By Emmanuel Turay, PV East Africa Bureau Chief, Nairobi, Kenya.
Two Ministers including a Senior Minister and Deputy in the Grand coalition government in Kenya led by President Mwai Kibaki have resigned their positions.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua(photo) and Medical Assistant Minister Danson Mungatana have resigned from the Cabinet, accusing the Kibaki administration of derailing reforms.
The two Ministers who are strong allies to Kibaki’s PNU party from NARC Kenya accused the Grand Coalition Government of abetting official corruption.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua, quit in a huff on Monday, saying her position was “untenable following recent decisions in the ministry.”
Karua’s party, NARC-Kenya, is a junior partner allied to Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU). On Tuesday, NARC-Kenya secretary general, Danson Mungatana, also resigned as an assistant minister.
President Kibaki last week appointed five High Court judges and promoted two others to the Court of Appeal allegedly without consulting Ms Karua. The President swore-in the judges in the absence of Ms Karua. She and the Law Society of Kenya said some of the appointments were not on merit.
For days, Ms Karua publicly stated that senior officials at the presidency were frustrating key reforms recommended in the National Accord that created the coalition government in the violent aftermath of the 2007 election believed to have been rigged by Kibaki.
Ms Karua has been backing calls for the resignation or sacking of Kenya’s much-maligned Chief Justice, Evan Gicheru, and Attorney General, Amos Wako. She had the support of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Kibaki’s coalition partner. Kibaki supports the Chief Justice.
Her departure comes hot on the heels of failed talks at the weekend between PNU and Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). The partners differed sharply on the agenda of the meeting which was attended by the president and the Prime Minister on Saturday.
Analysts are predicting collapse of the one-year-old coalition which has been repeatedly accused of failing to deliver on key pledges. Protestant and Anglican churches have called for fresh elections.
Mungatana who, together with Karua, strongly defended Kibaki’s controversial re-election in 2007, told the President: "The time of the big man’s syndrome is gone."
Prime Minister Odinga on Monday delivered his harshest criticism of Kibaki so far, describing the President’s leadership style as “primitive.” ODM has consistently claimed that it has been short-changed in power-sharing by Kibaki’s PNU.
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