‘It feels sweet to be on the majority side’ – Senator Onyonka
Kisii County Senator Richard Onyonka has expressed his delight following the High Court’s recent ruling that recognized the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition as the majority side in the National Assembly.
Speaking during Senate proceedings on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, Onyonka reminisced about the 2007 elections, describing a stalemate in Parliament where both President Mwai Kibaki’s side and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) had 100 Members of Parliament each.
You might also like
“I want to give a very small story. Madam Speaker, in 2007, when we ran for elections, the house was in a stalemate. President Kibaki had 100 Members of Parliament and the ODM side had 100 members of parliament. During that time, the only outside vote I can remember was my vote under a party called PDP. We had signed a pre-election agreement with ODM, so my vote was accepted. I can tell you Madam Speaker, it feels sweet to be on Majority’s side,” he stated
Emphasizing the Senate’s oversight role, Onyonka urged his colleagues to ensure that public resources allocated to counties and institutions are used effectively. He stressed the need to reduce the number of intermediaries handling public funds to minimize wastage.
Onyonka also suggested that the Senate should conduct more sessions outside Nairobi to connect with the public and better understand local issues. Recounting a recent visit to Migori, he described the public’s excitement and the productive engagements with the Auditor General, the Controller of Budget, and knowledgeable local Members of Parliament.
“In our oversight role, we must ensure that the resources that are disbursed to counties & other institutions are utilized in the best way possible. We must minimize the number of hands that public money goes through to reduce waste!” he said.
Adding;
“I have visited different parts of Kenya and I have seen a lot. I want to request the House this, many Kenyans want this House to travel outside Nairobi. Everywhere we have been, yesterday we were in Migori, you should see the excitement of the public, see how we interrogated the Audito General, Control of Budget (COB) It is such a wonderful experience on devolution and we were also engaged with the Memnebrs of National Assembly of Migori, They were very knowledgable about issues affecting their community.”
The upper House
However, the question remains whether the court’s ruling directly impacts the Senate. Deputy Minority Whip Edwin Sifuna called for Azimio to assume the majority role in the Senate to mirror the situation in the National Assembly. Sifuna argued that since the Constitution does not specify how to determine Senate leadership, it should follow the National Assembly’s precedent.
“Mr Speaker, the constitution is very elaborate; it starts by defining what Parliament is then separating the roles of the Senate and the National Assembly. It goes to be specific enough to the roles of each of those houses the matters that can be processed there and the matters that cannot be processed there,” he said.
Adding;
“On the question of which party is the majority party, there’s no mention throughout the entire document of the Constitution of the Senate. In my view, it means that the designation of the majority party is set in the National Assembly.”
He asserted that it would be illogical for Azimio to be the majority in the National Assembly but the minority in the Senate.
The High Court ruling, delivered on February 7, 2025, by Justices John Chigiti, Jairus Ngaah, and Lawrence Mugambi, overturned a previous decision by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, who had favoured Kenya Kwanza as the majority coalition. The court declared that the majority status in the National Assembly was determined by the sovereign will of Kenyan voters during the August 9, 2022, General Elections.
The judges criticized Wetang’ula for violating the Constitution when he assigned 14 members from various parties to Kenya Kwanza, enabling the coalition to claim majority status. They ruled that Wetang’ula had no legal grounds to make such assignments without proper post-election coalition agreements.
The court also noted that Wetang’ula compromised his impartiality by maintaining ties with Ford Kenya after becoming Speaker. Additionally, the court declined to grant Kenya Kwanza’s request for a 45-day stay of the judgment, affirming that the Speaker should have adhered to the law from the beginning.
This case, filed in 2023 by 12 registered voters, argued that Azimio had 171 members in the National Assembly compared to Kenya Kwanza’s 165. Based on these figures, they maintained that Azimio rightfully held the majority status following the 2022 elections.
