Narc Kenya Party Leader Martha Karua has weighed in on the High Court’s ruling disputing National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula’s declaration that Kenya Kwanza was the majority Party in parliament and his dual role as Speaker and Ford Kenya Party leader.

Speaking during an interview with a local TV station, Karua stated that if Speaker Wetang’ula is a true believer in the rule of law, he should make his stand whether he is the leader of the Ford Kenya of the National Assembly Speaker, she also accused him of deliberately delivering the ruling in favour of the Kenya Kwanza alliance due to his ties with the government.

She went on to state that moving forward it is of importance that Wetang’ula picks a side as it directly affects his impartiality when rendering a ruling in parliament.

“If the Kenya Kwanza Alliance, and in particular Speaker Moses Wetang’ula are believers in the rule of law, he should choose whether to be speaker or the leader of Ford Kenya, he can’t have both and he must choose moving forward, being impartial, not Kenyans seeing him atop a vehicle campaigning for a coalition that is in parliament and making rulings that are questionable,” Karua said.

When asked to comment on Speaker Wetang’ula’s reaction reaction to the court ruling where he vowed to challenge the ruling in court insisting that he was not ordered to relinquish either office, Karua noted that downplaying the court’s decision is impunity and that henceforth parties should declare their stand post election to help with the checks and balances in government.

“This is impunity, when you downplay a court ruling you are saying utado? It is impunity, what they need to do moving forward is any party that has a backdoor alliance with Kenya Kwanza including ODM had better have a post election coalition agreement, says goodbye to opposition politics or choose to be in government, that is the impact of the ruling, you can’t have both ways, it blurs the line between opposition and government and therefore destroys the indoor checks and balances,” she said.

Court ruling

The Milimani High Court on Friday, February 7, 2025, declared that Azimio was the majority in the National Assembly.

Delivering the ruling, Justices John Chigiti, Lawrence Mugambi, and Jairus Ngaah noted that Wetang’ula had violated the constitution by making the determination.

The judges also declared that the majority party coalition was determined by citizens during the 2022 August Election.

“It is hereby declared that the question as to which party or coalition parties is the majority of the National Assembly of the 13th Parliament was determined by the sovereign will of the Kenyan voters during the August 9, 2022, general elections,” part of the ruling read.

According to the court, Speaker Wetang’ula assigned 14 members from various parties to Kenya Kwanza on October 6, 2022, to favor the Kenya Kwanza alliance and pivot it to the majority status.

The speaker declared that Kenya Kwanza had 179 members in the House whereas Azimio had 157.

Documents from the Registrar of Political Parties, however, contradicted Wetang’ula’s declaration revealing that Azimio had 26 political parties against Kenya Kwanza’s 15.

The judges also found that the speaker did not have a justifiable cornerstone to reassign more members to Kenya Kwanza.

“The speaker can’t fault the registrar of political parties. She could not provide what she did not have.The speaker ought to have exhibited the agreement which were alleged to have been presented during the debate without the post-election coalition agreements he had not basis to this regard,” part of the ruling added.

The court further ruled that Wetang’ula ceased to be Ford Kenya party leader immediately he became speaker, and that him being a party leader undermined his roles in parliament.