What PM was to say before Kibaki address
Prime Minister Raila Odinga was set to escalate the row over the nominations to key State jobs by hitting directly at President Kibaki before the latter retreated.
Sources at the PM’s office opened the lid on the statement that Mr Odinga never read on Tuesday following the decision by the President to recall the list of nominations minutes before the scheduled press conference. (Read: Raila to address nation over nominations)
The PM was to argue that the business of making unilateral decisions on national matters was no longer agreeable under the new Constitution.
“No one can do as anyone wishes any more,” he was to say in apparent reference to the President.
The spirit of cooperation between the Grand Coalition partners, he was to say, had been broken by the President’s actions.
Mr Odinga had called a press conference for 4pm on Tuesday to address the matter but President Kibaki withdrew the names at 3.42pm. (Read: Kibaki withdraws list of nominees)
“I have had to recast my statement following the developments that have taken place in the course of the day,” he told reporters at his Shell/BP House offices.
He was referring to the step by the President to withdraw his list of nominees for the positions of the Chief Justice (CJ), Attorney General (AG), Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Controller of Budget for fresh head hunting.
President Kibaki said the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) would recruit the CJ, the Public Service Commission (PSC) to shortlist the nominees for the DPP and the Controller of Budget, leaving him and the PM to consult over the AG’s position.
It was a major change of heart from his earlier position that his list was proper and that only the law courts, not the Speaker of the National assembly, could have the final say. Mr Odinga had insisted that he was not consulted on the nominations.
On Wednesday, the Nation sought out the details of the statement that was never read and found that it was a firm declaration that the coalition partners were under obligation to consult over the nominations.
In the statement, Mr Odinga argued that one part of the government could not make decisions that were binding to the whole country.
He said neither leaders, MPs nor a group of people could lay claim to the nominations without the participation of the public.
The move by PNU and its leaders to push for a one-sided list of nominees, he declared, had broken the spirit of cooperation in the Grand Coalition.
“Sovereignty is vested in the people of Kenya. Not in the leaders, not in the members of Parliament, not in a section of the population, not in any part of the government.
“It is that spirit which has so far ensured a productive relationship between the parties in government. That spirit was recently broken,” he was to state.
Mr Odinga was to state that the impasse could be solved by the two principals if they decided to meet and work the way forward.
“I have repeatedly stated that there is no reason for me not to sit with the President to resolve this matter,” he was to say.
The PM was to remind PNU MPs that the new Constitution and the National Accord had given the country’s institutions the independence to make decisions and that was why they had rejected the list of nominees.
He was referring to the ruling by National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende, Attorney General Amos Wako’s opinion, the JSC’s view and the pronouncement by the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) that the nominations were unconstitutional.
“The Constitution and the National Accord which is part of it are truly people-empowering charters, thanks to which so many of our institutions have begun to exhibit an independence never before seen in our history,” he was to state.
President Kibaki had stuck to his nomination of Justice Alnashir Visram as CJ, Prof Githu Muigai (AG), Mr Kioko Kilukumi (DPP) and Mr William Kirwa (Controller of Budget). (Read: Kibaki insists nominations legal)
