Time to end the theatrics

House Speaker Kenneth Marende on Tuesday delivered one of the most important rulings ever in the National Assembly, but the reprieve could amount to little if the belligerent groups in the government carry on the factional warfare over control of the National Assembly.

In a clever decision, the Speaker himself took over temporary chairmanship of the House Business Committee, thereby ensuring that stalemate would not continue to paralyse proceedings of Parliament.

In doing so, he refused to rule in favour of the two factions of government, in effect telling President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to go sort out their differences so that the Executive presents a single nominee for Leader of Government Business and chair of the House Business Committee.

The widely-applauded decision presents both sides with a face-saving way out of the impasse. It also puts the pressure on the two principals to halt the infighting in the Coalition Government.

Take the cue

The onus is now on the President and the Prime Minister to take the cue from the Speaker and engage in the consultations envisaged under the power-sharing agreement.

Much depends, however, on how Mr Marende’s ruling is interpreted. Considering the acclaim it has attracted, any opposition would appear petty and churlish.

Prime Minister Odinga was quick to laud the decision, but his rival for the two positions at stake, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, was less charitable. In fact, the Vice-President said the ruling was an “assault on the Presidency”, continuing to insist that the appointment was the sole prerogative of the President.

On that score alone, there may well be the interpretation that the ruling was a defeat for President Kibaki’s PNU and a victory for Prime Minister Odinga’s ODM. But that would be a narrow interpretation.

The Speaker established an important precedent in ruling that, despite tradition — and under the terms of the National Accord — the President no longer has sole power to make such an appointment.

The upshot is that the post of Leader of Government Business will remain vacant and the Speaker will continue chairing the Business Committee until such a time that the government resolves its internal wars and presents mutually agreeable names. But whether the wars in government end remains the big question.

When it determined that it was being frozen out of real influence in the coalition government, yet being forced to carry part of the blame as citizens grew increasingly disenchanted, ODM embarked on a very deliberate strategy — to capture control of the Legislature.

That would have started with the posts of Leader of Government Business and chairmanship of House Business Committee.

Next phase

The next phase, still to come, will most likely involve a push to get the majority and chairmanship of the key House select committees and departmental committees.

Thus it is likely that, unless President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga move to resolve the deadlock, Parliament will continue to be the theatre of power struggles.