Jubilee queries ODM’s ability to check government

By Alphonce Shiundu

NAIROBI, KENYA: The Jubilee government has for the first time indicted the opposition’s ability to check the Executive just days after the main opposition party in the country, the Orange Democratic Movement, failed to hold its elections.

In a telling interview with a radio station, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s spokesperson Manoah Esipisu, hinted at his boss’s elation regarding the moribund opposition in Parliament, where the ruling Jubilee coalition has a clear majority.

“We would like a strong opposition, a constructive opposition, an opposition engaged with issues. Should I say whether the opposition is playing their role well? I think they are trying their best; I think they can do better, as always,” said Esipisu on Easy FM.

Apart from having 216 members in the 349-member National Assembly, the Jubilee coalition also controls the leadership of all, but two, House committees.  It has the majority members in all committees.

The opposition only has the leadership in the Public Accounts Committee and the Public Investments Committee. But then, the opposition has a minority in these watchdog committees that queries government spending.

Esipisu added that the failed ODM elections, which had to be cancelled because of chaos, were perhaps a pointer to a failed opposition that is unable to deal with government oversight.

“I think any amount of chaos, any amount of internal turmoil hampers your ability to focus on the things for which you have been given the mandate,” said the President’s spokesperson early Tuesday.

He said that as long as ODM remained in chaos, the oversight in Parliament will suffer.

“Yes, Kasarani has harmed ODM a bit, but as I always say the character of an organsiation or an individual is determined by how many times they rise up when they fall, not how many times they remain down when they are down,” said Esipisu.