Senate Speaker Amason Kingi has rejected attempts by Azimio to challenge the Kenya Kwanza 's majority status on the floor of the House.
Some Azimio senators had claimed that Kenya Kwanza ceased to be the majority coalition following the resignation of Moses Wetangula as Bungoma senator and the nomination of two senators to the Cabinet by President William Ruto.
Last week, Ruto nominated senators Kipchumba Murkomen (Elgeyo Marakwet) and Soipan Tuya (nominated) as Cabinet Secretaries.
Rising on a point of order soon after the speaker announced the House leadership, Kisumu senator Tom Ojienda claimed that with the resignation and nominations of the senators to the Cabinet, Kenya Kwanza numbers relegated them to minority wing.
"The net effect of this nomination is that Azimio has 32 members while Kenya Kwanza has 31. That will make Azimio majority coalition in line with Section 2 of the Political Parties Act," Ojienda said.
The argument triggered a barrage of reactions with Kenya Kwanza legislators led by majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot dismissing the claims as hearsay.
"This is what we can regard as hearsay. There is no official communication from the speaker that the said senators have resigned. It is clear, Kenya Kwanza has 36 members and Azimio has 29," Cheruiyot said.
But deputy minority leader Enock Wambua and deputy minority whip Ledama Olekina faulted Cheruiyot for dismissing Ojienda's argument as hearsay.
They said that the President publicly announced the nomination of the two senators as CSs.
But in his ruling, the speaker said that he has not received any resignation letters from the senators nominated as cabinet secretaries, adding that Wetang'ula's resignation did not tilt the scale.
He added that the Azimio coalition itself wrote to him indicating that they are the minority coalitions.
"We sit here, no senator has passed on. No senator has resigned. The resignation of senator Wetang'ula did not tilt the numbers," the speaker ruled.
