Rival Kenyan political parties jostled for support yesterday ahead of a flashpoint re-opening of parliament amid the devastating crisis spurred by the disputed presidential election.
With more than 700 people already killed in the violence that followed the Dec. 27 re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, Kenyans were bracing for more possible violence this week as the opposition plans to go ahead with three days of nationwide demonstrations beginning tomorrow, despite a police ban.
Kibaki is due to open the country's 10th parliament today, setting the stage for the first post-election show of political strength as lawmakers elect one of their own to the powerful post of parliament speaker.
PHOTO: EPA
With none of the major parties having a majority of seats, they have been furiously wooing smaller parties ahead of the vote.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which claims Kibaki stole the presidential election by vote fraud, won the most seats in the parliamentary elections also held on Dec. 27, capturing 99 of the chamber's 222 seats.
Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) won 43 seats and an allied party 16 seats.
The speaker's election requires a two-third majority for the first two rounds, but requires only a simple majority if the vote moves to a third round.
Four candidates have entered the race, with the government side supporting the re-election of veteran speaker Francis ole Kaparo, while the opposition is fronting MP-elect Kenneth Marende.
"We are convinced that we are going to get enough numbers to elect a neutral speaker who will serve the house without favor. We are appealing to all political parties and individual MPs who love peace to support us," said Mutula Kilonzo, a spokesman for the government side.
Both the PNU and its ally, along with the ODM, began holding separate meetings on Sunday to plan for the opening of parliament.
"We are going for a retreat to seek ways that would enable ODM's candidate to win. We have the numbers but we will not take chances," ODM member William Ruto told the Daily Nation newspaper.
Ruto has rejected the widely held view that by attending the opening of parliament, convened by Kibaki, the opposition is in effect recognizing the legitimacy of his presidency.
"We are not going to sit back and allow them install a speaker who will pave the way for the illegitimacy to continue," Ruto said.
Although the session is expected to be stormy, the three days of nationwide demonstrations called by the ODM, expected to start tomorrow, have been banned by the government, as there are fears of more violence.
Nationwide rioting that erupted after the swearing in of Kibaki on Dec. 30 rapidly descended into tribal clashes, leaving at least 700 people dead and displacing nearly 260,000.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS