Kenyan
Wrangles
in Kenyan Government
By
JOSEPH OJWANG.
The continuing war of words within
Kenya's ruling party, the National rainbow coalition (NARC) are driven by a
strong split within its diverse factions over presidential power and the
sharing of cabinet posts among its members. These intrigues have beset NARC
since its inception in December 2002.
The war in the coalition has focused
on the contentious Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed during its
formation but has not been fulfilled to date.
The pre-election MoU, signed by the
15 political parties, was a power sharing agreement to apportion government
positions on an equal basis between NARC's two major blocs, the NAK and the
LDP- the rebel offshoot from the former ruling party KANU. But the agreement is
now seen by many as the mastermind of wrangles within the government.
MoU was forged when some members of
parliament allied to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) began threatening to
pull out of the coalition in the coming general elections scheduled for 2007.
Before the LDP came on the scene,
the National Alliance of Kenya (NAK) had its own memorandum signed between the
Ford Kenya, National Party of Kenya, Democratic Party and 11 other minor
parties committing themselves to go into elections as one entity. The belated
decision to forge a coalition with LDP was not approved by the NAK Council
which was the highest policy-making body.
The MoU states that both NAK and LDP
are equal partners whose equality shall be reflected in the power sharing
arrangement in the Cabinet of the NARC Government. Clearly, the dispute is over
the understanding of the word "equitable." According to some LDP
members, it means the sharing of cabinet positions on a 50-50 basis.
The MoU designated Mwai Kibaki as
the NARC presidential candidate and ultimate president, the late former Vice
President Michael Wamalwa as his running mate and Roads and Housing minister
Raila Odinga as Prime Minister, as well as several other deputy and ministerial
positions.
After wining a landslide election in
2002 that shoved KANU out, each and every member was awarded his/her promised
position, leaving Roads and Housing minister Raila Odinga who was to assume the
office of Prime Minister in his post as a cabinet minister in the Kibaki
government. The office of Prime Minister has not been created and it still
remains vacant. The diehards of LDP did not take this well and have on several
occasssions warned the sitting president, Mwai Kibaki, that the writings are on
the wall that the marriage will be subjected to a divorce come 2007.
The post of Prime Minister which has
created a tug of war in the rewriting of a new constitution in the country is
being viewed as a Luo affair (Luo is the third largest community in
Analysts observe that the governing
coalition has split along party and largely ethnic lines, with those closest to
the president keen to retain a strong presidency.
Recently, at the constitutional
conference, most of the 629 delegates - including three cabinet ministers
namely Raila Odinga, Ochilo Ayacko and Najib Balala - voted to trim
presidential powers against the government's wishes, proposing the creation of
a prime minister's post after the next elections in 2007.
Some government members led by
Constitutional Affairs minister Kiraitu Murungi announced the government's withdrawal
from the conference following that vote.
A mass walk out was conducted by
most MPs allied to NAK including the Vice president Moody Awori who is a LDP
member.
These are some of the factors
forcing LDP to front their candidate for presidency in the first year of a five
year term. But the LDP team does not see this as a detriment. They have been
selling the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kalonzo Musyoka, as their running
president in the 2007 general elections.
This sends a message to the president
that should he persist in not honoring the controversial MoU, a cross section
of his coalition government will walk out in protest and give him a run for his
money in the next election.
The move has been floated by most
MPs one of them being MP Engineer Peter Owidi who insisted that it would be a
blunder of the year should they approach elections as a NARC party.
But the question that lingers on
people's lips is whether they will retreat in case the president bows to
pressure and creates the post of a prime minister
The government has repeatedly promised that
the country's 40-year old constitution, which dates back to independence from
Joseph
Ojwang is a correspondent for
Change-Links based in