Deputy President William Ruto's UDA Party has withdrawn its earlier directive asking Members of the County Assembly seeking MP and Senate seats to step down.
In a statement by the party's Secretary-general Veronica Maina, the party will seek guidance on the same from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
"The Party wishes to withdraw the notice here below till we seek urgent clarification from IEBC," Maina said.
In an earlier directive, UDA had asked MCAs seeking to contest for National Assembly and Senate positions to resign by February 9.
"Pursuant to Article 99(2)d of the Constitution and the ruling of Civil Appeal No. 431 of 2019 (Hon. Clement Waibara vs Hon. Wanjiku Kibe and others) we advise aspirants who are sitting Members of County Assembly (MCAs) intending to contests for position of Member of National Assembly or Senate to resign by Wednesday, February 9, 2022, for them to be eligible to contest in the aforementioned positions," the notice dated February 8 read.
This comes amidst contention between the provisions of Article 99 of the Constitution of Kenya and Article 43 of the Elections Act, 2011.
Clause 2(d) of Article 99 of the Constitution of Kenya states that a person is disqualified from being elected a Member of Parliament if the person is among others, a member of a county assembly.
Article 43, section 6(g) of the Elections Act, however, exempts the President, Deputy President, Governors, Deputy governors, MPs and MCAs from resigning to seek other elective positions.
