Parliament awaits ruling on Kibaki-Raila row

President Kibaki’s aides were on Wednesday evening trying to convince Parliament’s committees to accept the list of nominees for four top government jobs, while Prime Minister Raila’s men were urging that the list be rejected.

The fate of the list will be decided on Thursday by Speaker Kenneth Marende.

While President Kibaki’s team urged the two committees to approve the names, officers from the PM’s office called for their rejection on grounds that they were an outcome of an unconstitutional process.

The House committees on Justice and Legal Affairs and the Finance and Planning were burning the midnight oil amid deep political differences in a bid to prepare reports to be tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

The reports are expected to consider the constitutionality of the procedure that was employed in the nominations and the credibility of the people who have been designated to become the next Chief Justice , the Attorney General , the Director of Public Prosecutions and Controller of Budget.

On Wednesday evening, the committee of Justice chaired by Budalangi Ababu Namwamba was taking last submissions from the Commission on Implementation of the Constitution over the nominations of Court of Appeal Judge Alnashir Visram to serve as the next CJ, lawyer Githui Muigai (AG) and lawyer Kioko Kilukumi (DPP).

The committee on Finance, Trade and Planning headed by Nambale MP Chris Okemo which examined the nomination of Mr William Kirwa as the Controller of Budget will sit on Thursday morning to finalise its report.

The two committees were handed the task by Mr Marende who declined to rule on the constitutionality of the list of nominees submitted by President Kibaki last week. (Read: Speaker declines to make ruling over nominees)

Mr Raila Odinga wrote to the Speaker denouncing the names arguing that he was not consulted as required by the Constitution and the National Accord. (Read: Why I reject new Chief Justice)

On Wednesday, Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, Presidential advisor of constitutional issues Kivutha Kibwana and the President’s private secretary Nick Wanjohi told the Justice committee that President Kibaki wants Parliament to approve the list to fast track implementation of the Constitution.

“The President would like you to approve these names and push the reform agenda forward,” Mr Muthaura told the committee which was sitting at Nairobi’s County Hall.

In a fresh twist to the controversy, the President’s men revealed that the PM’s Chief of Protocol, Mr Caroli Omondi, was the one who pushed the two principals to go ahead with the nominations without advertising them.

Mr Muthaura said Mr Omondi “argued convincingly” that to advertise the positions was tantamount to wishing away the constitutional powers of the two principals to pick nominees during the transition period.

But Mr Omondi and the PM’s advisor on coalition affairs, Mr Miguna wa Miguna asked MPs to reject the names for the procedure to start a fresh.

They declared that Mr Odinga was not consulted and described the list as an outcome of an unconstitutional procedure. “If you find that the decision was not consistent with the Constitution, then you should reject it,” said Mr Miguna.

“Had the Prime Minister submitted names to Parliament, would Parliament have accepted them, because this is a coalition government? If the answer is ‘no’, then what’s the basis of going ahead with this nominations?”

Mr Omondi argued that the question of constitutionality of the nominations was not a matter of the House to vote on.

He cited last week’s ruling by the Speaker and even attempted to tell the committee that they ought not go ahead with the exercise before, in the first place, determining the constitutionality of the issue.

“We don’t think constitutional interpretation can be determined through voting in any organ,” Mr Omondi insisted. The principals’ intention, he said, was to go for the “White House model where people are identified and recruited competitively.”

But he said the PM was presented with a list that was never amended in the discussions and was not even allowed to propose names.

“The PM never even had the opportunity to give the women of this country a chance, and that’s why we’re here,” the PM’s Chief of Staff said.

“When we look back, probably it was the wrong decision and we’ve no problem changing tack.”

Signs of deep political differences between PNU and ODM were displayed when Justice committee members George Nyamweya and Amina Abdallah of PNU clashed with their ODM counterparts Olago Aluoch and Millie Odhiambo during Wednesday's session.