Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah speaks in Parliament on May 21, 2025. /SCREENGRABBusia Senator Okiya Omtatah said the three-day suspension from the Senate over his remarks on President William Ruto's declaration on undocumented immigrants would not stop him from defending the Constitution and holding those in power to account.
Omtatah has doubled down on his description of President Ruto's declaration on undocumented immigrants as "yapping", insisting the word was neither unparliamentary nor an insult.
"Three days outside the Chamber will not silence me. I will continue to defend the Constitution and the Kenyan people," Omtatah said in a statement issued on Thursday.
He said he respected the Speaker but would not surrender what he described as his constitutional duty to speak truth to power.
Omtatah maintained that his use of the word "yapping" was not unparliamentary and cited a 2020 debate in the British House of Commons to support his argument.
He referred to an exchange during Prime Minister's Questions in which then Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford described the responses of the then British Prime Minister as "yapping, bumbling, mumbling, but no answer".
According to Omtatah, the word was not withdrawn and the Speaker at the time, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, intervened over disorder in the Chamber rather than the use of the word.
Omtatah argued that the same principle should apply in Kenya, saying the term was a description of a form of political communication and not an insult to the Office of the President.
He also linked his argument to Article 135 of the Constitution, which states that a decision of the President in the performance of a constitutional function must be in writing and bear the President's seal and signature.
"A roadside utterance cannot acquire the force of law simply because it comes from the President," Omtatah said.
He argued that the President's remarks on undocumented immigrants, which he described as a roadside declaration, did not meet those constitutional requirements.
Omtatah said his use of "yapping" was therefore intended to distinguish an informal public utterance from a formal presidential decision.
The senator had made the remarks during Thursday's Senate sitting while responding to a ruling by Speaker Amason Kingi requiring him to withdraw the word.
Omtatah refused to do so, maintaining that the term was permissible and accurate.
Kingi subsequently ordered him to leave the Chamber for three consecutive sittings.
Omtatah continued trying to address the House, prompting the Speaker to warn that further defiance could attract a longer suspension. His microphone was switched off before Kingi directed the sergeant-at-arms to remove him.
Kingi also rejected Omtatah's reliance on Westminster parliamentary practice, saying Kenya's Parliament operates under its own Standing Orders.
"We are not in the Westminster Parliament. This is the Kenyan Parliament with its Standing Orders," Kingi said.
In his statement after the ejection, Omtatah said the dispute was bigger than the word "yapping".
"If calling out unconstitutional governance is punishable, then the greater danger is not the word 'yapping'. It is the growing intolerance for accountability," he said.
He maintained that his suspension would not deter him from challenging what he considers unconstitutional actions by those in power.
