KIBAKI AND RAILA MEETING CALLED OFF

President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga were set to meet on Sunday but the meeting was postponed. Photo/FILE

By LUCAS BARASA
SATURDAY NATION
February 20 2010

The wrangling in the Grand Coalition took a fresh twist on Saturday as the widely anticipated meeting between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga scheduled for Sunday was called off.

The Prime Minister's advisor Salim Lone said the meeting had been put off for a day or two.

Speaking to the Nation on phone Mr Lone said: "The meeting between the President and the Prime Minister has been postponed".

The Prime Minister, who is on an official tour in Japan, is expected back in the country on Sunday and is expected to address the media when he arrives.

Mr Lone however said he could not state reasons for the cancellation of the meeting. On Thursday, Mr Lone had said the two principals had agreed to hold talks. "President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga will meet on Sunday to chart the way forward out of the impasse that has created a notion of crisis," he said.

The two coalition principals spoke on Wednesday night and agreed to meet as soon as Mr Odinga gets back from Japan. They also agreed to ask their respective supporters to tone down the rhetoric that suggested that the coalition was on the verge of collapse.

The meeting was said to have followed high level intervention from key international allies calling for a ceasefire between the President and the Prime Minister.

ODM had asked former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to intervene after President Kibaki revoked the suspension of two Cabinet ministers by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The Prime Minister suspended ministers William Ruto (Agriculture) and Prof Sam Ongeri (Education) saying their ministries had been plagued by corruption scandals that had ripped Kenyans off millions of shillings.

But the President later overruled the suspension saying there had not been any consultation on the matter. The two ministers had also earlier dismissed their suspension saying only the President could remove them.

KENYANS REACT:

Submitted by yesuwangu
Posted February 21, 2010 01:58 PM

The Point is PNU Men and women together with Parties in PNU are very much coordinating and regrouping to fight Raila The PM of Kenya.be it in parliament and out of Parliament, instead of fighting Corruption with that energy they have against Raila.THe Policy and manifesto of PNU is kept in the museum and only read to the public after 5years.Raila is the only thing PNU has been focussing at.wheares the public is waiting for them to fullfill something they promised.10years in the Kibaki administration is like 28years of mois failures

Submitted by marto_1967
Posted February 20, 2010 09:46 PM

Unfortunately, Kenya needs stability now more than anything else including fighting corruption. There is no society in the world where there is zero corruption. Given a choice between living with corruption or living in a war zone, well my choice would be easy to figure out.,I wonder what choices 'those who are to meet' have.

Submitted by byesh
Posted February 20, 2010 07:27 PM

I think this is due to broken government protocol.Who is Mr.Lone to announce meeting between president and Pm? PPS should have announce the meeting.Also Nyongo and his group setting agenda publicly wasn´t a good thing.

Submitted by Agwandasymo
Posted February 20, 2010 07:20 PM

The think the local press does such a disfavor to Kenyans by fueling tensions. So what if the meeting between the two is canceled? Why not look at this positively as opposed to inferring that things are about to get worse?

Submitted by Diroh
Posted February 20, 2010 07:14 PM

two principals are playing a ping pong game with wanainchi. They should call a snap election. After all it will take only 3month before election of which the Interim Independent electrol commision said that is enough time to register voters. We are tired of their politics!

Submitted by Samur
Posted February 20, 2010 07:09 PM

We should have elections,u cant mix oranges and bananas.How can a government operate a government 50-50.IECK should start planning for elections.

Submitted by jnalyanya
Posted February 20, 2010 06:52 PM

Sorry for the led down. God allows both bad and good governments to exist for a time for the sake of for law and order, don’t mean he supports them,neither your place to go against them.God will remove all-supper Anglo-America too. God has observed complete history of mankind from start to now, none can solve all mankind’s problems.God designated Jesus as the ruler of his government-ruling from heaven,not corruptible, you pray for it‘thy kingdom come”.Once learn about humans/God’s government,you choose allegiance to only one, or will go down with all(Dan.2:44)

Submitted by flexy832003
Posted February 20, 2010 06:49 PM

...semeni wakenya!...please dont panic bacause of this. I could not imagine how he could manage to sit for a meeting having such a big Jet-lag...hata kaa he flew xtra 1st class, he is also a old man who needs to see the wife an family..watakutana tu! kwani watafanya nini!?