Annan applauds Speaker for ‘statesmanship’
Former UN chief Kofi Annan on Wednesday led the Panel of African Eminent Persons in applauding National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende’s ruling on the row over who should be the Leader of Government Business in Parliament.
Mr Annan, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and former Mozambique and South Africa First Lady Graça Machel also urged Kenyan leaders to put aside their partisan considerations and place the interests of Kenyans first.
“It is imperative that they recapture the spirit of reconciliation and healing needed to build a democratic, stable, peaceful and prosperous nation,” they told the leaders and all MPs in an e-mail to the Daily Nation on Wednesday evening. “We applaud the Speaker for his wisdom and statesmanship,” they added.
Outwitted
On Tuesday, Mr Marende outwitted the wrangling PNU and ODM politicians who have been jostling for the position of leader of Government Business by naming himself interim chairman of the House Business Committee, which decides the agenda and business of the House, as he awaits the two sides to agree on its leader.
He also repeated that his office had no capacity to decide who should be the leader of Government Business and left the issue to the Executive to decide. While President Kibaki, who is the PNU leader, had appointed Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to the post, Prime Minister Raila Odinga (ODM leader) had also written to the Speaker appointing himself to the post.
On Wednesday evening, Mr Annan, Ms Machel and Mr Mkapa said they had been following “with considerable concern the deadlock in the National Assembly over the post”, and called for reconciliation.
