Beauttah Omanga And David Ohito
8 May 2008
Nairobi — The dominant but yet-to-be clarified role of Prime Minister Raila Odinga is behind the delay by President Kibaki to convene a Cabinet meeting three weeks after it was sworn in, The Standard can report.
An apparent war of attrition over control of Cabinet, pitting hardliners in President Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) against those loyal to Raila and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), seems to have forced the delay.
One Cabinet minister conceded: "We are yet to get a working formula. The President is finding it hard to convene a full Cabinet meeting." It is understood that ministers aligned to Raila want him to co-chair the first full Cabinet meeting. But PNU loyalists and status quo proponents insist the President should carry on his mandate as is defined by law, with the Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Mr Francis Muthaura, playing his role as secretary.
To deal with the mistrust and suspicion that seems to pervade it, the Grand Coalition Government has now called a two-day bonding meeting starting tomorrow at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies in Ruaraka, Nairobi.
But even as plans for the meeting that will bring to the table Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka -around whom forces opposed to the PM's new role in Government revolve - was being finalised, another battle-front opened up in Parliament.
Grand Opposition
The House on Wednesday swiftly passed a motion seeking to formalise the Official Opposition and with it the likelihood that there will now be three fronts in Parliament .
With the passage of the motion, the House is deemed to have ordered its publication in the Gazette and this Bill shall accordingly be so published.
Tomorrow's bonding meeting will bring together the President, Vice President, the PM and his deputies, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Musalia Mudavadi, together with all Cabinet ministers and permanent secretaries.
Raila spoke of a policy document that will define how he will discharge his executive authority.
"The Government will release a policy document shortly to clarify the coordinating and supervisory roles I will play," the PM, speaking at his Treasury office soon after he met with UNEP Executive Director, Mr Achim Steiner, told journalists.
The Lang'ata MP took the opportunity to allay fears of conflict of interest and duplication of duties of his office and those of 40 ministers in the Grand Coalition Cabinet.
Cold war
But he was speaking within a background fraught with suspicion and mistrust.
"There is a cold war between us. There are those who feel there is a clique that wants to take control of Cabinet affairs," a Party of National Unity (PNU) Cabinet minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the failure by President Kibaki to convene the important forum in which policy and Government agenda is discussed.
Added the minister: "There is a disagreement on who should take the minutes at Cabinet meetings. There are those who want Raila to take control of the Cabinet, being a supervisor and co-ordinator of all ministers, while his critics feel by allowing him to take charge, the PM would easily render the civil service boss irrelevant, hence deepening the rift between the PNU and ODM-allied ministers.
"It's a tradition that a full Cabinet meeting is held soon after swearing in. It is at such meetings that the President spells out his agenda and sets goals for them."
The minister, however, said the President could be forced to read the riot act to all ministers and remind them of what is expected of them as Government officials.
It is understood that since no full Cabinet meeting has been convened since the President implemented the National Accord and Reconciliation Act that brought bitter rivals PNU and ODM in a power-sharing arrangement, ministers are still relying on short briefs from their respective PSs to guide them in their duties.
The President is also understood to be meeting a section of Cabinet ministers individually for consultations. But a majority of the ministers from the ODM side of Government are yet to meet the President officially since they were sworn in at State House on April 13, sources told The Standard.
"We are eagerly waiting for a meeting with the President but since he is the one with the authority to convene them, we can't order him to call one. We will have to wait," an ODM minister said last night.
Last week, a scheduled induction and orientation session for Cabinet ministers, assistant ministers and permanent secretaries was cancelled, with State House explaining that the meeting would be rescheduled.
The meeting was also cancelled on the grounds that the PM was out of the country for treatment.
On Wednesday, a statement from the Prime Minister's office said the bonding meeting will serve as a forum for the participants to share practices that are necessary for ensuring that the Grand Coalition Government policies, strategies and programmes are properly formulated.
The statement signed by Mr David Ng'ondu, a communications official in the PM's office stated: "Outputs will have to be realised. Networking and team building, which will ultimately hasten the realisation of the vision of the Coalition Government will be emphasised."
The official said the meeting will further help to create a common understanding of the conduct of the Government business among the ministers, assistant ministers and permanent secretaries so as to create an enabling environment for the running of public affairs.
Tomorrow, presenters at the meeting will cover topics on collective responsibility in Government, principles of ethics and integrity as embodied in the Ministerial Code of Conduct, governance accountability guidelines in the Public Service, Coalition Government and National Cohesion, among others.
They will also be taken through the role of the Public Service Commission of Kenya in Human Resource Management and Performance Contracting in the management of Public Service. Government Image and Media Relations will be covered during the second day.
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