet said.

“We went to court for it to interpret the constitutionality of who is the Majority Party and who is the Minority Party. Likely the court has made its ruling albeit late, the decision has said Azimio is the Majority side in Parliament,” Junet added.

The foregoing comes as parliamentarians canvassed on status of the majority of the National Assembly.

Tuesday debate saw members float different views that ought to determine who the majority are in the house.

While debating on the matter, Laikipia Woman Representative Jane Kagiri called on the Speaker of Parliament to stop skirting around the issue of determining the House majority through prolonged debates and instead conduct a straightforward headcount to settle the matter definitively.

“I attempted to go through the ruling, and I realized it was 711 pages long. I noted that out of the 34 prayers presented before the court, the judges only honored three. In one of their rulings, the judges stated that the majority and minority status were already determined at the ballot on August 9, 2022. Honourable Speaker, as a layperson, I would interpret this to mean that the decision made on the ballot was executed by the very members of Parliament seated in this House today. Honourable Speaker, I strongly believe it is within your power to resolve this matter once and for all by simply conducting a headcount,” she asserted.