This archive report was first published on 5 January 2022.
On January 5, 2022, a crucial vote took place in the Kenyan parliament regarding the Political Parties Amendment Bill of 2021.
MPs allied to Deputy President William Ruto attempted to strike out provisions aimed at taming party hoping, but their bid was unsuccessful.
The proposed amendments aimed to define what actions constitute resignation from a party, giving the Registrar of Political parties a wide mandate to make a determination on the same.
Under the proposed amendments, resignation and expulsion of an elected leader from a political party would essentially mean that one would have been deemed to have lost their seat, creating room for a by-election.
The provision aimed to cure the spectacle of elected leaders promoting the ideologies of another party outside the party they are formally registered.
Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa's first attempt to delete Clause 10 of the bill, which provides the procedure of when a member is deemed to have resigned from a party, failed.
Barasa argued that the clause 'runs the danger of being misused' and that the Jubilee party had a pre-election agreement with UDA, and they should not give opportunity for this clause to be misused and begin to chase members from their parties.
Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi argued that 'the amendment must be defeated because once you choose to support the ideology of one political party, you must be making that choice by subscribing to the ideology of the party.'
Despite the spirited fight by MPs allied to Deputy President William Ruto, the amendments were passed with 131 MPs voting in favor and 163 voting against.
