Confusion in House as Nigerian President makes historic speech

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan(right) with the Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi when he came to addresses Kenya's 11th parliament on September 6, 2013. He is the first foreign head of state to address the 11th Parliament. JENNIFER MUIRURI (NAIROBI)

What you need to know:

  • The MPs were also not really aware how they were supposed to dress. When Starehe’s Maina Kamanda realised that majority of his colleagues were in ties, he stepped out and came back in one.

Soon after the special but stormy sitting of the House on Thursday, MPs began to receive a message on their phones.

Such messages are not unusual. On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, for example, both Cord and Jubilee MPs were invited to parallel parliamentary group meetings.

Thursday evening’s message was however different: “Be advised that (President Goodluck Jonathan) will address an informal sitting of the National Assembly at Parliament Building tomorrow…President Uhuru Kenyatta requests you to join them.”

And so it was that yesterday, at a few minutes past 3 pm, they started gathering at the chamber for the first address by a foreign Head of State to the Kenyan Parliament.

The red carpet had been laid and security was a notch higher than usual but there were not enough of the Recce Unit of the General Service Unit to suggest that the President would attend the session.

Ties dilemma

The MPs were also not really aware how they were supposed to dress. When Starehe’s Maina Kamanda realised that majority of his colleagues were in ties, he stepped out and came back in one.

Dagoretti North’s Simba Arati walked in a few minutes late in a long coat and what appeared to be a waistcoat underneath. Muslim MPs were in kanzu preferred on Fridays and which are allowed in Parliament.

The President would have been disappointed if he had showed up because there were less than half of the usual number, with a few Senators also in attendance as this was a joint sitting.

House rules allow for the Speaker, in consultation with the Leader of the Majority Party and the Leader of the Minority Party, to allow a visiting Head of State to address the assembly, and, in consultation with the Speaker of the Senate arrange for a joint sitting of Parliament for that.

Like the address by the President, the dignitary’s address “shall be heard in silence and the address shall not be followed by any comment or question” meaning MPs can neither interject with points of order nor comment afterwards.

The mood was far different from the previous day and they chatted idly and waited patiently for the visiting president.

Their reactions to his speech were unlike those from Thursday, where the Cord MPs stormed out and Deputy Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo called his Jubilee counterparts “thieves”.

They thumped the floor at intervals as President Jonathan read his well-written speech.

“In 2007, we had elections in this beautiful country and certain things happened that nobody was happy about. No Kenyan was happy.... In 2013, that’s almost six years later, Kenyans conducted another election. And the peaceful elections conducted earlier this year and the emergence of a new government has been able to communicate to the rest of the world that Kenyans are able to solve their own problems.”

It was obvious not everybody in the chamber were happy with that. As their Cord counterparts remained mute, the Jubilee MPs thumped the floor happily along.