•A total of 349 MPs sit in the House where out of this are 12 slots for nominated MPs based on their respective party strength.
•On Wednesday, Kenya Kwanza said it has 163 MPs while it's Azimio la Umoja counterparts said has 180.
Image: DPPS
The battle for the control of the Senate and National Assembly has intensified with President-elect William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza camp reaping big.
United democratic movement (UDM) party became the latest political outfit to abandon Raila Odinga’s bandwagon and declare support for Ruto.
Mandera Senator-elect Ali Roba met Ruto at his Karen residence on Thursday with a host of elected leaders from the party where they affirmed their support.
Roba is the party leader and a two-term governor of Mandera.
UDM is among the parties that signed agreements to form Azimio la Umoja One Kenya making it an affiliate in the run-up to the recently concluded poll.
It cannot legally, however, join Kenya Kwanza until December as per the agreement which is the case with PAA of Kingi and MCC of Alfred Mutua.
The Azimio coalition agreement indicates that “any member of the Azimio coalition that intends to leave will only be competent to exit at least three months after the elections.”
The party bagged two gubernatorial seats, two for senatorial, seven MP seats and 40 MCAs across the country.
Roba had earlier shown clearest indications of abandoning the camp when he joined other leaders from the opposing wing in congratulating Ruto following his win.
“Kenyans have spoken and the will of the Almighty God has prevailed in favour of William Ruto,” he said calling on the Azimio leaders to accept defeat.
“I want to take this opportunity to congratulate him and his Deputy for the win...We must respect the verdict of IEBC and move on as the Azimio team. Kenya is bigger than all of us.”
While receiving them, Ruto hailed the party’s leadership for agreeing to join their team.
Those who accompanied Roba are the Deputy party leader who is also Marsabit Governor-elect Mohamud Ali and his Mandera counterpart Mohamed Khalif.
Others were Mandera Deputy governor-elect Ali Maalim, Wajir Senator-elect Abbas Sheikh, MPs Umulkheir Kassim (Mandera), Bashir Abdullahi (Mandera North), Kullow Hassan (Banisa), Joseph Lekuton (Laisamis), Mangale Munga Chiforomodo (Lunga Lunga), AbdulEnrahim Haro (Mandera South) and Adan Haji (Mandera West).
On Wednesday, Martha Karua expressed confidence in beating their rivals in parliament arguing they had over 180 MPs.
On the same day, Ruto claimed they had a total of 163 legislators including those who ran on independent tickets and who have since joined.
A total of 349 out of which 12 are slots for nominated MPs based on their respective party strength.
With Ruto’s UDA having the most number of elected legislators, this means depending on the allocation formula of slots, it will get a high number from the 12 followed closely by the ODM party.