Reverse gear in Naivasha

By Beauttah Omanga

Some members of the Parliamentary Select Committee appeared to engage reverse gear on consensus on pure presidential model, throwing the second round of their retreat into confusion.

Some members of the House committee on review upon which President Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and a key committee of Cabinet thrust the task of forging consensus on contentious clauses, yesterday literally made one step backward.

PSC members at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha, on Tuesday. photo: Antony Gitonga/Standard]

Calls were made for a model hinging on the current all-powerful presidency whose critics argue compares well with imperial royalty. This push, largely by Party of National Unity side, was met with Orange Democratic Movement’s declaration it is a presidential system checked by strong and effective devolvement of power, or it would

Support a parliamentary system.

An exasperated PSC chairman, Abdikadir Mohammed, who had earlier assured Kenyans 90 per cent of the work had been covered and the team would hand over the amended draft to the Committee of Experts on Friday, conceded the team’s progress had been jolted.

"Even though we had concluded the Executive Chapter, we have been forced to revisit it due to some reasons. But we are making progress and we are optimistic we shall reach consensus on all issues, including the contentious ones by the end of tomorrow," said Mr Abdikadir.

The smooth-sailing witnessed since Monday when PSC regrouped was also said to have been rocked by a fresh demand by a section that the President in its adopted model, be however, allowed to pick half of the ministers from among MPs.

The differences in the retreat were also fired up by fresh disagreement on the number of regions, with PNU asking for 33 and ODM sticking to 18, as previously agreed. Sources revealed this has undermined the PSC’s work and no single Chapter has been comprehensively covered.

No deal

The PM’s advisor on Coalition matters Miguna Miguna, who is a member of ODM’s technical team and is also in Naivasha, penned an opinion piece in which he revealed there has been no deal on the system of government.