Wetang'ula wins Speaker race after Marende concedes
LIVEMoses Wetang'ula is now the Speaker of the National Assembly after Kenneth Marende conceded Thursday evening, making him the eighth Speaker of the House since independence.
MPs had gone into round two of voting for the coveted Speaker post after the first round failed to produce an outright winner. In the first round, Mr Marende got 130 votes compared to Mr Wetang’ula’s 214 votes. To win in the first round, one requires two-thirds majority or at least 234 of the 348 members in the House. In the second round, the candidate who gets majority votes is declared winner.
However, the Clerk received communication that Mr Marende had conceded, leading her to declare Mr Wetang'ula the winner.
In a battle of the wills between the country’s two leading political formations, Kenya Kwanza had fronted the Ford Kenya leader while Azimio had both Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and Mr Marende.
Mr Wetang’ula was projected to have an upper hand should Kenya Kwanza, which politically has more MPs, vote as a block.
