Welcome but no more conditions, Raila tells Ruto's team

By PETER OPIYO

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has called for tolerance among politicians setting the mood for tomorrow’s joint ODM/PNU Parliamentary Group meeting.

The PM wants politicians who voted against the new constitution to feel free and join the implementation process without dragging along untenable conditions.

While addressing a congregation at St Stephen’s Church on Jogoo road, Nairobi, the PM struck the reconciliatory note but warned them to stop giving conditions.

Parliamentary Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee.

The meeting will be co-chaired by President Kibaki and Raila.

Raila said Kenya is enjoying enhanced democratic space and those who voted against the new laws are welcomed on board to participate in the rebirth of the country.

"There are those who opposed the new Constitution and those who supported it, but it doesn’t matter what side one was, because that is democracy. If we want to build a democratic nation we must be democratic," said the PM.

His statement is contrary to a resolution by his ODM party that last week resolved that its MPs who campaigned against the new Constitution be removed from the party leadership.

The ODM parliamentary group met and recommended to the party’s National Executive Council, the party’s top organ, that Higher Education Minister William Ruto, the defacto leader of the ‘NO’ side be stripped of his Cabinet position as well as his party slot. He is the deputy party leader, alongside Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi.　

Wrestling match

"In a wrestling contest you don’t sit on someone forever once you have floored him, you extend a helping hand, but in a boxing match you don’t dare your opponent while you are still down by giving conditions that he would face the music once you get on your feet," said the PM.

The ‘NO’ group, which comprises politicians and a section of the clergy have demanded that their concerns in the new document be addressed immediately. But experts have dismissed such claims as premature.

Committee of Experts, who are behind the drafting of the document, last week said it was too early to start talking about amendments and that the earliest this can be raised is after ten years when the new laws will have been tested.

Ruto’s party, ODM, also said that the time for calling for amendments is not yet with the country as the institutions laid out to endorse such a move are not yet in place. Some amendments require approval by the Counties and the Senate.