Julius Bosire
25 April 2008
Pre-election rivalry and protocol confusion in the new coalition was yesterday played out in the open when the three former presidential candidates now in the same government came face to face.
Confusion, which many thought turned into a feud, started at Eldoret's Kipchoge Keino Stadium when Internal Security minister George Saitoti invited Prime Minister Raila Odinga to the podium to speak before Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka.
But Mr Odinga pointed to Mr Musyoka to speak first, then went on to take the microphone amid loud murmurs from the crowd. He hesitated to proceed, causing confusion, even to the orderlies as they did not know where to take the microphone.
Prof Saitoti was left standing, wondering why Mr Odinga was not rising to address the rally. He finally went and held Mr Odinga by the hand and the Prime Minister obliged. Mr Odinga blamed protocol officers for failure to recognise that power-sharing was between President Kibaki's PNU and his ODM. He said once this was recognised, the people who were grumbling in the crowd would have no problem.
But going by the official programme, the Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner, Mr Hassan Noor, was scheduled to address the gathering and then invite Agriculture Minister William Ruto, the host MP, to speak.
After Mr Ruto, was Industrialisation Minister Henry Kosgey, Special Programmes Minister Naomi Shaban, Prof Saitoti, Mr Odinga, the VP, then President Kibaki.
Mr Odinga said: "We changed the Constitution, but the protocol people have not changed the order of events. That is why there has been confusion." He added: "The order should be that the President is here and the Prime Minister is next to him".
There was further confusion when Mr Odinga invited the President to address the rally when he was through with his address, thereby skipping Mr Musyoka.
But Mr Musyoka shot up, looked in the direction of the President and went for the microphone as a section of the crowd booed.
After his brief address, which dwelt on reconciliation and forgiveness, the VP invited the President to speak. The President criticised those jeering speakers, telling them that their noise was not to anyone's benefit.
Things were not helped when Mr Kibaki referred to Mr Odinga as Raila. The group shouted "Prime Minister", implying that the President should not refer to him without his title.
Said the President: "These are the people Jesus said should be forgiven for they do not know what they are doing. I wish they knew where we have come from and where we are going. You are doing all this because you do not know what you are doing".
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