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Kenya: Embarrassing Protocol Tug-of-War Ends
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The Nation (Nairobi)
26 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
Patrick Mayoyo And Sollo Kiragu
Nairobi
Differences played out in public over the pecking order between Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Prime Minister Raila Odinga had been papered over on the second day of the peace rallies.
At a rally at Kipkelion Town in Rift Valley on Friday, there were no embarrassing tussles when Mr Odinga was invited to address the crowd ahead of Mr Musyoka.
When Mr Odinga was handed the microphone by Internal Security and Provincial Administration minister George Saitoti, he greeted the cheering crowd in Kalenjin language, saying "chamgei tugui" (greetings to you all), adding "I am your son arap Mibei (a person from the lake)" as the crowd broke into applause.
Then he called on Mr Musyoka to say a few words before he could proceed with his speech.
This time, unlike the incident in Eldoret, there was no tussle between Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka over who would speak last before handing over to President Kibaki.
The Vice-President took the microphone and assured the crowd that he would be handing it back to the Prime Minister.
He started by asking for forgiveness from those who felt betrayed by the position he took during last year's elections, saying that it was part of the healing process.
He denied that there was a protocol problem as widely reported from the Eldoret rally.
"We are trying to bring Kenyans together and protocol is not an issue now and that is why I have left my brother, Mr Odinga to speak," he said.
At Eldoret the previous day, Mr Odinga initially declined to speak straight after Prof Saitoti, preferring that the Vice-President speak first so that he could hand over to the President.
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When he was finally persuaded to speak first, he made his address and handed over directly to the President, skipping Mr Musyoka.
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