VP: Saitoti was to become First PM in Narc regime
Last updated on 16 Jun 2012 00:00
BY STEVE MKAWALE
The late Internal Security Minister George Saitoti was to be appointed First Deputy Prime Minister in the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) Government had President Kibaki honoured the pre-election Memorandum of Understanding.
Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka let the cat out of the bag Friday during the requiem Mass for Prof Saitoti when he recalled how he had dropped his presidential ambition and signed the MoU in which Raila Odinga was to become Prime Minister after the 2002 General Election.
Musyoka also alluded to a ‘Protocol Agreement’ he signed with Saitoti and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta for a joint bid in the 2012 General Election.
“Mr President, I don’t know if you can recall that Prof Saitoti, who is a mathematician signed without delay the MoU in which he was to become the first Deputy Prime Minister,” he said, as he eulogised the late Kajiado North MP.
The late Wamalwa was to become Kibaki’s Vice- President given that he was his running mate in 2002. It is not clear who was to become the second Prime Minister.
Joint bid
President Kibaki, then the National Alliance of Kenya (NAK) party flag bearer, entered into an accord with Prime Minister Odinga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the late Vice- President Michael Wamalwa’s Ford-Kenya for a joint bid against Kanu’s presidential candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta.
But moments after assuming office, the National Rainbow Coalition disintegrated, leading to Odinga and Kalonzo being kicked out of the Cabinet after spearheading the rejection of the Proposed Constitution.
President Kibaki dissolved the Cabinet after his side ‘Yes’ side lost in the referendum. He co-opted opposition politicians, among them former Nyaribari-Chache MP Simeon Nyachae, then in Ford-People, into the Cabinet.