Mr Speaker

January 15, Kingston

ODM scored a major victory today by electing it's preferred candidate as Speaker of the Kenyan Parliament. Sound exiciting? It actually is (or was).

PNU, over the past few days has voiced its confidence that it would be able to re-elect Francis ole Kaparo, perennial Speaker to his post by bringing together enough MPs to win the vote. The first two rounds of the election require a two-thirds majority, and it was clear that neither side would be able to acheive this, as ODM and its ally, Narc, had a combined total of 110 seats, with the PNU/ODM-K alliance weighing in around 87, and up to 25 wild cards.

The voting went to the third round, where a simple majority is required, and ODM carried the day with Kenneth Marende receiving 105 votes to Kaparo's 101.

While this isn't a major blow to Kibaki - the speaker, after all, has limited power but is third in line to the presidency in the event of an emergency - it does strengthen ODM's position. Of course, ideally a Speaker remains impartial in carrying out his duties; but ODM flexing its collective muscle in parliament to bring in their candidate as Speaker will encourage them to continue pressing the issue of the flawed elections.

BBC reports that Pentagon member William Ruto, in a wonderful example of the kind of debate usually found in Kenya's Parliament, called for an open vote rather than secret ballot for the Speaker's vote. "We went through [national] elections with a secret ballot, and you stole the vote." he argued. This, apparently, sparked some outrage on the government side of the house. ODM was rumoured to be planning to sit on the government side in Parliament, but this didn't come to pass.

No word today yet on whether the swearing-in of MPs and election of the speaker was broadcast live on Kenyan media. The local papers had contradictory reports, one saying the live coverage would go ahead, the other saying it was banned as part of the continuing ban imposed by the government after the elections to prevent 'inciteful' reporting. Also no reports, yet, of any fall-out from the day's politicking.

Rallies planned for tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday country-wide, are still said to be banned by police.

Kofi Annan is reported to have the flu, and is thus delaying his trip to Kenya. This after yesterday's proclamations by John Michuki and George Saitoti, that he would be allowed to enter the country but had not been officially invited to help mediate anything. They said that they had no problem with the election results and thus had no reason to call for a mediator to help negotiate a solution to a problem they don't acknowledge. They're still calling on Raila and ODM to go to court if they dispute the election results, knowing full-well that it will take years in Kenyan court to get anywhere, and that's if the government is not an interested party in your case...