By OSCAR OBONYO
There are signs that the life of the Grand Coalition could end the same way it started four years ago â on a turbulent note.
The unhappy marriage between ODM and a PNU-led coalition, sealed to end a political crisis, comes to a close within a year. While it has had its honeymoon periods from time to time, there has been no shortage of domestic disturbances, either playing out in public or behind closed doors.
Gone Full Circle: The beginning was rough. Now the Grand Coalition is headed for troubled waters again as President and Prime Minister clash on four crucial issues [Photo: File/Standard]
The latest issues causing rifts between the two coalition partners are so explosive they will require significant goodwill and statesmanship from President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to avoid raising political temperatures in a country still healing from the rifts caused in 2007.
Trouble is brewing between the two on four clear battlefronts â the date of the next election, the Devolution Bill, the composition of the Police Service Commission, and the Governmentâs position on the International Criminal Court process.
That Kibaki and Raila have taken hard and conflicting stands on these issues is a pointer to the friction ahead. Government Joint Chief Whip, Jakoyo Midiwo, says the issues are so dear to the PM and his ODM party, they must be pushed through.
Disagreement over the election date has proved particularly explosive, with the Judiciary and the electoral commission caught in the crossfire after public statements on the matter by the President and Prime Minister.
A planned meeting between the two to settle the issue failed to take off, as did an Appeals Court hearing that may have informed it.
Dennis Onyango, the Director of Communication in the PMâs Office, said there was no need for the meeting, as it had been pre-empted by events preceding it, including the electoral bodyâs announcement of the election date.
Days before the scheduled meeting, President Kibaki seemed to imply preference for the option of a March 2013 election proposed in a constitutional courtâs advisory opinion in January. This was in a clarification to an offhand remark that suggested he favoured elections "at the end of this year".
This confusion prompted the PM to restate his preference for a December 2012 poll, which was the second option provided for in the advisory opinion. He later went ahead to slam the constitutional court for its judgement, for which he has since apologised.
