MPs should be allowed to party hop, insists Musyimi

Presidential aspirant Mutava Musyimi has said a proposed law seeking to allow MPs to party hop would easily sail through in Parliament.

He said more than half of MPs were keen on deserting parties that sponsored them to Parliament.

“You cannot lock MPs in parties that sponsored them in Parliament and yet majority of them have decided to move on,” he said.

The Gachoka MP said the miscellaneous amendment Bill, would apply in the coming elections before the country reverts to the current Political Parties Act.

The Rev Musyimi claimed the country was not ready to implement party discipline among MPs.

Transition period

“Since we are in transition, it would be best to allow MPs to switch parties and then revert to the law as it is in 2017 when our politics will be more mature,” he said.

He blamed the current law for preventing him from registering as a member of the Democratic Party on whose ticket he will be seeking the presidency.

Some DP members have since gone to court seeking to bar the Gachoka MP from campaigning for the presidency on the party ticket, of which he was not a registered member.

The Rev Musyimi, however, said the amendment, which he hoped would be in place by the end of this month, would allow him to switch from PNU to DP.

“Law was made for man not man for law,” he told journalists after a meeting with more than 40 DP delegates in Nyeri at the weekend.

He also backed political coalitions ahead of the next elections, saying no single party could win the polls on their own.