Face to face: House reopens amid rift

• President and Prime Minister to meet for the first time since coalition feud broke

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga meet in public on Tuesday for the first time since their spat over the suspension of two Cabinet ministers two Sundays ago.

The two will come face to face as the President presides over the State opening of the Fourth Session of the 10th Parliament in the afternoon.
Mr Odinga, who is also the MP for Lang’ata, is expected to attend.

Swiftly overturned

Mr Odinga announced the suspension of Education minister Sam Ongeri and Agriculture minister William Ruto over corruption allegations, but the move was swiftly overturned by the President, sparking the standoff.

The Prime Minister reacted by declaring a dispute in the Grand Coalition Government and invited the chief mediator in the Kenya post-election crisis, Mr Kofi Annan, to intervene.

His ODM party also announced that it would boycott Cabinet meetings until the matter was resolved.

Mr Ruto is a deputy party leader in ODM and Prof Ongeri is allied to PNU.

On Monday, Mr Odinga and Mr Ruto met for the first time since the suspension was reversed by President Kibaki.

It was at a meeting of ODM Cabinet ministers that was held at the Treasury to review the agenda of the year.

Although the details of the meeting were unclear, sources said it was meant to cement relations ahead of Tuesday’s opening of Parliament and address various issues that have threatened to tear apart the party, which opinion polls rate as most popular in the country.

Last Wednesday the President and the Prime minister talked by telephone and agreed to meet once the latter returned from an official visit to Japan, but there have been disagreements since, on when the meeting should be convened.

On Tuesday in Parliament the President will deliver a regular policy statement which MPs will debate for four days.

The 220 MPs reconvene to a busy agenda, with the most onerous task being the constitutional review.

The House will be minus two MPs — Mr Omingo Magara (South Mugirango) and Mr Chirau Mwakwere (Matuga) — whose elections were nullified by the courts.

The experts who have been refining the revised draft are scheduled to return it to the Parliamentary Select Committee for tabling before the House for seven days of debate.