Kibaki, Odinga are still planets apart!
EDITOR—A conflict of roles and a jostling for power between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga were the reason Kenya’s cabinet of national unity could not be named as scheduled. Their decision to request former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for further intervention unders
EDITOR—A conflict of roles and a jostling for power between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga were the reason Kenya’s cabinet of national unity could not be named as scheduled. Their decision to request former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for further intervention underscores the obvious: that Kibaki and Odinga are still planets apart.
Hoodwinked, Odinga sees himself as having an equal executive role. Kibaki wants him just to submit a list of ODM MPs ‘to be considered’ for cabinet posts without having a say who gets which portforlio, making it clear the president is the sole appointing authority. The ODM is demanding key cabinet and civil service slots the PNU is unwilling to relinquish.
Odinga’s proposal for the creation of cabinet positions that make no sense like ministries of ‘national cohesion’ and ‘rice enterprises’ reveals confusion and desperation on the part of a former presidential candidate who now realises he has no jobs to dish out to most of the MPs, party activists and fellow tribesmen he promised appointments during electioneering.
To create redundant cabinet positions that make no sense just to satisfy the desire of power-hungry individuals as Odinga wants, would leave the existing ministries like that of agriculture with no work to do.
The Bush administration’s blank cheque, on which an initial remittance of sh160b has already been made from the US Treasury Department to Kenya, to pay the salaries and ‘benefits’ for the prime minister and all other ODM’s side of the unity cabinet is a corrupt appropriation of the American taxpayers’ money. All this money should be spent on relief and reconstruction.
Another source of disagreement between the PNU and ODM is the allocation of resources for the prime minister: a new jet for Odinga’s foreign trips, two helicopters and a fleet of limousines for his internal travels and a mansion as his official residence. Kibaki maintains there is no provision for a co-president and ‘a second centre of executive power’.
This kind of corrupt spending of taxpayers’ money would expose the real Odinga—a wolf who came in sheepskin. Kibaki, who told voters that Odinga has no vision for the country, could turn out vindicated by Odinga’s spending blunder.
Bosire Mosi
United States
Hoodwinked, Odinga sees himself as having an equal executive role. Kibaki wants him just to submit a list of ODM MPs ‘to be considered’ for cabinet posts without having a say who gets which portforlio, making it clear the president is the sole appointing authority. The ODM is demanding key cabinet and civil service slots the PNU is unwilling to relinquish.
Odinga’s proposal for the creation of cabinet positions that make no sense like ministries of ‘national cohesion’ and ‘rice enterprises’ reveals confusion and desperation on the part of a former presidential candidate who now realises he has no jobs to dish out to most of the MPs, party activists and fellow tribesmen he promised appointments during electioneering.
To create redundant cabinet positions that make no sense just to satisfy the desire of power-hungry individuals as Odinga wants, would leave the existing ministries like that of agriculture with no work to do.
The Bush administration’s blank cheque, on which an initial remittance of sh160b has already been made from the US Treasury Department to Kenya, to pay the salaries and ‘benefits’ for the prime minister and all other ODM’s side of the unity cabinet is a corrupt appropriation of the American taxpayers’ money. All this money should be spent on relief and reconstruction.
Another source of disagreement between the PNU and ODM is the allocation of resources for the prime minister: a new jet for Odinga’s foreign trips, two helicopters and a fleet of limousines for his internal travels and a mansion as his official residence. Kibaki maintains there is no provision for a co-president and ‘a second centre of executive power’.
This kind of corrupt spending of taxpayers’ money would expose the real Odinga—a wolf who came in sheepskin. Kibaki, who told voters that Odinga has no vision for the country, could turn out vindicated by Odinga’s spending blunder.
Bosire Mosi
United States