Monday, May 9, 2011

ODM 'ready' for dialogue over House team row

The ODM party says the decision to withdraw its members from the crucial House committee after one of its own, Budalangi's MP Mr Ababu Namwamba, pictured, was ousted from the chairperson’s seat -  was to give dialogue a chance. FILE
The ODM party says the decision to withdraw its members from the crucial House committee after one of its own, Budalangi's MP Mr Ababu Namwamba, pictured, was ousted from the chairperson’s seat - was to give dialogue a chance. FILE
By CAROLINE WAFULA
Posted  Monday, May 9 2011 at 16:16

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party says it is ready to hold dialogue with its coalition partners to resolve the stand-off over the leadership of the Justice and Legal Affairs committee of Parliament.
Related Stories
Two members of the party said on Monday the decision to withdraw its members from the crucial House committee was taken to give dialogue a chance.
This position, argued Gwassi MP Mr John Mbadi and Rarieda MP Mr Nicholas Gumbo, was arrived at after the ODM learnt of the plan to oust one of its own -- Budalangi’s Mr Ababu Namwamba from the chairperson’s seat.
“We therefore cal upon our coalition partners to dialogue with us in a bid to find solutions to this problem,” they stated at a press conference at Parliament.
Politics continued to play out in the parliamentary committee as the two legislators accused PNU of attempting to hijack the committee’s leadership for selfish interests.
Mr Mbadi chided the proposal to have Chepalungu’s Isaac Ruto take over from embattled Namwamba stating that it was mocking to Kenyans who pushed for enactment of a new Constitution.
“It is clear to us that those forces who have been opposed to the implementation of the new Constitution are regrouping to stall the new Constitution,” he said.
Mr Ruto was among a group of MPs that put up a spirited campaign against the new Constitution and Mr Mbadi argued that he can never be entrusted with steering such a crucial House committee.
“Our coalition partners have hatched a plot to have Mr Ruto head the committee, someone whop does not believe in the new Constitution and it is very ironic,” said Mr Mbadi.
According to Mr Mbadi, although the name of Kisumu Town West MP Mr Olago Aluoch had initially been flouted as Mr Namwamba’s replacement, the PNU partners had insisted at later meetings that it must be Mr Isaac Ruto, with claims that these were the wishes of the heavyweights in the party.
“What we are saying is that the PNU are dishonest. They want everything their way and if they don’t get it then they want to portray the ODM as the bad ones,” Mr Mbadi said.
That Mr Namwamba’s attack in the party became evident after a stand he took on the presidential appointments to the positions of the Chief Justice, Attorney General, Deputy of Public Prosecutions and Controller of Budget has left ODM convinced that this were the reasons that earned him the ongoing battle.
The MPs claimed PNU has deliberately ‘misinterpreted and twisted’ the motive of ODM’s decision to pull out its membership insisting that it only wanted to hold talks before the committee’s operations can carry on.
They insisted that there was room for political settlement in the current situation, arguing that the chairmanship of the committee was a negotiated position.
“It is important to note the House Business Committee is also a committee of the House just like the Justice and Legal Affairs committee and therefore to say that issues of the House committee cannot be solved through political dialogue and in the spirit of National Accord and Reconciliation Act is therefore in our view dishonest, arrogant and ill-motivated,” a statement said.
Mr Gumbo said the House Business Committee had discussed the matter on Tuesday and agreed to postpone the Mombasa political parties meeting that later aborted contrary to statements to the contrary by Vice President Mr Kalonzo Musyoka.
He accused the Registrar of Political Parties of selective application of the law, stating that she has failed to act on cases whereby party members have openly defied the party position and towed in other party lines, which is contrary to the Political Parties Act.
“If she is not going to take action, we will move to court because we hear she is seemingly getting instructions from someone else,” the MP said.

No comments:

Post a Comment