UHURU SUMMONS AZIMIO LEADERS FOR AN URGENT MEETING.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has summoned Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance MPs for a meeting at State House Nairobi on Wednesday ahead of the first parliamentary sitting on Thursday.

The outgoing president is the Chairman of the Azimio coalition party.

The Star has also learnt that President-elect William Ruto has staged a similar meeting with his Kenya Kwanza Alliance MPs at Deputy President’s Karen residence on the same day.

The meetings are expected to chart the way forward for the two coalitions as far as the leadership of both the Senate and National Assemblies are concerned.

In the Thursday sittings, MPs-elect of both houses will be sworn into office during which they will also elect the Speaker and deputy speaker of their respective houses.

The two parallel meetings will also discuss how the rest of the positions will be shared specifically the leader of the majority and minority posts.

They will also deliberate on majority and minority whips posts.

While the Azimio la Umoja coalition has been boasting of having a majority of MPs, Ruto has managed to bring onboard several MPs elected under the umbrella of the Raila Odinga-led coalition to his Kenya Kwanza camp.

The president-elect has also roped in a majority of independent MPs-elect.  

At the National Assembly, the Kenya Kwanza Alliance has fronted Bungoma Senator-elect Moses Wetangula for the Speaker’s post.

Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka is expected to fly the Azimio flag at the National Assembly even though the Star has established that the former vice president has also picked papers for the Senate speaker’s post.

The real battle is likely to emerge at the Senate Assembly given that several leaders from both coalitions have expressed interest in the seat.

In the Kenya Kwanza Alliance, for instance, former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar, ex-nominated MP Isaac Mwaura and former Kilifi governor Amason Kingi have picked nomination forms for the post.

The Wednesday meeting is expected to seal a deal on who the alliance will back.

Kingi, however, had been reported to be the alliance’s ideal candidate by virtue of the coalition agreement his PAA party signed with the President-elect.

On the Azimio side, the entry of Kalonzo into the senate speaker’s race complicates the matrix considering that the position had been reserved for former National Assembly speaker Kenneth Marende.

Marende was eyeing Vihiga’s governor seat but quit the race when Raila named him as the coalition’s candidate for Speaker’s posts weeks before the elections.

Source: The Star