Nairobi, Kenya: Deputy President William Ruto will be missing the second national holiday under the Jubilee administration.
Charity Ngilu
Ruto will be in Brussels, Belgium where he will join Kenyans living in Europe in celebrations to mark Mashujaa Day.
Back home at the Nyayo National Stadium, the venue of the national celebrations, a protocol challenge is unfolding.
On June 1, 2013, Mr Ruto missed the first Madaraka Day celebrations under the Jubilee government, coming when he was away on official duty in Asia.
In his absence, the honours fell on Mining Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala to invite President Uhuru Kenyatta to deliver his first Madaraka Day speech.
Balala was invited by Nairobi County Governor Evans Kidero to invite the President.
Balala away
Balala is out of the country on a mission to woo support for Kenya’s request at the UN Security Council.
So who will invite the president to address the nation? Lands Cabinet Minister Charity Ngilu is the only other principal in the Jubilee Alliance holding a Cabinet position.
If Ngilu invites President Kenyatta to deliver his speech, she will be the first woman in Kenya’s 50 years of independence to perform that noble duty at national celebrations.
But there are those who argue that Kidero, as the governor of the county that hosts the national political and commercial capital, can also welcome the President, since he has done so in other forums, even of international nature.
During his local tours out of Nairobi, Kenyatta is mostly invited to speak by governors of the counties he is visiting. The first governor to have performed this duty was Jack Ranguma of Kisumu County, during the burial of former Knut secretary general David Okuta Osiany.
By STEPHEN MAKABILA, The Standard
