Hope over PM deal
Government and ODM negotiators Thursday closed ranks and agreed on the creation of the position of a Prime Minister. It was a major step in a process that may be inching closer to a break-through in the search for a settlement to end the post-election political crisis. Details of the powers and functions of the new position in Government hierarchy were yet to be fine-tuned by the mediation team chaired by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. The step could brighten the faces of thousands of Kenyans who have borne the brunt of the post-election violence and members of the international community that has consistently exerted pressure on President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga to end the political dispute.
Buoyed by the stage of the talks that are aimed at ending the crisis, chief mediator, Mr Annan said: “ I’m beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.” The news also came as President Kibaki talked in Kirinyaga where he told mourners at a funeral that the country will overcome the political crisis and return to the economic agenda. “Let us put everything before God and we will overcome all the challenges the country is currently facing,” he said. He was speaking at the burial ceremony of former security intelligence boss James Kanyotu.
And the US State Department expressed optimism on the status of the talks between the Kenyan government and opposition. “We have seen progress made through (former UN secretary-general) Kofi Annan’s efforts, working with the parties,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters in Washington. “They do have an overall framework agreement.”
Mr Casey suggested patience was needed as the two sides try to finalise an accord. “Sometimes the most difficult part of the process is having the details of some kind of a broader government and the organisation of it, who gets what ministries and all that, sometimes takes a while to work out,” he said. However, religious leaders came together under the Inter-Religious Forum to call for a fresh General Election and the disbandment of the Electoral Commission.
The faiths bringing together Christians, Muslims and Hindu argued that any of the outcome from Annan’s efforts may not be universally agreed by Kenyans. The resignation of ECK members would pave way for reconstitution by all political parties. But Thursday, the former UN boss expressed optimism when he was informed last night that the PNU and ODM negotiators were inching closer to striking a peace deal following their agreement on the powers and functions of the PM.
Two members of the mediation team spoke similar words and expressed confidence that a peace deal was on the way to end the political dispute that has plunged the country into violence since the Presidential election results were announced on December 30th. Mbooni MP Mutula Kilonzo described what they had struck as a balanced agreement that may not please everybody while his Eldoret North counterpart William Ruto stated that they were making concessions fully aware that the “weight of the responsibilities on our shoulders is high.”
Signs that the mediation team was nearly reaching a political settlement began on Wednesday when it emerged that they had agreed, in principle, to the creation of the premier’s position. They assigned the duties of drawing up the powers and functions of the PM to a working group of the mediation team that comprises Cabinet minister Martha Karua and Mr Kilonzo from the Government/PNU side, and Mr Ruto and Ugenya lawmaker James Orengo on the ODM side.
Former UN legal counsel Hans Corell from Sweden has been seconded to the working group as a facilitator. The team met on Wednesday evening until 8.30pm and came up with a draft of powers and functions that were presented to the entire mediation team Thursday morning and were endorsed before they adjourned earlier until Friday. Sources close to the mediation team, however, revealed that the proposed premier could hold non-executive powers and will be accountable to the President in the performance of his work.
Sources said that it was being proposed that the PM cannot be sacked by the President and he or she comes from the party with majority in Parliament. The issue will be discussed exhaustively Friday. The premier’s role in Parliament will also be specified by the sub-committee.
This state of affairs will prevail until the time a comprehensive review of the Constitution is carried out to allow Kenyans to define the kind of the institution of the Presidency and the powers that will either be delegated or shared with the PM and the cabinet. The premier’s position, it also emerged, will be created through an Act of Parliament on the strengths of the provisions in Sections 16 and 23 of the Constitution. The first allows the President to appoint ministers from among MPs while the second gives Parliament the powers to “confer functions on persons or authorities other than the President.”
Accordingly, the PM will be accountable to the President in the exercise of his authority, and responsible to the Cabinet and Parliament in the coordination and supervision of the functions that will be vested in him.
In terms of the duties that were agreed upon, the PM will coordinate and supervise the functions and affairs of Government ministries and departments. The premier will also allocate government responsibilities to two deputy Prime Ministers whose positions will be created in line with the deal that was struck by the mediators. The powers of the two deputy prime ministers will also be spelt out Friday by the working group. It was also agreed that the PM will keep the President fully informed on government business and will be obliged to provide any official information to the Head of state any time it is requested.
The premier, still, will be under duty to perform any other functions that he will be assigned by the President or as the written law will require of him. The step, which was a major break through in the search for political settlement, signalled the readiness of the two sides in the conflict to cede ground in their demands in order for peace to be achieved.
Hitherto, President Kibaki had stated his willingness to work with and share government responsibilities with ODM, but within the existing Constitution while a new one is being written. His negotiators on the mediation team were also holding the PM’s position should be created after 12 months when the comprehensive review of the Constitution will have been completed.
On their part, ODM negotiators were pushing for an executive Prime Minister, who will serve as the Head of Government. The position, they held, was to be created immediately through a constitutional amendment to give the holder security of tenure.
However, urgency to strike a political deal came home three days ago when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the country and held a series of meetings with President Kibaki, Mr Odinga and Mr Annan. Dr Rice urged the two sides to speedily agree on a power-sharing political settlement to end the crisis. Public anxiety has also been growing with Kenyans waiting to hear word from the Annan team about the kind of political compromise and deal that they have struck to end the violence in which more than 1,000 people have been killed and at least 350,000 displaced.
The top US diplomat met all key players and urged them to quickly agree on a coalition government to save thousands of Kenyans who have been affected by the violence that followed the disputed Presidential elections. “The time for a political settlement was supposed to be yesterday and it (agreeing on a coalition) has to be urgent. The leaders (President Kibaki and Mr Odinga) have to come together and there is need to have a power-sharing arrangement for the country to move forward,” she said.
Dr Rice said that during her separate meetings with President Kibaki and Mr Odinga, the leaders at the centre of the storm tabled different forms of coalitions, which she had passed on to the chief mediator for consideration in the mediation talks which resume Friday at the Serena.
On Thursday, it emerged that the intervention of Dr Rice worked towards the softening of stands by both sides and could be the key player in the deal to create the non-executive premier’s position.
On the mediation team, Government team comprises Cabinet ministers Karua, Sam Ongeri, Moses Wetang’ula and Mr Kilonzo while the ODM delegation is made up of MPs Musalia Mudavadi, William Ruto, Sally Kosgei and Orengo.
The team will now have to agree on the sharing of Cabinet positions and other key government posts.
On Thursday, both the PNU and ODM representatives appeared to be in jovial mood inside the negotiation room and while leaving. They chatted freely , cracked jokes and smiled in public for the first time since the negotiations started on January 29.
Ms Karua who left the meeting early, was escorted outside by ODM representative Dr Sally Kosgei as a journalist joked that they were “two powerful PNU and ODM women.” The Justice minister had a brief discussion with Dr Kosgei who is the Aldai MP and a former Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet before the Gichugu MP boarded her vehicle. And during the media photo session inside the negotiation room, Ms Karua was overheard joking that it was the first time the Press had shown the negotiators in serious prayers with their eyes closed. A front page picture in Thursday’s Nation showed the negotiators praying. The prayers were led by Mr Ruto.
Mr Annan embarked on the mission to broker a deal between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga on January 29 with the mandate of the African Union. He took over the mantle from the then AU chairman, Ghanaian President, Mr John Kufuor, under the auspices of the Panel of Eminent African Persons that include former Tanzania President Benjamin Mkapa and former South Africa First Lady Graca Machel. Top Nigerian diplomat Oluyemi Adeniji is expected to join the Panel at the talks.
Daily Nation
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