Bungoma Residents Hold Protests Over Plot to Impeach Wetangula

Bungoma residents on Tuesday took to the streets to protest against the alleged plot to impeach National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula.

While demonstrating, the residents marched through the streets of Bugoma Town while hoisting huge placards and twigs accusing the opposition Members of Parliament of allegedly orchestrating Wetangula’s impeachment plot.

The demonstrators, mostly comprised of boda boda riders, also faulted President William Ruto for failing to protect Wetangula from the looming axe despite receiving overwhelming support from the region in 2022.

During the peaceful demonstrations, the locals recalled President Ruto’s promise which he made in 2022 when he visited the county where he pledged to help Wetangula acquire his current National Assembly role.

According to the residents, the plot to impeach Wetangula was politically moved with the protesters calling on the opposition legislators to respect the speaker’s stance.

The demonstrations, which lasted for several hours, resulted in a traffic snarl-up along the Bungoma – Kisumu Highway forcing motorists to seek alternative routes.

The protests came hardly a week after Starehe MP Amos Mwango threatened to file a censure motion against Speaker Wetangula if he failed to resign.

Mwango, who spoke on February 11, accused Wetangula of incompetence arguing that his careless decisions were what led to major political criticism against the National Assembly including the June and July revolt against the Finance Bill last year.

The legislator, while defending his stance, referenced the recent High Court ruling that termed Wetangula’s role as both the speaker and Ford-Kenya party leader as unconstitutional.

“He has done many wrongs and showed a character of incompetence. For the sake of this nation, I thought it would be honourable for him to retire peacefully,” MP Mwango claimed.

MP Mwango’s push for Wetangula’s dismissal also followed a ruling by a three-judge bench that found Wetangula guilty of having violated the constitution on grounds of announcing President Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza as the majority coalition in parliament.

The court ruled that Speaker Wetnagula had no proper reason for allocating Kenya Kwanza the majority role, and thus quashed the speaker’s decision and declared Azimio la Umoja as the majority coalition.