Judging from the opening session of Parliament on Tuesday, it looks like it is going to be a long political year in Kenya

Parliament members, meeting for the first time since Kenya’s election crisis erupted last month, shouted at one another for an hour and a half over how to vote for a new speaker — whether the vote should be in secret — and then shouted some more when it came time to decide where to put the ballot box

In the end, opposition leaders prevailed in the first political skirmish since the disputed election, installing their candidate in the influential position of the Parliament’s speaker

It took three heated hours

“You went into the elections with secret ballots, and you stole the vote,” shouted William Ruto

“Genocide!” members of the president’s party hissed back at him

“Can we now proceed, please?” an exasperated clerk asked

Neither side has been willing to give an inch

Mr. Kibaki and Raila Odinga

each claiming to have won the presidency