Azimio Senators explain why they walked out of Senate sitting

The team, led by Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, walked out of the house after failing to reach an agreement on how the Speaker elections should be held.

Speaking outside the Parliament Buildings, Homa-Bay Senator Moses Kajwang' stated that they had raised objections to the clerk of the Senate, who had failed to address them properly and was in a hurry to issue a ruling.

"We feel that the clerk did not address the issues we raised properly, we feel that the clerk operated just like Chebukati operated at Bomas. He was in such a rush to make a ruling when we had all the time to dispense with issues," said Kajwang'

"We are not going to be part of that charade and we assure you that this Senate will always stand up for the right things."

Speaking on the issues raised, Kajwang stated that they did not have enough representation in the House because the majority of the nominated Senators had not appeared at the premise because they were gazetted at the last minute and availing themselves was not feasible.

According to Kajwang, they had requested that the House be adjourned so that their nominated Senators could participate in the process and vote on fair ground.

"We have raised serious objections to the clerk on the marginalization and the disenfranchisement of Nominated Senators. They were  gazetted only yesterday in the evening and expected to come today," he said.

"We have asked the clerk to adjourn the house to allow the nominated senators to submit their applications and the clerk has dismissed us on a technicality and we felt that it was not fair."

The second issue they raised was the need to investigate the suitability and credibility of the candidates who had expressed interest in the position of Speaker.

According to Kajwang, Kingi, who was campaigned for by the Kenya Kwanza Team, had reports declaring him unfit to hold public office.

"We cited that the house has previously indicted some of the persons who have placed their applications to be Speaker of the Senate and we needed a determination from the clerk whether indicted persons should be eligible for the position of the Speaker," he said.

"Amason Kingi is one of the candidates for Speakership. When I was the chair of the Public accounts committee I produced several reports that declared Kingi unfit to hold public office. Is that the person we want to sit in Senate that will be over sighting county governments?"

Kingi, on the other hand, was declared the winner of the Speaker election, with 46 votes.

Despite the absence of the Azimio team, his election is still valid because he met the two-thirds rule threshold.