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"id": 763357,
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"content": "positions as follows: The Leader of Minority Party, Deputy Leader of Minority Party, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip. Standing Order 20(4) requires the whip of the Minority party or coalition of parties in the National Assembly to forthwith, upon a decision being made on the Leader of the Minority Party and the Deputy Minority Leader, communicate to the Speaker, in writing the decision together with the minutes of the meeting at which the decision was made. My Office, as I said, received a letter dated 13 September 2013 from Senator Moses Wetangula notifying my office of a resolution of the NASA Coalition appointing Hon. John Mbadi as the Minority Leader, Hon. Ayub Savula as the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Robert Mbui, MP as the Minority Whip and Hon. Chrisantus Wamalwa as the Deputy Minority Whip. In terms of compliance with the requirements of Standing Orders 20(4), there were no minutes attached to this communication and, secondly, it is obvious that Senator Wetangula cannot be the Minority Whip to a House to which he does not belong. My office subsequently received another letter dated 21 September 2017 from Hon. John Mbadi, notifying me of a decision by the NASA coalition to leave the offices of the Deputy Leader of Minority, Minority Whip and Deputy Minority Whip vacant awaiting a NASA parliamentary group meeting where the coalition was to deliberate and fill these positions. Hon. Mbadi attached a letter from the Chief Executive Officer of the coalition, one Norman Magaya, dated the same date signifying the same. In terms of compliance of Standing Order 20(4), there were also no minutes attached to this correspondence. On a different note, however, these two letters from Hon. Mbadi and the said Magaya by implication confirmed that the NASA Coalition had, indeed, made the resolution communicated to my office by Senator Wetangula on 13 September 2017. More specifically, Mr. Magaya indicated in his letter that: “By dint of this letter, I request that you write to both the Speaker of the National Assembly and Senate and ask them to stand over the earlier communication in respect of the other house leadership positions.” Although this statement, especially coming from the Chief Executive Officer of the NASA Secretariat, can be inferred as a confirmation of the authority for Senator Wetangula’s letter, the statement still falls short of the threshold of Standing Order 20(4) which requires communication to be made by the Whip and attachment of the minutes of the meeting. The matters herein are not new to the House. Indeed, considered rulings have previously been sought and issued regarding leadership in political parties. Just to jog your memory a bit, in November 1993, the Chair was invited to guide the House on a matter regarding the issue of the Official Opposition Party in the House. Then, two opposition parties namely FORD-Kenya and FORD-Asili, each had 30 Members in the House, which was the requirement for a party to be declared the official opposition. However, the Chair never got the opportunity to give guidance as one of the Members of FORD-Asili defected to the then ruling party, KANU. Therefore, it became obvious that FORD-Kenya became the official opposition party. Similarly, in 2006 the Chair was again called upon to rule on the position of Official Leader of the Opposition. On Wednesday, 29 November 2006, the then Member for Eldoret North Constituency, Hon. William Ruto, rose on a The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}