{"id":440901,"date":"2011-06-14T11:24:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T11:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/"},"modified":"2011-06-14T11:24:13","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T11:24:13","slug":"house-speaker-makes-history-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/","title":{"rendered":"House Speaker Makes History Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"60.2122509775\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessdailyafrica.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Business Daily<\/a> (Nairobi)<\/p>\n<p>Macharia Munene<\/p>\n<p>14 June 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>opinion<\/p>\n<p>There are several noticeable things about this Parliament. It is discordant, its members are perpetually quarrelling, and it has a history making Speaker. The last Parliament to enjoy the benefits of the old constitution, it is required to enact many enabling laws to implement the new Constitution. This requirement stimulates Members of Parliament to quarrel as they shortchange each other, individually and also as political parties. While some MPs are articulately mischievous, others are regularly caught napping and appear confused when their perceived rivals spring surprises. The Speaker has to handle all.<\/p>\n<p>The discord is among the political parties, and within each of the parties, which has made claims of unity within parties a myth. For example, PNU was a party of parties whose late 2007 creation raised eyebrows as to what was going on given that it had one substantive member, Mwai Kibaki. It disintegrated soon after the election and failed to maintain needed sense of unity. But PNU was not alone in disunity because it was later followed by the ODM political sisters, ODM-Raila and ODM-Kalonzo. These had split long before the 2007 general election when the political ambitions of the two leaders collided. Each of the two then developed its own little splits.<\/p>\n<p>It took time before the discordance within the political parties became clear. Only ODM-Raila, which seemingly monopolised the use of the label &#8220;ODM&#8221;, maintained a semblance of discipline.<\/p>\n<p>It was that sense of discipline that ensured that it achieved many things that it wanted. Among those things was the control of the Parliament and its institutions in such cleaver ways that it subsequently appears natural. Among the first orders of business when Parliament opened doors in 2008 was to elect the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker.<\/p>\n<p>The experience was dramatic. Discipline was pronounced in the ODM-Raila camp during that election. To ensure that no MP voted his &#8220;conscious&#8221;, there was to be no secret ballot and all were required to show who they voted for. A few enjoyed displaying their votes, showing that they voted for Kenneth Marende, the ODM MP for Emuhaya.<\/p>\n<p>The ODM choice was good and he has served the party well. The man appears to enjoy being Speaker as he ventures into the unknown, seemingly setting precedents. He gives instructions, &#8220;directives&#8221;, and is good at asserting authority especially when it comes to restraining the Executive. Marende brilliantly manages to sound Solomonic even when delivering an embarrassing &#8220;beating&#8221; to the Executive. When the President appointed the Vice President, as was the custom, to be Leader of Government Business and then the Prime Minister appointed himself, the effect was to paralyse the business of Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Marende simply allocated the docket to his office while waiting for the two principals to sort themselves out. When the President nominated judicial officers for vetting by Parliament, and the Prime Minister objected, Marende declared the President to be in the wrong and refused to allow Parliamentary vetting of those nominees.<\/p>\n<p>Conflicting interpretation of the constitution on the budget clause enabled Marende to shine again. Critics insisted the Minister for Finance violated the Constitution, supporters accused opponents of political selectivity. Marende gave something to both sides. He reprimanded the Minister for allegedly violating the new Constitution. He also allowed the minister to present the budget. The man is making history.<\/p>\n<p><em>The writer teaches at USIU-Nairobi.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><strong>More News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read this article:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201106140704.html\" title=\"House Speaker Makes History Again\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">House Speaker Makes History Again<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Business Daily (Nairobi) Macharia Munene 14 June 2011 opinion There are several noticeable things about this Parliament. It is discordant, its members are perpetually quarrelling, and it has a history making Speaker. The last Parliament to enjoy the benefits of the old constitution, it is required to enact many enabling laws to implement the new Constitution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":440902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-440901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>House Speaker Makes History Again - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"House Speaker Makes History Again - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Business Daily (Nairobi) Macharia Munene 14 June 2011 opinion There are several noticeable things about this Parliament. It is discordant, its members are perpetually quarrelling, and it has a history making Speaker. The last Parliament to enjoy the benefits of the old constitution, it is required to enact many enabling laws to implement the new Constitution\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"House Speaker Makes History Again\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-14T11:24:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/\"},\"wordCount\":585,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Entertainment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/\",\"name\":\"House Speaker Makes History Again - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-14T11:24:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"House Speaker Makes History Again - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/house-speaker-makes-history-again\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"House Speaker Makes History Again - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Business Daily (Nairobi) Macharia Munene 14 June 2011 opinion There are several noticeable things about this Parliament. 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