Nominated Senator Veronica Maina has been appointed as the new Deputy Senate Majority Leader, replacing Nakuru Senator Tabitha Keroche in a leadership shake-up that took effect immediately, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi announced Wednesday.
The change followed a resolution passed by the Senate Majority Party during a meeting on Tuesday, November 3, which removed Keroche from the position and elected Maina as her replacement.
In a communication to the House, Speaker Kingi confirmed that he had received correspondence from Senate Majority Whip David Wakoli, accompanied by minutes of the meeting and a signed list of senators supporting the resolution.
“The correspondence and the attached minutes indicate that a resolution was passed by the Majority Party to remove the Deputy Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Tabitha Keroche, in accordance with Standing Order 22(5),” Kingi said.
He added that the Majority Party had elected Maina to the position under Standing Order 22(6).
“In this respect, I have verified the correspondence received and hereby communicate that the Majority Party has effected a change in the Office of the Deputy Senate Majority Leader. The new office holder, with immediate effect, is Sen. Veronica Maina,” the Speaker announced.
Keroche’s removal came less than a month after she defected from the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to the Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP), led by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
On October 9, Keroche announced that she would seek the Nakuru governorship on the DCP ticket, setting up a contest with incumbent Governor Susan Kihika, a UDA member with whom she had an increasingly public political dispute.
The senator, who was elected on a UDA ticket in 2022, had grown increasingly critical of the ruling party’s leadership. In July, she blamed UDA’s defeat in the Ol Kalou parliamentary by-election on “political arrogance, intimidation and the conduct of leaders close to the President”.
“It’s time that the President reconstituted his inner circle as the current ones are tarnishing his name and are responsible for the loss in Ol Kalou,” she said at the time.
She also warned that discontent within the party was pushing leaders to reconsider their political affiliations ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Although the Speaker’s communication did not directly link Keroche’s removal to her departure from UDA, the timing placed the leadership change within the wider political realignments taking shape ahead of the next election cycle.
Maina, a nominated senator, will now deputise Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot in coordinating the ruling coalition’s legislative and oversight business in the House.
The changes were effected under Standing Order 22, which provides for the election and removal of Senate Majority Party office holders through a majority vote of senators belonging to the party.
The rules require the Majority Whip to notify the Speaker in writing, with the Speaker then verifying the correspondence and communicating the decision to the Senate within three sitting days.
