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.
