Talks in jeopardy as ODM man walks out

Efforts by the Grand Coalition to agree on a common position on the draft constitution suffered a setback on Monday after an ODM negotiator stormed out of the talks.

Mr Miguna Miguna, the coalition adviser to Prime Minister Raila Odinga, walked out of a meeting called to resolve differences between ODM and PNU on the roles of the president and the premier under the proposed constitution.

Guidelines

The meeting of the six-member technical team, which was to prepare the guiding document for Tuesday’s final meeting of the Grand Coalition Management Committee, was called off as PNU prepared to present its own position to the Committee of Experts.

ODM presented its position last week.

On Monday, Mr Miguna said he walked out because his PNU colleagues had failed to work within guidelines agreed on last week.

“I realised we were just going round in circles,” he said.

The talks were expected to agree on a common Grand Coalition position on some of the thorny issues in the draft constitution ahead of the Thursday deadline for the public and political parties to present their views to the Committee of Experts.

Officials who attended Monday’s talks said Mr Miguna, who was leading the ODM team of legal experts, objected to a move by the two PNU representatives, Prof Kivutha Kibwana and Mr Justin Muturi, to table findings on how 53 African nations manage Cabinet appointments.

Prof Kibwana is President Kibaki’s adviser on coalition affairs, while Mr Muturi is a Kanu official.

When the two rose to speak, Mr Miguna insisted that they table the constitutions of the 53 nations for their positions to be verified.

When the PNU side maintained that they found it unnecessary to carry all the constitutions to the meeting because they were available on the Internet, Mr Miguna walked out. The move caught his co-negotiator from ODM, Mr Kangu by surprise.

The meeting would have continued but Mr Kangu expressed discomfort at proceeding in the absence of his colleague.

“He told us he did not feel comfortable enough to represent his party alone,” one of the officials at the meeting later said.

But contacted, Mr Miguna accused his PNU counterparts of trying to sneak their party’s position into the day’s agenda.

Besides Mr Miguna, Prof Kibwana, and Mr Muturi, the other members of the technical team in yesterday’s meeting included law lecturer Mutakha Kangu of ODM; and Mr Gichira Kibara and Mr Kathurima M’Inoti, both seconded to the committee by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

ODM’s third negotiator, Mr Caroli Omondi, did not attend the meeting as he was overseas on official duty.

Legal experts from the two partners had hoped to use the talks to study how various countries manage appointments to the Cabinet under a hybrid system of government where the Prime Minister’s party enjoys majority in Parliament.

This is after the Grand Coalition management committee, comprising Cabinet ministers from ODM and PNU, agreed on a hybrid system of government with a popularly elected president and a premier elected by parliament.

The technical committee was to consider four main methods of appointing the Cabinet.

The first was where the PM exclusively appoints the entire Cabinet; the second was one in which the PM appoints all ministers with the exception of the Minister for Defence and the Finance Minister; the third would have involved the president and premier sharing the appointments on a 50:50 basis while the fourth method would have involved the sharing of seats based on the parliamentary strength of each party.

PNU has reportedly been unhappy that ODM presented its proposals to the Committee of Experts despite the ongoing talks aimed at reaching a common government position.

But Mr Miguna accused his PNU counterparts of trying to sneak their party’s position into the day’s agenda.

He accused Prof Kibwana of trying to introduce to the meeting resolutions arrived at during a PNU coalition meeting held at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Nairobi earlier in the day. He also accused PNU negotiators of basing their research findings on failed states.

“We were supposed to study how functioning democracies across the world go about forming their respective governments, but they started presenting examples from Sao Tome, Togo and Morocco, which are all failed states,” he said.

It was not clear what criteria Mr Miguna used to describe the countries as failed states.

Last night, a section of the technical committee expressed fears that today’s meeting of the management committee of the grand coalition would not achieve much given what transpired on Monday.

The Grand Coalition management committee is co-chaired by Deputy Prime Ministers Uhuru Kenyatta and Musalia Mudavadi. Its members are Cabinet ministers Mutula Kilonzo, James Orengo, William Ruto, George Saitoti, Charity Ngilu, Sally Kosgei, Beth Mugo and Sam Ongeri.

Meanwhile, PNU has agreed to present its position to the Committee of Experts. The party favours a strong presidency. It is also pushing for the National Accord to be dispensed with once the new constitution is adopted.

Appointing premier

The Accord stipulates the rules governing the grand coalition. It was signed by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga on February 28 to end two months of post-election violence.

PNU wants more powers given to the president who will be elected by voters. The powers include appointing the premier, Cabinet ministers, judges and diplomats with the approval of parliament.

The party also wants a president who “has the prerogative to chair cabinet meetings, but delegates the job to the PM.”

PNU proposes the PM to be the most senior Cabinet minister and leader of government business in Parliament. The premier will coordinate and supervise the work of ministers and will chair Cabinet meetings at the request of the President.

Additional reports by Galgalo Bocha