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Buying Time in Kenya

Has the Speaker of Kenya’s Parliament come up with a temporary palliative to the proximate cause of tension between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga? Speaker Kenneth Marende has stepped in as temporary chair of the House Business Committee in Parliament, a disputed post that has been the source of tensions between Kibaki and Odinga.

Marende apparently believes that the running of government is more important than the petty disputes between the country’s two biggest political parties and their obstinate leaders. His solution cannot be a long-term one, and it is likely that either finding someone to take the post on a permanent basis or else some other grievance will allow the conflict to resume. Nonetheless, it is good to see cooler heads prevail, even if only for the time being. Hopefully Odinga and Kibaki will use the time they have been allotted to come to some sort of compromise.

 
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  1. abul hasan Friday - 01 / 05 / 2009 Reply
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Author

Derek Catsam
Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is an associate professor of history at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s, the Freedom Rides, and South African resistance politics in the 1980s. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He is also a lifelong sports fan, with the Boston Red Sox as his first true love. He was one of about three dozen people to write books about the 2004 World Champion Red Sox, and the result is Bleeding Red: A Red Sox Fan's Diary of the 2004 Season. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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