The last hurdle to new prime minister
Story by SATURDAY NATION Team
Publication Date: 2/23/2008
Only a constitutional amendment seemed to stand in the way of the long-awaited settlement to the country’s post-election crisis Friday after a day of long talks and factional consultations.
President Kibaki’s negotiators appeared to have accepted the legal proposals put forward by the drafting committee but insisted that they should not be anchored in the Constitution.
On the ODM side, the negotiators insisted that such landmark changes in the government structure must be supported by an amendment to the Constitution.
This would avoid the possibility of someone going to court to challenge the legality of the new government.
Last night, the PNU negotiators left Serena Hotel and headed straight to Harambee House to hold further consultations.
The ODM team was also expected to brief their leader Raila Odinga, who is out of the country.
The talks chairman, Mr Kofi Annan, issued a statement saying that the teams had been given a weekend off to go and consult with their principals.
Mr Annan appealed to President Kibaki and Mr Odinga to give clear instructions to their negotiators to enable the talks to move forward.
Earlier, the talks which were expected to start in the morning did not take off until midday when the two teams finally occupied their positions at the Serena Hotel.
The delay was apparently caused by the government team which held lengthy consultations with President Kibaki in his Harambee House office in the morning.
The President met with the mediators, a team of Cabinet ministers he appointed to spearhead peace and reconciliation efforts in the country, then held talks with the incoming chairman of the African Union Commission Jean Ping.
It is understood that the President discussed with mediators the legal proposals that would lead to a coalition and the kind of powers that should be ceded to a prime minister.
It was also understood that the powers which were being proposed for the PM were causing discomfort in the Party of National Unity ranks who were asking that the government negotiators should not give away too much.
At the Serena Hotel, the venue of the talks, the legal working group of Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua and Mbooni MP Mutula Kilonzo, ODM’s James Orengo and William Ruto held a marathon meeting from 12.05 pm to fine-tune the legal draft.
But Ms Karua left the meeting at 6.30 pm and the hotel precincts without a word leaving behind the three to continue with the work.
Earlier, Mr Annan’s personal assistant, Mr Nasser Ega-Musa, had told the press that the legal team was still working and that they would go to report to the negotiators later in the night.
“It is beyond what we expected, but at the end of their session, they will have to go into plenary. It is at the end of the plenary that we will decide whether or not to hold a press conference,” he said.
As the talks progressed into the night, ODM MPs held a Parliamentary Group meeting in Parliament Buildings where they announced that they would call for mass civil disobedience on Wednesday if the Annan talks fail to yield tangible results.
They insisted that they were demanding a Prime Minister with executive powers.
It also emerged that Mr Odinga had flown out of the country Friday in a chartered flight to South Africa in what party officials said was a private visit. This is Mr Odinga’s first foreign trip since the disputed presidential elections.
Sabatia MP Musalia Mudavadi, who is leading the ODM negotiating team to the peace talks being chaired by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan said Mr Odinga will be back in Nairobi at the weekend “but we are in constant touch with him”.
Mr Odinga is visiting South Africa at a critical stage of the negotiations which is the home of Mr Cyril Ramaphosa who the government turned down the proposal to join Mr Annan’s group of African Eminent Persons.
The South African politician-cum-businessman could have joined former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and former South African First Lady Graca Machel who are in Mr Annan’s team.
Sources in ODM said Mr Odinga was going to South Africa, then move on to Nigeria.
As Mr Odinga headed south, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka flew out to Kigali, Rwanda, to brief President Paul Kagame on the ongoing negotiations.
Mr Musyoka met Mr Kagame in State House Friday. President Kagame had earlier called for a military solution to the Kenyan crisis.
It is understood that President Kagame repeated his warning to the Kenyan government to find a quick solution to the conflict in the country to avoid violence spiralling to dangerous levels.
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