The Azimio la Umoja Coalition Council has opposed the removal of Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna as Senate Deputy Minority Whip, arguing that the leadership changes were made through a disputed process.
In a letter to Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, Azimio Executive Director Philip Kisia said Sifuna's removal was backed by 11 members during a meeting held on Wednesday evening, but the vote failed to meet the threshold required under the Senate Standing Orders.
Kisia said the meeting, convened by Senate Minority Whip Ledama Ole Kina, was called on short notice and members were not informed of its agenda beforehand.
According to the letter dated July 16, 2026, Ole Kina notified members at 5:45 pm of a Coalition Parliamentary Group meeting scheduled for 7:30 pm at his office.
“Despite protests from members on the shortness of the notice, the whip neither disclosed why the meeting couldn’t be held the following day nor gave the agenda thereof. Screenshots from the official WhatsApp group are attached for reference,” Kisia said.
He added that members only discovered upon arriving at the meeting that the agenda was to remove Sifuna as Senate Deputy Whip.
“The meeting ended prematurely after a purported vote supported by 11 members resulted in a brief scuffle as the whip refused to declare the motion defeated. The Senate standing orders require that such a decision be supported by a majority of all members of the coalition PG,” reads the letter.
The Azimio Council also told Speaker Kingi that the coalition agreement gives the Coalition Council the authority to determine the leadership of the coalition parliamentary group.
“We wish to refer you to the coalition agreement at Article 5D (3) which provides that the leadership of the coalition parliamentary group shall be determined by the Coalition Council,” Kisia said.
Kisia further argued that most of the members who supported the changes belonged to the ODM party, which had already resolved earlier this year to exit the Azimio coalition.
“It's further instructive that the ODM party, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 11 members who supported the purported changes, had already resolved earlier this year to terminate their membership in the Azimio coalition,” he said.
The council urged Speaker Kingi not to implement the changes until the dispute is determined through the coalition's dispute resolution mechanism.
“In light of the above and being seized with a formal declaration of a dispute, we hereby request your office to desist from acting upon any purported resolution of the Senate Minority PG pending the determination of the dispute by the Coalition's dispute resolution panel in line with Article 16 of the coalition agreement,” Kisia said.
However, Speaker Kingi has already effected the changes, removing Sifuna from the position and appointing Migori Senator Eddy Oketch as the new Senate Deputy Minority Whip with immediate effect.
“The new office holder, with immediate effect, is Senator Eddy Gicheru Oketch,” Kingi said.
The latest development comes barely a week after the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) formally recognised Sifuna's removal as ODM Secretary-General, finding that the process complied with both the Political Parties Act and the party's constitution.
Sifuna, who also served as ODM Secretary-General, has in recent months emerged as one of the party's most vocal critics of the rapprochement between ODM and the Kenya Kwanza administration.
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