Face-off: House clash over Kibaki list of nominees

By Standard Team

The standoff between President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga imploded in Parliament, but the final verdict on admissibility of the President’s list now lies with Speaker Kenneth Marende. The confrontation between President and PM who claims he was not consulted on the final list and who has since written to Marende seeking his intervention, played out in Parliament where both sides put up their case for and against the nominations.

After both sides prosecuted their case, which literally cast the image of a President and a PM washing their dirty linen in public through letting out the not so flattering discussions on who should take which position, Marende announced he would rule on Thursday at 2:30pm.

Marende’s ruling is now awaited with the same magnitude of interest as that he made last year after Kibaki and Raila once again locked horns over the President’s unilateral appointment of Vice- President Kalonzo Musyoka to be the Leader of Government Business and House Business Committee. Marende, who was in receipt of contradictory letters from Kibaki and Raila, threw the matter back to the principals with a further ruling the President’s action did not respect the spirit and letter of the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008.

"The matters canvassed before the House are a matter of great national importance. I am satisfied I have jurisdiction over the matters raised, and the ruling sought by Mr Gitobu Imanyara and supported by 17 other MPs. I have the locus standi to make the ruling. I will do so on Thursday at 2:30pm,’’ Marende ruled, and adjourned the sitting of the House.

Pattern of debate

In her debate, former Justice Minister Martha Karua captured the attention of the country when she called for sobriety in the House arguing the issue was bigger then Kibaki and Raila.

"The pattern of this debate is based on who is on the side if which principal. I am not in either side. I am on the side of the law and Kenya." She added: My conclusion is that there was no agreement between the two principals. The President got tired. The President cannot tire. On important matters the President cannot tire."

Lands Minister James Orengo said: "This is a new Kenya. You cannot expect to make a backroom appointment and expect to get away with it."

Kibaki, Raila spill the beans on their 'consultations'; Parlaiment turns into battlefield.

He added: "If approved some of these nominations will lead to some offices dominated by people from one region. In the State Law office the Attorney General, Solicitor General, deputy Solicitor General, and Registrar General would all come from Central Province."

The day was dramatic in the way Raila gave his account of the ‘consultations’ with the President, which in many aspects differed with Kibaki’s account of what transpired as told by Vice- President Kalonzo Musyoka in a 14-point statement later publicised by the Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua in the local dailies and his website. It described how the President sat at Harambee House on Friday between 12:30pm to 3pm waiting for Raila’s call from Addis Ababa. The President later left a number on which the PM could get him, then left for State House for lunch and another wait. "At 6pm, the State House Comptroller called the Prime Minister for the President to speak to him. Mr Caroli Omondi, (the PM’s administrative secretary), answered the Prime Minister’s phone. After consulting, Mr Caroli Omondi said the Prime Minister was busy and would call back after one and a half hours,’’ said Kalonzo, who read the pre-prepared statement on the President’s side.

Felt he consulted

It went on: "The President then felt that he had consulted extensively and had accommodated the Prime Minister and had fulfilled the constitutional requirements and therefore, made the announcement on Friday, January 28, at 8.30pm."

But whereas Kibaki’s account was that the consultations were long-drawn and adhered to the Constitution, it was glaring in the concession that he made the announcement after failing to get Raila’s final word, because he was apparently held up in the Africa Union Summit.

The PM said the announcement went against their agreement the discussions be deferred until the African Union summit and it was on this understanding that Raila left for Addis. Raila said the decision was taken after the President dismissed his proposal for a foreign lawyer for CJ, and the second on lawyer Pheroze Nowrojee on the basis he is an ‘activist’. He made the proposal, Raila said, after the President’s first nominee, Justice Kihara Kariuki, turned out to have been ranked number 21 among the High Court judges in the list provided by the Judiciary to the joint technical team, and that he was not even an Appellate Judge. Raila explained the President had pushed for Justice Kariuki on the basis he was a ‘reformer’.

Pecking order

He revealed the President rejected his proposal for a foreign CJ from the Commonwealth, arguing that 50 years after Independence, it would not go down well with Law Society of Kenya.

Kibaki’s argument, as told by the PM, was that Kihara was the best suited for the job, but Raila argued the current team of judges had not been vetted. But after he gave in to the President’s push for a local judge, he proposed that Justice RCS Omolo, who was ranked number one on the list of Appeal Court judges, takes it on the basis of seniority.

But after Raila’s departure and inaccessibility the President decided to go for a judge from ‘minority group’ for reasons on neutrality, in the process jumping over eight Appellate Judges, including Justice Phillip Tunoi and Justice Samuel Bosire who were ranked second and third after Omolo, and picked Justice Alnashir Visram.

The PM insisted as part of the trade-off the Kibaki side offered to strike off the President’s nominee of lawyer Fred Ojiambo as AG and allow Raila to pick his replacement, because Ojiambo was reportedly rated low on the basis of post-graduate training. The name, which came up was that of Githu Muigai, proposed by the technical teams representing both principals.