NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 5 – Deputy President William Ruto has suffered a major blow after an amendment by Garissa Township MP Aden Duale to have the clause on the timelines of formation of coalitions before a general election deleted was defeated.
This is after 128 MPs voted to have the amendment thwarted while 104 MPs voted for it.
Those in support said there should be no timelines for parties to form coalitions.
Clause 8b of the Political Parties Amendment Bill of 2021 proposes to have coalitions by political parties submit their coalition agreement at least six months before a general election.
While prosecuting the amendment before the House, Duale argued that the clause was aimed at sanitizing “political conmanship in coalition agreements each electioneering season.”
“This House should not be used as a decoy in achieving selfish political interest and use this house to sanitize the character of certain leaders and parties who are known for political deceit every time, they enter into a coalition agreement with other parties,” said Duale.
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Majority Leader in the National Assembly Amos Kimunya who is the sponsor of the bill opposed the amendment stating that coalitions need to be registered with the Registrar of political parties to avoid scenarios of betrayals and misunderstanding.
“We need to have timelines when coalition agreement is being formed for the general information of the public. So that everyone knows what is going on in the coalition so that we don’t have surprises. We must defeat this amendment so that in this era of transparency so that every agreement is lodged with the registrar of political parties,” said Kimunya.
His counterpart from Lugari Ayub Savula opposed the amendment by the Garissa Township MP saying that coalitions agreements need to be regulated by the Registrar of Political Parties as the regulator of political parties.
While supporting the amendment, Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa stated that the timelines on the formation of a coalition agreement are impractical since it will create a block to the free will of politicians forming a coalition.
“This clause is aimed at fixing some politicians by blackmailing some politicians to form coalitions within a certain period. People must be allowed the liberty to form coalitions,” said Ichungwa.
Members of Parliament commenced a three-day special sitting to debate the contentious Political Parties Amendment Bill of 2021.
While presiding the sitting, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi revised the Speaker guidelines on voting to have the 325 MPs vote electronically on the bill.
This move aimed at curing the ugly spectacle of MPs crowding while doing roll calls or physical voting that was regarded as a delay tactic in the passage of the clauses of the bill.
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