Spika wa bunge la Kenya afanya maamuzi mazito

[OgwaluMapesa]

House speaker Hon Keneth Marende has ruled that he will serve as chairmanof House Business Comitee for an interim period

His rule come after a week of stalled House Business after coaliation partner PNU and ODM claim to the two position

PNU held that Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka should serve in the position, while strongest party ODM insisted that prime Minister Hon Raila Amolo Odinga should serve as a chairman

 

[Fundi Mchundo]

Uamuzi mzito au kakwepa kuamua?
Amandla........

 

[Baba_Enock]

Hapo hamna uamuzi mzito - ni mwendelezo wa utawala uliooza barani Africa. Huu ni uhuni tu

 

[Mambo Jambo]

Hakuna maamuzi hapo....kakimbia kivuli tuu..

 

[Nsololi]

Siyo uamuzi mzito ila nadhani tuite kama uamuzi wa busara, kwani kaondoa ugonvi usio wa lazima.

By the way, hawakuweka utaratibu wakati wanagawana madaraka???

 

[Mambo Jambo]

Siyo uamuzi mzito ila nadhani tuite kama uamuzi wa busara, kwani kaondoa ugonvi usio wa lazima.

By the way, hawakuweka utaratibu wakati wanagawana madaraka???

Kaka utaratibu africa ni kuvunja utaratibu...........yani huo ndiyo utaratibu wetu..........idumu africa

 

[Mwikimbi]

Lakini angalau amejaribu ku-balance situation, kinyume na viongozi wengine hapa afrika

 

[Ab-Titchaz]

What Marende's ruling means for Kenya coalition​

​

National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende on Tuesday threw the controversy over who should lead the powerful House Business Committee back to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

But he also delivered a ruling that asserted the National Accord, which ended the post-election violence early last year, and attacked the powers of the President to make public appointments unilaterally.

Mr Marende temporarily took over the chairmanship of the committee which determines the agenda for parliamentary proceedings, but said he would relinquish the post when the President and PM finally agree on who should be Leader of Government Business.

Ended stalemate

In doing so, Mr Marende ended the stalemate which had stalled business in the House after Mr Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka both claimed the right to be Leader of Government Business.

"Honourable Members, with profound respect, and much regret, I therefore rule that the Speaker will await the name of one minister consensually designated by the government as the Leader of Government Business," Mr Marende said.

He added: "I have taken these extraordinary measures in the firm belief that the extraordinary situation in which this House, and by extension, this country finds itself in, calls for them. In so doing, I have been guided by what I believe to be in the best interests of this House and our nation."

President Kibaki had followed tradition and written to Mr Marende nominating Mr Musyoka both as Leader of Government Business and chairman of the House Business Committee. But Mr Odinga had written another letter naming himself to the post by virtue of being coordinator and supervisor of government functions.

The wrangling had stalled proceedings in the House for a week because there was no committee to set the agenda for Parliament. Three Cabinet meetings were also cancelled because of the wrangles.

Reacting to Tuesday's ruling, Mr Musyoka said the PNU Coalition would seek interpretation of the dispute by the Constitutional court. Mr Odinga welcomed the pronouncement and said the two principals should not wait for the Speaker to tell them what they should do.

Mr Marende gave the examples of the German, Tanzanian, Ugandan, Indian and New Zealand parliaments as some of the countries where the Speaker chairs the House Business Committee.
He regretted that his attempts to meet President Kibaki and Mr Odinga to resolve the matter had been unsuccessful.

In a 62-minute ruling that was widely hailed by MPs as a wise decision, Mr Marende unlocked the one-week deadlock that had paralysed Parliament's business and threatened the government's stability.

The Speaker threw a wild card, surprising the MPs when he declared himself the chairman of the House Business Committee, pending the nomination of a bona fide chair by the government. But Mr Musyoka who has been Leader of Government Business since 10th Parliament was inaugurated more than a year ago, dismissed the ruling as "an assault on the Presidency".

"The consultation called for was false, since the President has the power to appoint the Leader of Government Business," he said.

Mr Musyoka said PNU would move to court to get an interpretation of the relationship between the National Accord and the Constitution.

The VP, who throughout the debate on HBC, sat on the chair reserved for the Leader of Government Business, said the Speaker's ruling had "set a bad precedent".

And in welcoming the ruling, Mr Odinga, who has now joined the House Business Committee said: "The matter should not even have come here (to Parliament) since there should have been consultations between the President and myself… they (Kibaki side of the government) should stop behaving as if this is the old government." Mr Odinga, who was not in Parliament during the debate, said the matter will be handled by the Permanent Committee on the Management of the Grand Coalition.

He asked the government to consult and move with speed to determine the leader of its business in the House, saying his decision was guided by what he believed to be the best interest of Parliament and the nation.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/592236/-/u65k8q/-/index.html

 

[Ab-Titchaz]

The truth behind Kibaki-Raila feud

By GITAU WARIGI and SAMWEL KUMBAPosted Saturday, April 25 2009 at 21:54


In Summary

• President says issue of Leader of Government Business closed
• Differences between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga over who should be Leader of Government Business in the House show no signs of being resolved as their lieutenants harden positions

Coalition partners ODM and PNU remained hopelessly divided on Saturday over the raging dispute over the Leader of Government Business that has paralysed Parliament.

The political temperature is likely to rise on Sunday when PNU leaders address a press conference at Serena Hotel in Nairobi to respond to Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

On Saturday, it emerged that the standoff in the House last week was a sign of a deeper struggle over control of government affairs.

On the one hand, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has identified Parliament as the perfect launch pad for its new strategy to force President Kibaki and his Party of National Unity (PNU) to consult the Prime Minister as an equal partner in the Grand Coalition government.

On the other PNU views the move as targeted at grabbing presidential powers, a form of a "civilian coup" against the President.

At the heart of the dispute is the position of Leader of Government Business in Parliament, which is being claimed by Mr Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka.

The President wrote to the House Speaker Kenneth Marende endorsing Mr Musyoka for the position, but Mr Odinga sent another letter stating that as supervisor of government affairs, he was the rightful holder of the post.

The standoff paralysed parliamentary business for two days this week as MPs from both sides argued on who between the President and PM should appoint the Leader of Government Business.

On Thursday, Mr Marende announced that he would rule on the issue on Tuesday, if the two principals would not have arrived at an amicable solution.

Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka met on Saturday for the first time since the feud broke out at the funeral of James Kiprop Bett in Eldoret but steered clear of the vexing issue in their speeches to mourners.

In interviews with a cross-section of politicians, the Sunday Nation has established that the position of Leader of Government Business which holds the key to the control of parliamentary business, is so crucial to the PNU side that ceding it will be tantamount to surrendering the House to ODM.

Weaker position

Pro-PNU politicians who spoke to the Sunday Nation noted that their rivals enjoy a majority in Parliament which means that if the Orange leader were to head government business in the House, the President will be left in a weaker position as he may not have control of Parliamentary business.

And last evening State House issued a Press statement saying that the President was not ready to negotiate over the matter.

"Having executed (his) Constitutional responsibility, His Excellency the President considered the matter closed and therefore deemed further consultations on the matter as unnecessary," the PPS statement read.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said there was nothing to negotiate over the two positions while ODM chairman Henry Kosgey said his party would not relent in its quest for the position. He accused PNU of mistreating the Orange party.

Said Mr Kenyatta: "The truth of the matter, even in the last session, it was the President who appointed the Leader of Government Business who became the chair of the HBC. It is his constitutional right to do so," Mr Kenyatta said.

The minister said that a critical look at the National Accord shows that Mr Odinga signed for ODM while the President signed for Government/PNU.

DAILY NATION*- The truth behind Kibaki-Raila feud