Impasse at the Kenya parliament deflated – For Now

The speaker of the Kenyan parliament has temporarily broken an impasse that seemed to be coming to a head in the Kenyan parliament by temporarily assuming the role of chairman of the powerful House Business Committee (HBC).

There has been a tussle for weeks now over who should head the committee with Kenya’s Prime Minister of the opposition party, the Orange Democratic Party (ODM) asserting that he is entitled to the position while the President’s party, the Party of National Unity (PNU) claiming that the constitution expressly states that the president gets to nominate the chairman of this committee.

The opposition party has asserted that under the terms of the national accord, which was signed last year after the post-election violence of 2007, President Kibaki does not have sole authority to appoint the chairman of this committee. The House Business Committee sets the agenda in parliament.PNU bulwarks like John Michuki (see video bleow) insist that this is the President’s prerogative.

To this extent, the Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, who is also asserting chairmanship of the committee has threatened to take this issue to court for a constitutional interpretation stating that this is “a serious assault on the powers of the President and must be challenged and opposed by all means.”

Stay tuned. This is going to be a long one.

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