Nairobi — A protocol war between Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Prime Minister Raila Odinga turned the much-awaited presidential tour of the North Rift into a circus. As a result, the future of the grand coalition government could depend on how this extremely bitter rivalry is handled.

What triggered the protocol fracas was not anything substantive about power. It was simply about the pecking order regarding who should speak before the President at public rallies.

In Eldoret, trouble started when Security Minister George Saitoti called on Mr Odinga to make his speech. This presupposed that the VP would come next and then officially invite President Kibaki to give his address.

The prime minister did not like this. He responded to Prof Saitoti by gesturing toward Mr Musyoka to be asked to speak before he did. The latter declined to do so, and Mr Odinga was forced to speak first. He immediately embarked on a tirade about he and the President being "equal" partners while the V-P was a rung below.

When Mr Musyoka's turn came, he was booed while part of the crowd walked out on him. He gamely sought to take this in his stride, telling local leaders that unlike them, he would not incite his Mwingi constituents to treat him that way if they chose to visit.

It was a terrible week for the vice-president. There was little Mr Musyoka could do as the North Rift is a firm "ODM zone," as Industry minister Henry Kosgey put it. However matters changed for the harassed Mr Musyoka when the tour shifted to Molo, a PNU stronghold. Not even Mr Odinga bothered to contest the order of speeches here.

The "status" wars have been raging fiercely in the background. Many an ODM communication seeks to refer to the prime minister, as with the President, as "his Excellency." The office of the Head of the Public Service formally designates the prime minister as "Right Honourable," and that is how he was referred to at the first joint public ceremony he and President Kibaki attended together at Strathmore University last week.

When Mr Francis Muthaura early on clarified the line-up and said the VP ranked higher than the prime minister, ODM supporters laughed him off. But he has stuck to his guns.

Manouvre in Ukambani

What matters for the ODM is that under the amended constitution, the prime minister has far more clout in the grand coalition than the vice-president. After all, his party nominates people to fill half the cabinet slots. It is this fact that makes the party dismiss the official ranking of the VP vis-a-vis the prime minister as anomalous.

The special constitutional status of the vice-president would become immediately apparent were the President, for some reason, to vacate office. In Kenya vice-presidents tend to see themselves as heirs-apparent to their bosses.

The protocol flap is merely a pointer to what the ODM has in store for Mr Musyoka. He is already fighting a powerful manoeuvre in Ukambani. Mrs Charity Ngilu, to whom the ODM handed a cabinet position, is as combative as ever. Then along has come mercurial businessman John Harun Mwau, who Mr Odinga reportedly nominated to be assistant minister, and who is known to have the resources to keep the VP in check.

What is happening is that Mr Musyoka's political foes are keen to restrict him to his own backyard as part of the strategy for the 2012 election battle.