A tweet shared by ODM Party on 20th September 2022 claiming Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi has been declared National Assembly Majority Leader is false.
In the tweet, Wandayi is pictured with National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula and Kikuyu Member of Parliament Kimani Ichung’wah. The photo is captioned thus: “Hon.@OpiyoWandayi takes up his role as Majority Leader in the National Assembly. He is seen here with Speaker @HonWetangula and @KIMANIICHUNGWAH.”
The tweet is misleading since by 20th September, House Speaker Moses Wetangula had not declared the majority leader in the House. While Wandayi and Kimani Ichungw’ah met Wentangula on 20th September, no ruling had been made yet on who the majority leader or party in Parliament was.
A review of events shows that the Speaker named Kimani Ichung’wah of the Kenya Kwanza Coalition the Majority Leader of the 13th Parliament on 6th October 2022, while Mr Wandayi was declared minority leader. Mr Owen Baya, the MP for Kilifi (Kenya Kwanza), and Robert Mbui of Kathiani (Azimio) were declared deputy majority and deputy minority leaders respectively.
This was after ruling that the Kenya Kwanza alliance is the majority in the House and Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party is the minority.
President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza alliance on 17th September elected Kikuyu Member of Parliament Kimani Ichung’wah as the National Assembly Majority Leader at a retreat in Naivasha and picked Kilifi North MP Owen Baya as Ichung’wah’s deputy. On the other hand, Azimio settled on Wandayi for majority leader, deputised by Kathiani MP Robert Mbui.
There had been a tussle in the National Assembly between the Kenya Kwanza Alliance and Azimio La Umoja – One Kenya Coalition over the majority status in the National Assembly, with MPs engaging in a heated debate over the matter. The naming of majority and minority leaders in Parliament settled the issue.
The announcement by ODM Party on its Twitter account that MP Opiyo Wandayi is Majority Leader is false.
This fact-check was produced by BUSINESS TODAY with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, African Fact Checking Alliance network and the United Nations Development Programme.
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