KENYA’S parliament was the scene of a fist fight on Thursday after the body’s speaker, Moses Wetangula, ruled that the government party holds the majority following the transfer of fourteen MPs from the opposition ranks.
Wetangula said the Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) coalition has 179 seats to the opposition’s 157, having accepted that fourteen members of the opposition Azimio la Umoja (Search for Unity), moved to support the government party after the last elections.
After this, one of the opposition parliamentarians tried to seize the ceremonial gavel of the president of the Parliament to express his displeasure, which provoked the outbreak of clashes and the entry of the agents to the hemicycle to try to contain the situation.
The opposition coalition had
argued that the constitutional period for the transfer of seats has not started, but Wetangula argued that coalitions ‘are not carved in stone’ and that coalitions can change before or after the elections, according to the Kenyan newspaper The Standard.
In this way, Kenya Kwanza secured its control of Parliament, going from 165 seats to 179, while Azimio la Umoja falls from 171 to 157. Kimani Ichungwah has been appointed majority leader, with Owen Mbaya as ‘number two’.
The August elections in Kenya also res
ulted in the victory in the presidential elections of the hitherto deputy president, William Ruto, against the now former president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who had backed the candidate of former prime minister Raila Odinga.
In fact, Odinga rejected the election result and strongly criticized the Supreme Court for ratifying Ruto’s victory, arguing that the ruling was ‘not based on any law.’ Kenyatta handed over power to Ruto, although he refused to congratulate him and reiterated his support for Odinga.
