How Speaker beat all odds to write history

By Juma Kwayera

When National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende adjourned the House on Thursday last week, he gave an undertaking to reconcile President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

However, the unassuming former MP for Emuhaya got the shock of his brief tenure when President Kibaki, in a letter, rebuffed his pledge to Parliament to mediate between the partners who were embroiled in a row over who should be Leader of Government Business and chairman of the House Business Committee. The committee sets the agenda of Parliament.

Although the response from State House was generally expected given the deepening hostility over the President’s unilateral decision to appoint Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to head the two dockets, the finality in his despatch to the Speaker narrowed Marende’s options to navigate the delicate balance of power.

When The Standard on Sunday got on the trail of events preceding his historic ruling, which without doubt ruffled the Executive accustomed to manipulating the House, it emerged the four-day hiatus before last Tuesday, were probably Marende’s most taxing days in his in life as a lawyer, MP and Speaker.

Sources, among them National Assembly workers told of the agonising moments Marende went through as both PNU and ODM tried bend the verdict in their favour.

"The President’s letter was intended to intimidate him to rule in favour of Kalonzo. But he was aware the country would have exploded into violence as had been evident after the Prime Minister questioned the president’s leadership credentials. Siding with Raila would have sent the signal he had become partisan and rewarded ODM for backing him for the Speaker’s job," one of the sources told The Standard on Sunday.

The source said as soon as the House adjourned to allow the President and Prime Minister to consult, the two parties swung into action. In the tense four days that followed either side was said to be keen on second-guessing the Speaker, who in turn had retreated to his House to mull over how to unlock the deadlock that was threatening to disintegrate into violence.

Given the high-stakes tussle between the ODM and PNU, the richer of the two parties had reportedly set aside Sh5 million to ensure that Kalonzo bags the posts at all costs. A high profile and controversial PNU backbencher from Western Province was in charge of the fund for neutralising ODM majority influence in the House.

"The Speaker was wary of the dirty games and wanted to steer clear of it. So he chose to go it alone," sources said. The allegations of frantic attempts to intimidate Marende were alluded to during interviews with Eldama Ravine MP Moses Lessonet and Muhoroni MP Ayiecho Olweny.

Chiefs whips of the two parties tried to make their way into his office at Parliament, but Lessonet said the Speaker kept all parties in the dark and no one knew from where he was working.

"PNU was particularly eager to swing his opinion and were optimistic he would not defy a presidential directive as it was expected that Clerk of the National Assembly Patrick Gichohi would work with him," Lessonet said. Instead Marende left him out for reasons sources attribute to his perceived affiliation to PNU and personal relationship with the party’s top leaders. A Parliament staffer confirmed Marende, as opposed to earlier media reports that he worked from his house, actually did all the work at his office. When he got down to work in the company of two parliamentary counsels and his personal secretary, he put in a minimum of 14 hours a day, wording the final draft carefully to avoid ambiguities and perceptions that he was the President’s or Prime Minister’s surrogate.

Grammar and spellings

He left matters of grammar and spellings to Chief Parliamentary Counsel Jeremiah Nyegenye, and his staffer Jeremiah Ndombi.

"It was typed in his presence lest it was tampered with. The Speaker only left the room to attended to calls of nature as he did not want to leave anything to chance, especially after PNU and ODM-Kenya ministers had made several attempts to influence his ruling," sources said. The remarks shaded light on why the Speaker appeared apprehensive when Parliament reconvened on Tuesday.

"It would appear it is taking longer than I anticipated but the position is that I perused the Communication in its final form as I prepared it but it needed a few corrections by way of grammar, spelling and things of that nature. However, your Parliamentary Legal Counsel, it would seem, requires a little more time than I thought he would," he told Parliament, as uncertainty gripped the House.

Among the PNU/ODM-Kenya point men to try to ‘see’ the Speaker were Kalonzo, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, and Parliamentary Chief Whip George Thuo. Just hours before he addressed Parliament, one of the ministers had even attempted to steal the Speaker’s speech as a ploy to buy time until he was amenable to their wishes.

"They wanted to see the Speaker under the pretext of delivering President Kibaki’s message. But he frustrated them by locking himself in the office, switched off his mobile phones and landline telephone handsets were off the hook," the sources said.

In the end, his ruling surprised as much as it calmed the House and the nation, which was on the edge of renewed violence as the two partners dug in for the control of House agenda. Assistant Minister for Trade Omingo Magara summed it up in his contribution to the debate when he remarked, "Someone once said that they were looking for a wise man that once saved the life of a child. I want to remind you, Mr Speaker, today that the person who was being quoted then was Solomon and I want to tell you that you have been our Solomon today."