Chaos in Kenyan parliament
2008-01-15 16:37
Nairobi - Kenya's first session of parliament since disputed presidential polls degenerated into a slanging match on Tuesday with furious exchanges disrupting efforts to elect a speaker.
Broadcast live on television, the session began with prayers but quickly descended into uproar between the rival camps of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Odinga insists Kibaki robbed him of the presidency by rigging the December 27 ballot and has refused to recognise his re-election which triggered nationwide clashes that left 700 people dead and 260 000 displaced.
Central Nairobi was under a virtual lockdown for the parliamentary session, with a massive police deployment including elite paramilitary units.
Former UN chief Kofi Annan was expected to fly in later to take over efforts to mediate a resolution to the political unrest.
Before lawmakers could even be sworn in, the rival sides flung accusations at each other, delaying a crucial first vote for the post of speaker.
'You stole the vote'
"You stole the vote," Odinga's right-hand man William Ruto said, demanding that the ballot for speaker be public, not secret as usual.
A Kibaki supporter, Kabando Wa Kabando, accused Ruto of intimidation.
"We are setting a wrong precedent. What we are doing is wrong in the country and ... I fear that we are setting the parliament on a wrong footing," Kibaki's newly-appointed Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka said as the dispute continued.
Lawmakers from Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) wore orange handkerchiefs tucked in their suit pockets as they sat in the 222-seat parliament to protest Kibaki's election.
They gave Odinga a standing ovation but remained seated when Kibaki entered the chamber.
Odinga had vowed that once his lawmakers were sworn in, which could take several hours, they would sit on the government benches.
Largest single party
Odinga's ODM secured 99 seats in the legislative elections that coincided with the presidential poll, making it the largest single party but short of an overall majority.
Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) won 43 seats.
The speaker's election requires a two-thirds majority for the first two rounds, but only a simple majority if a third ballot is needed.
Outside parliament, tensions were high in Nairobi's Mathare slum - a flashpoint of recent clashes - as police dismantled barricades erected by Odinga supporters ahead of a series of banned opposition rallies starting on Wednesday.
Odinga has ignored pleas by religious leaders to call off the protests, despite fears of fresh violence.
Annan was expected in Nairobi late Tuesday to lead senior African political figures in the latest attempt to resolve the political impasse.
"The interests of the nation and the people must be paramount," said Annan in a statement prior to his departure. He faces a Herculean task that last week defied his countryman, Ghana's President John Kufuor, current head of the African Union.
'We won'
Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, and former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa were to accompany Annan.
The government has rejected the need for international mediation.
"We won the elections so we do not see the point for anyone coming to mediate power-sharing," Roads and Public Works Minister John Michuki, a hardline member of Kibaki's new cabinet, said on Monday.
The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday that it will keep providing assistance to thousands of Kenyans who have sought refuge from the post-electoral violence in neighbouring Uganda.
More than 6 100 people - many of them members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe - have crossed into eastern Uganda, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Ron Redmond said in Geneva, citing figures from Ugandan authorities.
The UNHCR will help move refugees from border areas to the town of Mulanda, where Ugandan authorities have set up a temporary site, he said.