By Kevin Motaroki
“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intentt” — Douglas MacArthur
When former National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende was sworn in as speaker in March 2008, he stopped all pretences at party allegiances and set out to prefect the entirety of the National Assembly. If a member of his former party ODM misbehaved in the House, he got scolded as sternly as would one from PNU. As soon as he took the Speaker’s seat, he understood that he needed to be impartial and fair to every legislator, and to both sides of the grand coalition government.
One of his more famous rulings – deciding the tussle between then Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka regarding the proper occupant of the title “Leader of Government Business”, which position he temporarily assigned himself to give the coalition partners time to reach an agreement – earned him the admiration of both friend and foe. It was even said he had “Solomonic wisdom”. Before delivering that ruling, it is said he retreated to his chambers for more than two hours before he came out to make it. Perhaps he was meditating; some call it reflection.
His successor Justine Muturi is a man who loves his considered opinion – which The Law Dictionary defines a “considered opinion” as “one based on study, reason and thought”. So much so that whenever he delivers one of his considered lines, he takes great exception to people who make digs at or try to question the wisdom of his verbal punches. He is, after all, Speaker of the National Assembly.
It is not in the position of this article to decide who the better leader is between the two Speakers, but the latest State of the Nation address by the President raised questions as to the sagacity of the declarations/rulings the Speaker made that day.
I am no legal scholar and will thus refrain from commenting on the of the legal tools and provisions the Speaker applied in his attempts to restore order in the House. In any case, the idea of elected leaders behaving like proper fools in the full glare of national and international media is both contemptible and asinine. However, Muturi’s handling of the whole saga paints him as a hopeless dimwit.
As far as a week before the President’s address, the Opposition had indicated they would disrupt the speech; it was all over media. Armed with this intelligence, Muturi should have sat with Cord leadership and tried to find a solution to the threats. For argument’s sake, let’s say Cord leaders are insufferable hotheads who want publicity however it is obtained. But we will never know just how deep that runs in their system – assuming it is the case – because the Speaker made no attempts to contain the integrity of his House through diplomacy.
All Muturi needed to have done was call the Opposition principals and assure them their grievances would be addressed in another forum, and asked them to respect the Presidency by letting the President address the nation without interruption. If, in his considered opinion, he decided that such a talk had not yielded fruit, he would still have found a way to avoid the embarrassment that followed. Contrary to what most think, the antics by Cord didn’t look bad just on them but on the Speaker as well.
That, obviously, did not happen. His second option, matters having degenerated to the level they did, would have been to perhaps ask the senior most Cord legislator in the House, in this case Minority Leader Francis Nyenze – or even his deputy Jakoyo Midiwo who, incidentally seems to have more clout – and asked him to calm down his charges. I can bet the Cherangany Hills that they would have listened. One could still make the assumption that the legislators seemed to be high on something and might not have listened, but we will never know that now.
In the event that these options didn’t work, his last resort would have been to hold his horses until the din had died down, and until he had ejected every rowdy MP before calling the President to make his address. As it were, Muturi made the President stand and take his at least thrice as he made desperate but seemingly juvenile attempts to restore order. The host does not make his guest wash hands and then have his dirty children jump all over him, and then ask him to wash them again as the food set before him goes cold. Justin Muturi could have done better. I like to think it isn’t beyond him.
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