The Senate has asked the court to dismiss a petition challenging the list of the nine elected East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) MPs.
Through an affidavit, the Senate clerk, Jeremiah Nyengenye, announced that Senate speaker Amason Kingi and his National Assembly counterpart Moses Wetang’ula had already forwarded the names to the EALA clerk.
Nyengenye added that the MPs were already declared as elected therefore the orders sought to stop them will not be applicable.
“A joint letter dated November 21 the Speakers of both houses in their capacity as returning officers of EALA elections jointly transmitted to the Clerk of the EALA the names of the nine nominees as duly elected by Parliament as members of EALA,” the affidavit reads in parts.
Kau Quentin Mengo had moved to court to challenge the list of the new MPs citing a lack of regional balance.
His lawyer Danstan Omari argued that the list had failed to meet the national values and principles set under the law and should therefore not be forwarded to the speaker of EALA.
“From the list, it’s apparent that Mombasa and Nairobi had more than one nominee making it the list of nine members who voted at the expense of other nominees who garnered many votes from other counties. This failed to meet the national values and principles set out under the law,” Mengo argued.
“There can be no justification at all of allowing two counties Mombasa and Nairobi to share four slots between them leaving out the entire Eastern, Nyanza and Western regions,” he added.
Parliament on Thursday, November 17, 2022, voted in nine members to represent Kenya at EALA.
The Senate and the National Assembly voted separately for the candidates before the votes were consolidated to determine who the winners were.
Kenya Kwanza Alliance was allocated five EALA slots while Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition had four slots.
Kenya Kwanza submitted 15 candidates to stand for the election in Parliament while the Azimio camp submitted 12.
Kenya Kwanza settled on Hassan Omar, Zipporah Kering, David Sankok, Mwangi Geoffrey Maina, and Charles Muteti and Cyprian Kubai while Azimio settled on Kennedy Kalonzo, Winnie Odinga, former Kieni MP Kanini Kega and Mombasa politician Suleiman Shahbal.
