Now that leaders have been elected what happens next? as much as most Kenyans are focusing on the Supreme Court after the Former Premier Raila Odinga, who lost the 2022 Kenya Presidential contest rejected the results, what about the elected leader?
Despite filing of the petition, the Parliament will hold its inaugural sittings because the constitution requires that whenever a new House is elected, then the president, for this case president Kenyatta, by notice in the gazette, has to set a place and date for meeting the leaders within 30 days after the election.
During the meeting, the leaders-elect, which includes, the 349 MPs and the 67 senators will elect their new speakers who will then be sworn in by the respective clerks, thereafter, the speaker will swear in each MP.
What if a petition is not filed to challenge presidential results? President-elect Ruto and Deputy President-elect Rigathi Gachagua will be sworn in on Tuesday, August 30.
Meanwhile, since the parliament has to carry on, power sharing will have to take place amongst political parties and the formula for the nomination seats is calculated at a number of single-member constituencies and Woman Representatives, divided by 337 and multiplied by 12.
In the Senate, there are 20 nomination slots; 16 directly for women, 2 for youth, a man and a woman, and two for persons with disability; a male and a female.2
The 20 slots are shared out based on a party’s performance in the quest for 47 elective Senate seats, divided by 47 and multiplied by 16 for the women slots. The same formula applies in the case of four youth and persons with disability slots.
The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party has 22 elected Senators, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) 13, Jubilee garnered 4, Wiper 3, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) 2 with Ford Kenya, DP, and NRM getting 1 Senator each.
Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party had a majority in the house with 161 members, Kenya Kwanza had 159 parliamentarians while 12 were elected as independent candidates.
However, Kenya Kwanza has been lucky enough to be joined by the 12 independent MPs. and the UDM team, led by former Mandera Governor Ali Roba, who is now the county’s Senator-elect.