Well yesterday was another day of further disappointments.
I had a text message through my phone late in the afternoon that said Kibaki would address the nation at 5.30. I immediately rushed to put on the TV and wait for some positive news and what did we get …… He named half the cabinet.
Kenyans were stunned. He named Kalonzo Musyoka (the third main contender originally vying for the Presidency with the ODM Kenya party) as his Vice President and Minister for Home Affairs, he named 5 KANU MP’s as ministers (KANU being the former President Moi’s political party), one other ODM Kenya MP, and the rest from his own PNU. I’m assuming he’s saying ‘You see I left you the other half!’, but it seems he has filled all the major positions already.
He addressed the nation for all of about 2 minutes, named half of the cabinet and that was that. Half an hour later the President of the African Union and Ghana, President Kufuor touched down at Nairobi’s International Airport, in order to start negotiations between Kibaki and Odinga.
But from what I can gather of the Kenyans general reaction – we have had no official word yet from Raila Odinga with regards to this naming of half the cabinet as far as I know, but it is complete disappointment in Kibaki that it seems he has no wish to take these negotiations seriously.
Raila had a meeting (before this announcement) yesterday with his party and is still insisting he is the President and he will take his MPs and sit on the ‘Government’ side of the house when parliament resumes next Tuesday – so that’ll be an interesting bun fight when they’re all trying to sit on each others laps!
Well, well, the soap opera continues. Tension is high and all Raila has to do is snap his fingers right now and the people will rise up and we will be in serious uprising and more lives will be lost. They are just standing by waiting for the word from him.
All we can hope for today is that all these mediators we have in the country right now will start these talks between the two as soon as possible and will absolutely not let it come to that.
I had a text message through my phone late in the afternoon that said Kibaki would address the nation at 5.30. I immediately rushed to put on the TV and wait for some positive news and what did we get …… He named half the cabinet.
Kenyans were stunned. He named Kalonzo Musyoka (the third main contender originally vying for the Presidency with the ODM Kenya party) as his Vice President and Minister for Home Affairs, he named 5 KANU MP’s as ministers (KANU being the former President Moi’s political party), one other ODM Kenya MP, and the rest from his own PNU. I’m assuming he’s saying ‘You see I left you the other half!’, but it seems he has filled all the major positions already.
He addressed the nation for all of about 2 minutes, named half of the cabinet and that was that. Half an hour later the President of the African Union and Ghana, President Kufuor touched down at Nairobi’s International Airport, in order to start negotiations between Kibaki and Odinga.
But from what I can gather of the Kenyans general reaction – we have had no official word yet from Raila Odinga with regards to this naming of half the cabinet as far as I know, but it is complete disappointment in Kibaki that it seems he has no wish to take these negotiations seriously.
Raila had a meeting (before this announcement) yesterday with his party and is still insisting he is the President and he will take his MPs and sit on the ‘Government’ side of the house when parliament resumes next Tuesday – so that’ll be an interesting bun fight when they’re all trying to sit on each others laps!
Well, well, the soap opera continues. Tension is high and all Raila has to do is snap his fingers right now and the people will rise up and we will be in serious uprising and more lives will be lost. They are just standing by waiting for the word from him.
All we can hope for today is that all these mediators we have in the country right now will start these talks between the two as soon as possible and will absolutely not let it come to that.
