Aden Duale, National Assembly Majority Leader, has accused the opposition of denying members of parliament the freedom to choose who is best suited to represent Kenya in the East African Legislative Assembly.
The opposition decided to nominate five candidates, instead of 12, from which MPs will elect four into EALA.
In a letter to Speakers Justin Muturi and Ekwee Ethuro, Duale called out CORD in its decision.
Cord had originally named four nominees through a list submitted to the secretariat by Minority Whip Thomas Mwadeghu, with the number later growing to five after Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang’ula added a Ford-Kenya nominee.
Mr Duale said the rules stated that a party should nominate thrice the number of candidates it is entitled to in order for the lawmakers to reject any of the candidates in line with the election principle.
“In forwarding only four candidates, the Cord coalition mischievously seeks to deny the House the freedom of choice to reject any or all of the four candidates. Even if the number is increased to five by virtue of the nomination by Ford-Kenya, the House is still being denied a choice to reject four out of the five candidates,” said Mr Duale.
Duale asked the Speakers to ask the opposition to present written records of the process through which they arrived at the five candidates.
The Majority Leader also asked the Speakers to have the 11 independent candidates go through a more rigorous process before their names go on the ballot for the elections scheduled for May 25.
He said that from their papers, none of them had gathered support from registered voters.
He said that as a result of these shortcomings, the independent candidates fall short of the East African Community Treaty and the Election Rules.
“The nomination of these candidates should therefore be revoked,” he added.
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