Sabina’s saga leaves seven MPs thrown out of House

Seven MPs were yesterday suspended from Parliament for unruly behaviour as they disputed a ruling by Speaker Moses Wetangúla on the fate of Nominated MP Sabina Chege.

Wetangula was forced to adjourn the afternoon session for 20 minutes after a section of ODM MPs turned unruly as they disputed his decision not to remove Chege from her minority Whip position.

As a result, members Millie Odhiambo was suspended for two weeks, Rosa Buyu (two weeks), Chege (2 weeks), Fatuma Mnyazi (5 days), Catherine Omanyo (five  days), Joyce Kamene (two sittings) and T.J Kajwang (two weeks).

Wetangúla had for the second time turned down efforts by Azimio la Umoja coalition to remove Chege from her position as the minority whip.

The Speaker cited an ongoing court case over the matter as the reason why he could not interfere with the matter.

However, this was not received well by the opposition MPs who shouted at him draining his voice as he read the statement. It was at this juncture that Odhaimbo (Suba North) and Buyu (Kisumu West) were thrown out for being unruly but they refused to comply, forcing the Speaker to suspend the sitting.

“I am invoking Standing Order number 107 (3), to withdraw the members. The Standing Order allows the Speaker to suspend a member for a minimum of 5 days, or a maximum of 20 days.

The suspended members stayed put and even after the Speaker had ordered that they be thrown out, the seven refused to comply as the parliamentary orderlies watched helplessly.

Wetangula directed that the remainder of the session proceeds even as the opposition members continued to heckle.

However, members Gitonga Murugara and Ndindi Nyoro weathered the storm and read out their business. Wetangula later adjourned the sitting to Tuesday next week.

Last month, Wetangula declined Azimio’s request to remove Chege as the Deputy Minority Whip.

Chege is also embroiled in another leadership tussle within the Jubilee Party where she staged a coup and assumed the Party leader position.

Replacement

The Speaker instead gave the minority side 30 days to put their House in order and report back to his office.

“Those members will suffer the consequences of their misdeeds as stipulated in the Standing Orders,” Wetangúla ruled yesterday. In a communication, Wetang’ula faulted the minority side for failing to satisfy the requirement of the Standing Order in seeking to replace Chege.  

Whereas the Standing Order requires the changes to be communicated completely with the replacement, Wetang’ula said Azimio only communicated an intention to remove Sabina and failed to suggest the replacement.

“The Minority Communication is incomplete, I hereby grant the Minority Party a period of 30 days from today to put its House in order and decide whether they still want to pursue the changes,” Wetangula ruled last month before referring the matter back to the minority side.

Minority leader Opiyo Wandayi accused Wetang’ula of frustrating the Opposition by failing to communicate the decision to kick out Chege.

The Ugunja MP said the delay has incapacitated the Opposition from executing its mandate in the House, accusing the Speaker of playing accomplice.

 “It is not the mandate of the Speaker or the majority side to decide for us who will be our leaders in this House,” Wandayi said.

“It is now almost a month since we wrote to you, that delay means that our side is incapacitated, we cannot manage our affairs properly because of a vacancy in our leadership.” The MP wondered why the speaker has remained unclear about when he will issue a communication about the changes made by Azimio.

“We expected you to communicate the same to the House on April 11 but you did the unexpected by opening up debate and failing to give a firm undertaking as to when you would make that communication,’’ Wandayi charged.

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