Why the Principals must rein in wayward ministers
What you need to know:
- The power-sharing agreement means that each Cabinet minister owes his position and loyalty to either one of the two principals.
Conventional wisdom holds that this so-called Grand Coalition creature is weak for lack of an effective centre of power, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga, and their respective factions, pulling in different directions.
How then does one explain the travesty witnessed last week over the issue of post-election violence masterminds?
The President and the Prime Minister have all along been united in the conviction that those who planned, financed and directed mass murder, arson, rape, evictions and other serious crimes in the wake of the disputed elections must face justice under a special local tribunal.
But despite what we have been told are the views of the two principals, the Cabinet threw out the proposal that would make those responsible to answer for their crimes. Instead came the limp proposal for such the evil deeds to be handled as part of the truth, justice and reconciliation process.
Nobody buys the fiction that the TJRC hearings will try and punish the criminals. Nobody buys the fiction either that an undefined process of reconciliation and forgiveness will end the impunity that breeds tyrants and warlords forever unleashing ethnic cleansing every time selfish personal political and commercial interests are threatened.
The coalition government is, of course, a difficult creature to manage. President Kibaki may be the appointing authority, but he cannot sack, suspend or otherwise discipline a Cabinet minister who is inefficient, ineffective, defiant, corrupt, lazy, a wife-beater, drug-dealer, paedophile, violent or a combination of all these.
For any minister to be removed, there must be agreement in writing between the two principals.
The power-sharing agreement, in any case, means that each Cabinet minister owes his position and loyalty to either one of the two principals.
When the two put aside narrow partisan differences, however, they share unbridled power to fire and hire.
If they are agreed on what do with criminals in their midst or how to reclaim the vital Mau forest from buccaneers in high office, one must wonder why they do not get tough.
It would take just a few sackings to make clear that ministers who refuse to toe the line or try to raise the threat of renewed violence, will be summarily dismissed.
Each by himself, may be a lame duck, but if President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga work in unison, they can re-instill discipline and order in the Cabinet and across the entire body-politic.
Having endured a defiant cabinet throwing out even well-meaning proposals, both the president and prime minister must surely be aware that it is urgent they assert themselves.
They can only do this by firing those who will be emboldened to forever employ blackmail and threats in pursuit of narrow and selfish aims.
President Kibaki will not be running for office again, so he does not have to stroke anyone’s ego. He has a legacy to worry about.
Then there is the Prime Minister, who definitely wants a stab at power come 2012. But Mr Odinga has told us and the world, that in pursuit of truth and justice he will not cower under threats, intimidation and blackmail.
On the Mau Forest saga, in particular, and his feud with Agriculture minister William Ruto, Mr Odinga bravely declared that he would not wilt under the threat of withdrawal of political support.
He stressed that he was willing to sacrifice his political career if that was what it took to save the Mau from total destruction.
The stand, in fact, won Mr Odinga a great deal of mileage. Even those who have always looked at him with a jaundiced eye rose to salute a brave and principled stand.
Mr Odinga may have lost the political support of a few selfish characters, but he won the respect and admiration of many more Kenyans.
The lesson here is that ultimately, the constituency to worry about is the larger public good, rather than a handful of politicians.
If the president and the prime minister cannot whip the Cabinet into line, then they must sack all the saboteurs within and appoint those who will abide by truth, morality, justice, and respect the aims, needs and expectations of the wider public.
If after that, Parliament still places hurdles on the way to vital reform, then President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga must take their proposal to the general public.
It would be interesting to see which individual MP will be foolish enough to be seen allowing personal interests to override the public good.
