John Mbadi: We needed Raila Odinga in House
Cord leader Raila Odinga addresses journalists during their retreat at Maanzoni Lodge on August 17, 2015. He is accompanied by some of the National Executive Council members. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE |
What you need to know:
- Current Opposition heads in the House don’t have the ‘respect and drive’ Raila and Kalonzo would have commanded.
- Previously, presidential election losers had the chance to be in Parliament as MPs.
After the dust had settled and the Jubilee Coalition had taken office, Opposition chiefs came back from their post-election holiday and slowly began to adjust to the realities of their defeat.
Previously, presidential election losers would still be in parliament representing their and would automatically assumed the role of official opposition leader.
However, the Constitution changed all that and Cord principals, Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, must now follow proceedings like any other ordinary Kenyan, quite literally from outside the House after they found themselves in awkward positions.
House Minority Leader Francis Nyenze and ODM chairman John Mbadi concede it would have been better had the two principals been in the House.
Mr Mbadi said: “You cannot deny something would have been done differently. In a country like Kenya, I don’t think we’re mature enough to practice a pure presidential system.”
Political science lecturer Adams Oloo says the current Opposition heads in the House don’t have the “respect and drive” the two leaders would have commanded.
Ford Kenya party leader Moses Wetang’ula automatically became leader of the minority in the Senate and has done comparably better than Mr Nyenze in the National Assembly.
APPEARS DISORGANISED
Cord had thought it would get Mr Musyoka back to Parliament by having an MP from his Wiper party resign and have the former VP run in the by-election. But Cord could not find this “safe” constituency.
The second option was to have Mr Musyoka nominated to Parliament, but the nominated MPs were based on lists submitted to the electoral commission long before the election.
Being away from Parliament, the dominant feeling has been that the Opposition often appears disorganised and gets caught offguard in the House.
It happened earlier this month when the Jubilee Coalition marshalled its numbers and in a flash, threw out the report of the Public Accounts Committee on the hire of a jet used by Deputy President William Ruto in May 2013.
The report was delayed by 15 months and then it was flushed down in a hurry.
Mr Nyenze suggested a change to the law so that party leaders who don’t clinch the big seats in a General Election get automatic nomination to the House.
Dr Oloo said Kenyan parties have to adjust to the realities of a pure presidential system and build organised parties.
“Parties should look at the institution rather than the individual. That’s what happens in the US where it’s not the chairman of the Republican Party that is the presidential candidate,” he said.
