The Registrar of Political Parties has revealed that at least five parties left the Azimio la Umoja Coalition, after the 2022 general elections.
In an updated list of registered parties and which coalitions they each belong to, the five parties left between February 2023 and December 2024.
The parties include People’s Liberation Party (formerly Narc Kenya), Maendeleo Chap Chap party, United Democratic Movement (UDM), Devolution Empowerment party and Pamoja African Alliance (PAA).
The list followed a high court directive that the status of political parties be made public after a petition was filed by concerned citizens.
This comes a few days after a confusion ensued following a court ruling that Azimio coalition was the majority party in Parliament.
The High Court’s three-judge bench comprising Justices John Chigiti, Jairus Ngaah and Lawrence Mugambi ruled that the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance is the bonafide majority alliance in the National Assembly.
The court said Wetang’ula acted unreasonably when he assigned to the Kenya Kwanza alliance the 14 members of the Azimio coalition who had resigned from the outfit.
The case was filed in court by Ken Njagi, advocate Lempaa Soyinka and 10 others represented by Advocate Kibe Mungai.
Wetang’ula had claimed that several Azimio members had formally written to his office to denounce their association with the Raila Odinga-led political outfit.
These members are 14 MPs drawn from 4 parties, namely the United Democratic Movement (UDM), Movement for Democracy and Growth (MDG), Maendeleo Chap Chap (MCC), and Pamoja African Alliance (PAA).
In the notice, these parties currently don’t belong to any coalition or coalition party. They however, have working arrangements with the ruling Kenya Kwanza Alliance.
The ORPP further lists 47 political parties that do not belong to any coalition and have no representation in the National Assembly.
On February 12, Speaker Moses Wetang’ula would again rule that Kenya Kwanza is the majority in Parliament.
This followed a debate on who holds the majority and minority offices in the National Assembly, after Opposition members occupied sitting areas meant for the majority party, in anticipation that the court ruling would prevail.
The Speaker said that Azimio has 154 Members of Parliament while Kenya Kwanza has 165 in the August House.
“Arising from the foregoing, the Kenya Kwanza is the majority and the Azimio is the minority. The Leadership of the House remains unchanged,” the Speaker stated.
Wetang’ula insisted that the court did not declare any party as the majority or minority and neither did it declare the leader of the majority or minority.
