By Alex Ndegwa

Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim has made several unpopular rulings but his decline to vote to break the deadlock in the nominations of nine members of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission is welcome.

A vote to confirm the appointment of Cecil Miller as chairman and his team ended up in a 67-67 tie and although House rules allow the Chair to break the tie, Maalim declined to participate in the vote.

He cited “sensitivity of the matter” and advised: “This is one process that the nation needed to get right from the start”.

Subsequently, he referred the matter back to the Abdikadir Mohammed-led Parliamentary Select Committee on constitution review.

Quite evidently, even some PSC members did not fancy some of the nominees and it was unclear how the committee expected a divided House to rubber stamp the appointments.

Yet this is one Motion where it is not good enough to argue since majority of the nominees are acceptable we might as well gamble with the pick. The rules are quite rigid that you can either accept the whole list or reject it altogether – no room for nit picking.

In the circumstances, the PSC members were expected to read from the same script and spare their energies to convince the rest of the House.

But the spat between Assistant Minister Mwangi Kiunjuri and nominated MP Millie Odhiambo stoked fires for the opposition – after all if the committee was not in agreement then surely something was amiss.

Reports that Miller’s name was not among the six short-listed candidates did not help matters either.

It is important that the selection process does not raise eyebrows otherwise partisan elements will seize the opportunity to throw spanners into the works.

That the issue of constitution review is touchy and bound to raise political temperatures is no secret. The road to the fabled new constitution spans more than two decades and is littered with broken promises, backstabbing, intrigues, dishonesty and open hostility.

Disbanded electoral commission

The 2005 referendum was a showdown that polarised the country and sowed the seeds of ethnic hatred that nearly obliterated our nation last year. It’s not comforting that yester-year reformists are in the gravy train, their snouts buried in the trough and they wouldn’t mind to inherit the corrupted system with its sweeping powers intact. Throw in the background of how we ended up with a disbanded electoral commission and you have a powder keg.

To avoid going down the same road again, we must get the process right from the start, pick the right commissioners and cultivate consensus. I have no doubts that Abdikadir, the Mandera Central MP, is up to the task. The appointments should not seem to be done in a rushed and secret manner otherwise suspicions and rumours will swirl. Granted, time is of essence because the new commission has its job cut out, including pending by-elections. But this should not be at the expense of putting together a team that will enjoy a solid mandate. True, it’s difficult to have nominees who are acceptable across board because of political scheming, but at the least they should appeal to a significant majority. The Tenth Parliament, though placed with the enormous responsibility to mid wife crucial reforms, has proven it can easily turn to a theatre of the absurd where political wheeler dealing, regional supremacy battles and party politics take precedence over national agenda.

The abortive censure Motion against Agriculture Minister William Ruto lend credence to these concerns when accusations flew and Cabinet ministers sparred in full glare of cameras. Debate veered off from the critical issue of the food crisis facing the country, exposing about 10 million Kenyans to starvation, to narrow political scheming and blackmail. It is hardly surprising that Kenyans are disillusioned with the political class as evident on Thursday when President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga endured a tongue lashing over graft and misrule.

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