By TITUS TOO
The Orange Democratic Movement wars are taking a new dimension with revelation of a plot to oust Raila Odinga
as Prime Minister and replace him with Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
Behind the plot is an attempt to shield Ruto from investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Standard can reveal today.
Ruto’s allies believe it will be harder crisis in the coalition. The two can also opt to have the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) restart the process on a clean slate. If they settle for the latter option, the Executive would have to inform Kibaki would have to inform Speaker Kenneth Marende that the Parliament can stop deliberations on the list he forwarded.
Sources within the office of the President told The Standard on Sunday the two are expected to meet on Monday to resolve the crisis.
 |
| Confident more than half of ODM MPs are on his side, Eldoret North MP, William Ruto (Inset) seeks amendment to National Accord and PM post. |
A meeting has been planned for Monday at an undisclosed location," said the source.
And even as the two principals prepare to meet two parliamentary departmental committees are this morning set to kick off the task of interrogating the president’s decision to establish whether the head of state acted constitutionally or not.
Irrelevant talks But if the two principals agree on the way forward this morning on the matter, then the work of the two committees deliberations will be rendered irrelevant.
The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee chaired by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba and Finance, Planning and Trade headed by Nambale Chris Okemo have until Thursday to complete their work.
On Sunday, Namwamba said the moment the matter was referred to his committee, they embarked on preliminary preparations and that he had convened a meeting this morning.
"Our work as per the Speaker’s directive is to interrogate the constitutionality of the nominations and that is what we will deal with as a committee," he added.
The Budalang’i MP pointed out that the committee would not be carrying out any vetting of the nominations as alluded to in some quarters.
Fell under their pockets We are meeting for a specific task, to interrogate the constitutionality of the nominations and advise the House for members to be able to make a decision," he added.
Efforts to reach Okemo for comment were fruitless, but his deputy Professor Philip Kaloki told The Standard his committee is also meeting this morning to scrutinise the nomination of William Kirwa as the controller of Budget, since the matter fell under their docket.
"We shall restrict ourselves to our mandate and we know what the Speaker has requested us to do and we shall be able to comply and advise the house on the matter," he added.
The storm in the Grand Coalition Government was kicked off when Raila opposed the nominations to the key offices.
Dismissed nominations President Kibaki had nominated High Court Judge Alnashir Visram as CJ, Professor Githu Muigai as the next Attorney General , and veteran lawyer Kioko Kilukumi as Director of Public Prosecutions.
The President also nominated the current ADC Managing Director William Kirwa to take over as the new Controller of Budget.
The move sparked a row after Prime Minister Raila Odinga who was then in Addis Ababa attending an Africa Union meeting, dismissed the nominations saying he was not consulted as required by the constitution.
Both principals then played out their differences when the House reconvened last week, tearing into each over the nominations, a move that prompted Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara to seek a ruling from House Speaker Kenneth Marende over the matter.
The Speaker then ruled that the two departmental committees would deal with the matter.
Yesterday, former Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua insisted that the Constitution in this matter couldn’t be read selectively.
Past impunity "I do hope they will find that Schedule Six of the transitional clauses cannot be read alone, but must be read together with Article 166 where the Judicial Service Commission plays a role," he added.
Karua who is the Gichugu MP said Kenyans had voted for new Constitution because they wanted a fresh start and clean break with past impunity.
She pointed out the new constitutional dispensation demanded for a consultative and participatory approach to enable anybody who is qualified for a constitutional office to apply for it.
"The job of the Executive (presidency) in this new dispensation has been reduced because it is shared with Kenyans, and when we say the Judicial Service Commission has no role to play, then you are reverting to the past, and that is why we have a fight between the two principals, because they want to appoint their cronies," she added.
No comments:
Post a Comment