President Mwai Kibaki (centre), suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto (left) and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta during a rally at 64 Stadium in Eldoret town on January 21, 2011. Mr Ruto on Sunday led a section of Rift Valley MPs in declaring that they will fight House Speaker Kenneth Marende’s ruling in Parliament on Tuesday. Photo/FILE
By NATION TEAMPosted Sunday, February 20 2011 at 22:42
Parliament could be set for a showdown on Tuesday as politicians allied to President Kibaki’s PNU continued to take hard-line positions over House Speaker Kenneth Marende’s ruling against nominations to four constitutional offices.
PNU MPs and their allies in the rebel wing of ODM led by suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto are vowing to revisit last Thursday’s ruling that found unconstitutional President Kibaki’s nominations for new Chief Justice, Attorney-General, Director of Public Prosecutions and Controller of Budget. (Read: Marende: Sorry, go back and try again)
Bring new list
MPs allied to Mr Ruto declared the rising of the House on Tuesday afternoon as “a day of reckoning”.
Mr Marende returned the matter to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, urging them to follow the law and bring a new list to the House for vetting and approval.
However, MPs loyal to the President now want to push for a censure motion against the Speaker as well as a motion to overturn the ruling. But MPs from Mr Odinga’s ODM and civil society groups have hailed Mr Marende’s ruling.
To debate the Speaker’s conduct, MPs have to do so through a motion whose notice must be given three days in advance as specified in Standing Order 79 (1).
It is not clear if MPs threatening to censure Mr Marende have complied with this condition. The MPs will also require the support of 167 legislators in order to censure the Speaker.
Lawyer Elisha Ongoya said in an interview in Nakuru that a ruling by the National Assembly Speaker is not, by Commonwealth tradition, subject to appeal.
“As experts in this field, we are waiting to see how Parliament will handle this because there is no precedent for this matter. You cannot overturn the Speaker’s ruling,” he said.
Mr Ongoya added that it would be extremely difficult for the aggrieved MPs to remove the Speaker because of the high threshold needed for such an action.
Don’t have numbers
“I don’t think it would reach that stage, but again they don’t have the numbers to remove him,” he said, adding that a total of 75 per cent or 167 members are required by law to unseat the Speaker.
In 1996, MP James Orengo, now Lands minister, filed a motion that sought to censure then Speaker Francis ole Kaparo. However, it was defeated.
The PNU MPs have also threatened to file a motion in Parliament on Tuesday seeking to reverse Thursday’s ruling.
They did not say what Standing Order they are going to use to push the motion through. For any motion to be filed in Parliament, it requires the approval of the Speaker or his deputy.
However, PNU vice-chairman Jamleck Kamau said on Sunday that there were no plans to censure Mr Marende and that they would only seek to reverse his ruling.
“We will debate the ruling and if reason prevails and majority of members support it, we will reverse the ruling,” Mr Kamau said by phone.
He said PNU believes the Speaker’s decision was not independent and that he also erred by making the ruling after 6.30pm.
MPs George Nyamweya (nominated) and Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaragwa) accused the Speaker of having been influenced by Prime Minister Raila.
They claimed that in making the ruling, the Speaker “had elevated the Prime Minister above the President” contrary to the National Accord.
But Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka on Sunday downplayed the ongoing wrangles in the coalition government.
Mr Musyoka said President Kibaki’s direction that the constitutionality of the matter be determined by the Constitutional Court should assure the country that the President respects the rule of law, and that he had chosen the best way to handle the crisis.
MPs allied to Mr Ruto said they are ready to take on Mr Marende, claiming the Speaker had become an agent of Mr Odinga rather than a neutral arbiter.
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