Kibaki, Raila to record meetings

Prime Minister Raila Odinga yesterday commended President Kibaki’s decision and said it had opened a new dimension in their consultations as they will seek new ways of recording the minutes of their meetings.
Paying tribute to Kibaki for “his courage” in withdrawing the controversial list, Raila said wise counsel had prevailed. Speaking in Kiswahili, the PM said “Kibaki ameona mwangaza (Kibaki has seen the light)” when he decided to withdraw the controversial list of nominees which had threatened to split the coalition government. “We have learnt from our mistakes and we hope to improve to avoid a situation where someone pretended to have minutes of a meeting between Kibaki and I which took place in camera,” said Raila in apparent reference to Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka who produced what he described as the minutes of the two principals consulting on the nominations.
Kalonzo produced “the minutes” to discount Raila’s claim that there had been no consultations before the announcement of the list of the nominees on January 28. Raila had earlier been expected to issue a hard-hitting response to President Kibaki’s statement last week.
In his statement, the President had insisted he had acted within the constitution when he announced the nominations. His statement came after two parliamentary committees inquiring into the matter returned a recommendation that the President had acted unconstitutionally and rejected the people he had nominated.
Kibaki’s decision to withdraw his list of nominees yesterday caught Raila off-guard and the PM delayed his press conference for half an hour to rework his statement. “He (PM) was basically going to maintain that Kibaki was wrong when he claimed that he had made the appointments as mandated by the constitution,” a source at Raila’s office said.
Raila said a panel of competent experts should be constituted to preside over the recruitment of the Budget Controller and Director of Public Prosecutions.
He said that the current Public Service Commission had not been reconstituted in the context of the new constitution and was therefore not competent in handling the recruitment. “The PSC should only play secretarial role to the panel of competent experts who will be conducting the recruitment exercise,” Raila added.
On the appointment of the AG, Raila said there was no rush as Amos Wako’s term ends in August, which gives the appointing authorities sufficient time to get his replacement.
And to ensure regional and gender balance, Raila suggested that all the pending constitutional appointments be made simultaneously and not piecemeal.
The constitutional offices still to be filled include the commissioners of the new Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the Controller and Auditor General, Inspector-General of Police and the Director of Intelligence.
Saying the President’s decision had vindicated the position he (Raila), the Judiciary, the two parliamentary committees and other credible government and civil society groups had taken, the PM blamed the Kibaki’s advisers for causing the fiasco that had embarrassed the Head of State. “I would say that the President’s advisers did not do their job properly and that’s why they left the king naked,” Raila said.
Raila criticised PNU leaders whom he accused of throwing tantrums and banging tables on national television, saying they were setting a bad example for the children. “We look very bad when we hit tables. I will advise them to keep their cool. What impression are we creating to that small kid in rural Kenya or wherever watching TV? We don’t want to bring up thugs,” Raila said.
Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta who has been leading the PNU offensive in the push to have the list of Kibaki nominees accepted was televised banging the table during a press conference held at Parliament Buildings last week. “They have decided to hit below the belt, but I say we have no business below there,” Raila said in apparent reference to Uhuru’s statements over the weekend which were exclusively reported by the Star and during which Uhuru insinuated that the ODM side of the coalition was taking advantage of President Kibaki.“Mareciria ati Kibaki ni kihii kiao? Ndari meciria makuga uria areenda? Alichaguliwa akiwa Rais anajua kile anafanya (They think that Kibaki is their uncircumcised boy? That he does not have his own head to make his own decisions? He was elected when he was already President and he knows what he is doing),” Uhuru said during the Sunday rally at Wangige.
Raila said he was not sure of the reports that some Israeli mercenaries were in town on ulterior motives. He said he had received a call from the Israeli ambassador to discuss the issue and had left the matter to the relevant authorities.