The
last hurdle to new prime minister
Publication Date: 2/23/2008
SATURDAY NATION - NAIROBI
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. 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.
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.