Aden Duale’s sharp tongue has earned him both friend and foe

There is no doubt now that National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale has emerged as one of the power men of the Jubilee administration and a crucial cog in the presidential system of government.

As the first majority leader of the bigger and busier of the two Houses of Parliament, Mr Duale has grown from being a peripheral member of the ODM rebels of the Tenth Parliament to an influential member of the Eleventh Parliament.

In and out of the House, the busy and hardworking MP for Garissa Town has become famous, or infamous, depending on whom you ask, for his abrasive and plain-speaking manner as well as for his obstinacy and resolve to ensure that he never has to eat his words or regret saying something.

Those who know him were not surprised that he chose a public meeting where even foreigners were present to take on Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto over the push by governors to increase the devolved governments’ share of national revenue.

HEIGHT OF RUDENESS

The verbal encounter became the talk of the week and the topic of numerous discussions on television and for some an apt illustration of how low Kenyan politics can sink.

That an elected representative could tell another in public that taxpayers’ money sio ya mama yako (is not your mother’s money) was taken to be the height of rudeness.

Still, Mr Duale is convinced that he was doing the right thing, and Mr Ruto, who heads the Council of Governors, has been begging for exactly such a telling-off for his crusading against the Jubilee Coalition of which he is still a member.

“When one says “Si ya mamako, si ya baba yako” it’s not an insult, but a proverb to stress an opinion that “It’s not your property,” he said on Twitter.

“What I said was blown out of context. I have a lot of respect for Kenyan mothers and even the mother of Isaac Ruto. My context was that in our country we have two resources, personal or family, in which the auditor-general has no business and public resources, which every State Officer starting with the President, must be accountable to the Auditor-General,” he told the Sunday Nation.

Mr Duale accuses Mr Ruto of “portraying himself as the alpha and omega of devolution when the same Isaac Ruto had issues with the money meant for the devolved government of Bomet.”

THREATENED TO SUE

Mr Ruto has explained to journalists the source of the claim by Mr Duale, taken from a report of the auditor-general, that Sh185 million had been misappropriated during the transition phase.

He has also threatened to sue Mr Duale.

Others felt the matter went beyond Mr Ruto and marked the highest point of hubris.

“I didn’t sleep last night after I saw what Duale said on television,”  Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma said at a press conference at Parliament Buildings on Tuesday.

“His tongue is getting too loose for the topmost leader of the National Assembly,” he said.

“Duale has proven he doesn’t have the intellectual strength to go with the position he holds. If that money we want comes from taxes, then our mothers pay taxes. If they don’t pay taxes, they have nurtured and enabled us to pay taxes,” said the angry Mr Kaluma.

Mr Duale and Mr Kaluma have never been the best of friends.