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Which way for ‘partyless’ Ababu Namwamba?


There seems to be no end in sight to Budalang’i Constituency MP Ababu Namwamba’s party troubles.

For the second time, the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal on Friday barred him from representing himself as a member of the Labour Party of Kenya.

Tribunal members Kyalo Mbobu, James Atema, Paul Ngotho, Milly Odongo and Adelaide Mbithi issued a temporary order after a Mr Zaccheus Wangila Simiyu filed a suit challenging his membership, last month.

“It is hereby ordered that an interim order do and is hereby issued restraining Mr Namwamba from acting or purporting to act and representing himself or holding out as a member of LPK pending the hearing and determination of this application,” the tribunal ruled.

They further directed that the embattled MP be served with copies of the case before the next hearing on March 28.

According to Mr Simiyu, the Budalangi MP’s name does not appear in the Labour Party register.

In the case documents, he argues that Mr Namwamba still belongs to the Orange Democratic Party yet he is misleading the general public that he is a bona fide LPK member.

He further argued that if not stopped, Mr Namwamba would continue to mislead the public and enter into transactions or political bargains under the “guise of being a member and a party leader” of LPK.

‘STRANGER’

Mr Simiyu insisted that the MP was only illegally removed out of ODM but still belongs to it.

He, therefore, wants Mr Namwamba to be stopped from holding himself out as an LPK member.

Last month, the same tribunal members termed the decision to expel Mr Namwamba and his counterpart Mwalimu Masudi Mwahima from ODM as unconstitutional.

They had ruled that the move that saw the two thrown out of the party for being rebels violated their rights because there was no proof that they were notified to attend disciplinary proceedings against them.

They had faulted the manner in which the disciplinary proceedings were done before the expulsion of the two and concluded that the process was conducted with a bias.

And following the verdict, he had been cleared by the tribunal as a bona fide member of ODM. However, he has always associated himself with LPK.

But a few days later, a Mr John Barasa Makokha, on behalf of the LPK, asked the tribunal to bar Mr Namwamba from transacting business as its party member “to avoid confusion”.

At the same time, Political analyst David Makali sued the said party while seeking to stop a National Executive Council meeting while arguing that it had been called by a ‘stranger’ yet official leaders of LPK were known. The tribunal did not stop the meeting.