• Saturday's intervention by ODM leader Raila Odinga handed Uasin Gishu Senator Margaret Kamar the coveted post.
• Kindiki was ousted on May 22 for skipping President Uhuru Kenyatta’s meeting at State House.
Image: FILE
The withdrawal of four candidates from the race for the post of Senate Deputy Speaker was preceded by behind-the-scene meetings aimed at averting a fallout in the ‘handshake team.”
A last minute intervention by ODM leader Raila Odinga handed Uasin Gishu Senator Margaret Kamar the coveted post.
Kamar was on Tuesday elected unopposed to succeed Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki.
Speaker Kenneth Lusaka invoked House Standing Orders to declare Kamar the duly elected Deputy Speaker after the four withdrew, leaving the oil and water conservation professor the sole nominee for the post.
Lusaka cited Standing Order No. 11 as read together with order 13(4) which allow the speaker to declare a winner without a ballot if th candiate is unoppossed.
“Accordingly, I hereby declare Senator Prof Margaret Kamar as the duly elected Deputy Speaker of the Senate,” Lusaka said.
Kindiki was ousted from the position on May 22 after he was accused of insubordination for skipping President Uhuru Kenyatta’s meeting at State House.
Four senators - Isaac Mwaura (nominated, Jubilee), Judith Pareno (nominated, ODM), Steward Madzayo (Kilifi, ODM) and Charles Kibiru (Kirinyaga, Independent) - pulled out of the race, leaving the experienced Kamar the sole candidate.
The Star has learnt that Raila on Saturday summoned the Senate leadership to his Capitol Hill office and asked them to lobby other candidates to withdraw and support the Uasin Gishu lawmaker.
Those at the meeting were Majority leader Samuel Poghisio, James Orengo (Minority leader), Irungu Kang'ata (Majority Whip), Fatuma Dullo (deputy Majority leader) and Beatrice Kwamboka (deputy Minority Whip).
“Odinga told us that Kamar is the right choice because she is a lady and very educated and that she has great experience having served in the Speaker’s panel in the 10th Parliament and now in the Senate,” a source who attended the meeting told the Star.
The source disclosed that Raila and the President – whose allies delivered the magic vote to oust Kindiki – were keen to avoid competition that could fracture the ‘handshake team.’
Kang'ata and his Minority counterpart Mutula Kilonzo confirmed that Kamar was a compromised handshake candidate.
“The withdrawal is part of caucusing on the side of Jubilee and Nasa. Once Jubilee agreed on candidate, it would have been foolhardy for us to start competing,” Mutula said.
In their withdrawal letter, the senators expressed their support for Kamar, citing consultations and negotiations. Kibiru and Madzayo were the first to throw in the towel.
Kibiru said he had consulted widely and decided to withdraw out of the desire to promote greater gender equity.
“At this time the President is fostering coherence in the country, it would be derelict of me not to view my victory as merely pyrrhic,” Kibiru said in his withdrawal statement.
“The ongoing remake of our politics calls for sacrifice, some of which may be personal in nature.”
Madzayo said he had decided to withdraw after wide consultations with his supporters, colleagues at the Senate and in the ODM, including Raila.
“I believe my decision to no longer run for the post will advance gender equity; a spirit I passionately subscribe to,” Madzayo said, adding that his decision is premised mainly on the need to continue supporting the political coherence advanced by Raila and Uhuru.
Hours to the vote, Pareno and Mwaura followed suit.
“We have negotiated and we are leaving it to Kamar. She should be unopposed,” Pareno told the Star.
“Everybody has withdrawn so we are leaving it to her so that we don’t seem to be scrambling over the position. We are a handshake team and we don’t want to fight,” she added.
Pareno spoke moments after Mwaura announced his withdrawal after the party settled on Kamar.
“Following the Jubilee Party’s endorsement of Prof Margaret Kamar, I am stepping down as candidate for Deputy Speaker,” he said.
Mwaura said his decision to run for the second ‘most important position’ in the Senate was inspired by the desire to ensure that the youth and persons with disabilities get represented in the top leadership of Parliament.
“That I was the youngest of the five aspirants, and being a second term member, having served both in the National Assembly and Senate, I believed that I had what it takes to preside over the house of Senate, independently, impartially and with sobriety,” he said.
- mwaniki fm