Corridors of Power

Saturday, 16 April 2011 00:03 BY POLITICAL DESK

Is there a problem at the Kenya Railways Pension Scheme again? We are told some board members are unhappy with the way chairperson Beryl Odinga, Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s, sister is leading them. The board members accuse the chair of, among other things, adopting a divide and rule attitude and withholding information. Now the disgruntled board members are planning to write a petition to the Minister for Finance and the people who nominated her to the board asking that she be replaced.
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Is PNU chairman George Saitoti headed for Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s side? We are told that there are people from the PM’s side who are quietly trying to woo the former Vice President. Those close to Saitoti are also understood to be responsive to the idea and have hinted to the mathematician that the numbers on the G7 side don’t favour him.
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Is there a quite fight between supporters of Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa and former Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang'ula? We are told that people close to the two have been telling President Kibaki’s advisers that each of them is better placed to be appointed to the cabinet. While Wetang'ula’s people are using the fact that their man has now taken over Ford-Kenya to push for their case, the Eugene side is using the G7 alliance to push for the MP’s elevation to the cabinet.
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There has been disquiet among the political class that the content of Elections Bill was being interfered with for the sole purpose of retaining particular commissioners of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission. Corridors heard that the matter has raised a lot of political heat within the political class and the civil society movement.
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Talking of civil society, a decisions has been made to go flat out on the support for Willy Mutunga for the position of the Chief Justice. As the only outsider from the judiciary seeking the top office, civil society activists believe he is best placed to deliver the much needed reforms. Mutunga is himself a pioneer civil society activist and a law scholar of repute.