Raila must be seen to be fair

It is an open secret that in his so called ‘dressing down’ the Transport Minister Chirau Mwakwere, by comparing Mombasa port 14 days to 48 hours it takes Dubai port to unload a container from the ships, the Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga was playing populist politics. On the face value, the Mombasa-Dubai comparison seems as if the Kenya Ports Authority is underperforming hence both the corporation together with the minister in-charge need to be whipped in public. But in reality 14 days is within the average for containers to be offloaded from ships in many major ports worldwide.

The public flog was disingenuous because apart from Dubai, the premier didn’t tell his audience how long it takes other competing ports such as Durban, Dar es Salaam, Cape Town, Singapore, to do that chore. Unless of course ‘the dressing down’ was solely meant to embarrass the Matuga MP in front of his peers. In addition, it was done because of the presence of the media covering the event where the prime minister was playing his well known populist styled politics to the unsuspecting public.

Majority of Kenyans might not be aware that Dubai Port Authority, famously known as ‘Dubai Port World’ is the most efficient and cost-effective port in the entire world, second to none. Not long ago, DP World acquired the famous Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., better known as ‘P & O Group’ for $6.8 billion, in cash, that created the world's third-largest port operator, with 51 terminals in 30 countries.

With such worldwide presence through its subsidiary (P & O), DP World is so proficient and capable such that to even imagine competing with them is more like ‘kushindana na ndovu kunya’. DP Word secured a multi-billion dollar contract to manage all United States major ports, but because of public outcry the deal was controversially blocked by the US Congress. The public outcry was necessitated because Americans did not feel comfortable to have “a Muslim owned company” managing their ports.

Now let’s ask ourselves, how in the world can Mombasa port compete with DP World, when well funded developed world’s ports such as Los Angeles, Durban, Singapore and many others cannot even come close? Populists’ politics will not move this country forward but backwards.

Raila claims that he is doing his constitutional authority of supervising and coordinating ministries, would he have the same guts to query why there is less crime (if any) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia compared to the City of Nairobi? Will he tell George Saitoti to perhaps visit Riyadh and see for himself how peaceful the oil rich kingdom is? Or is the prime minister going to be selective as to which minister he will decide to whip publicly just to embarrass them while keeps others scared to criticize or start a fight with. How about ODM held ministries, will they be sacred cows et al

The National Accord notwithstanding the Right Honorable premier should not confuse his office to that of an executive premiership because it is not. There could never be an executive presidency sharing the executive arm of the government with a prime minister.

The Lang’ata MP needs to be serious and fair when performing his constitutional co-ordination and supervisory functions. The premier must not only be fair in his duties but must be seen to be fair in all his dealongs.

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Many people must be finding it odd to see Prime Minister Raila Odinga, a product of opposition politics, be vehemently opposed to an organized opposition in the legislature. It is reported that Raila has led a spirited onslaught to resist this move by the backbenchers’. What has happened? What a shame!

Organized opposition in the National Assembly should not necessarily be rooted on confrontational politics as Kenyans have been accustomed to. We don’t need political scientists to tell Kenyans that a vibrant opposition is needed to keep the coalition Government on its toes.

Loyal Raila sycophants erroneously allege that those seeking organized grand opposition in parliament are doing so in an attempt to undermine Raila and the Office of the Prime Minister in tandem. Why is everything about Raila … protecting Raila, shielding his office of the prime minister?

The Lang’ata MP has the audacity to tell some of his Orange Democratic Movement legislators and others from different parties, who support the formation of the parliamentary opposition to resign and seek fresh mandate from the electorate. I am happy to see that finally the Speaker of National Assembly Mr. Kenneth Marende has realized the need for the organized opposition. The speaker even went further to note that MPs were free become an opposition force in the House without seeking a fresh mandate. That is the leadership that Kenyans have been expecting from the new Speaker.

This columnist applauds the three junior ministers who on Wednesday broke ranks with their cabinet colleagues and backed the move on the formation of the opposition. The three courageous assistant ministers are, Aden Sugow, Bifwoli Wakoli and Aden Duale respectively for Public Service, Lands and Livestock.

Kenyans don’t need Albert Einstein to tell them that the rationale that saw he the united first grand coalition government cabinet meeting closing ranks to overrule the formation of the opposition is that they (cabinet members) do not want to be kept on their toes by organized opposition in parliament. They want to enjoy a free ride.

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Comments in this commentary are made ‘Without Prejudice’. Although the matter is now in the hands Justice George Dulu of the High Court and it is perhaps prejudicial to discuss, I however find the order to deport Mr Canobbio Pietro interesting in two ways.
First, if Mr. Pietro is a naturalized Kenyan as he claims through his lawyer, one of the country’s top notch lawyers, why did he find the need to hide from the law enforcement officers who were trying to execute the deportation order? One would have thought that as a naturalized Kenyan citizen, what Pietro needed to do was to prove his legal status by showing the immigration officers, his naturalization certificate and that would have been end of the story.
One would assume that unless the individual has something to hide, why would he need to hire one of the most expressive lawyers in the country and go to court to prove his legal status. It doesn’t matter if the individual has invested heavily in the country and is a director of several companies in the country or not. If he is a citizen then he should enjoy all the benefits of being a Kenyan, and if anyone isn’t then they shouldn’t. It is as simple as that.
Otherwise it is going to be very expensive for every naturalized Kenyan to have to go to court through paying the services of a lawyer to just prove their legal status once their status is questioned or when and if there is an erroneous deportation order.
On the part of the government, I ask, why didn’t the State Minister for Immigration and Registrations of Persons or his permanent secretary and other junior ministry employees check the facts before issuing the deportation order. If it happens that Mr. Pietro is saying the truth, then the Immigration Commissioner needs to resign and if he doesn’t then needs to be relieved of his duties.