How late night talks broke law stalemate

• House unanimously votes for retreat to reach consensus on new constitution

A Monday night meeting between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and members of the MPs’ consensus initiative broke the deadlock in Parliament and paved the way for members to discuss the proposed constitution before it is formally debated.

And on Tuesday MPs from across the political divide voted unanimously to go for the three-day retreat at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA), starting Wednesday, as it emerged that Parliament lost Sh4 million for failing to honour last week’s meeting in Naivasha.

Support retreat

Sources said 15 members of the consensus initiative, led by Garsen MP Danson Mungatana, met the PM at Parliament Buildings and prevailed upon him to support the retreat, which was meant to enlighten lawmakers on the draft and agree on a common position on outstanding issues.

Mr Odinga was kept abreast of the resolutions of the meeting, which was held by more than 85 MPs at County Hall.

The PM, multiple sources said, told the MPs he had no problem with the retreat in as long as it was not meant to broadly amend the draft presented by the Committee of Experts.

He also agreed that ODM MPs would attend the retreat, a clear departure from the party’s earlier position. He said that the party must not be seen as the one opposed to consensus.

On Tuesday morning, Mr Odinga worked hard to convince ODM MPs to attend the retreat. The MPs and the party’s National Executive Council members cautioned that those pushing for the retreat had hidden motives.

In Parliament, MPs agreed to attend the retreat with a “clean conscience” and “put all their cards on the table.”

Gwassi MP John Mbadi (ODM) said he had changed his mind to support the three-day workshop so that his colleagues who had not read the document can have a chance to read it.

“Some of us believe that this document is for lawyers; please take time to read it. It is straight forward,” Mr Mbadi said.

Demonise CoE

“I will be failing in my duty if I don’t warn this House that even as we build consensus, we are making a constitution for Kenyans… don’t demonise the CoE,” he said.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka said the retreat was an opportunity for Parliament to bring positive change.

“A time comes when we have to speak in one voice and if we do so, we’ll emerge as statesmen and women,” Mr Musyoka said, reminding the House that history had shown that writing a constitution was no mean feat.

House Speaker Kenneth Marende asked MPs to attend the retreat because that’s where “it matters most”.

Moving the motion, PNU chief whip George Thuo pleaded with MPs to ensure that the House “has the honour to deliver where others have failed.”

The House Business Committee had met earlier and endorsed the adjournment to next Tuesday. Nominated MP Amina Abdalla (Kanu) asked the Speaker to direct the House on the procedure of voting on amendments when the draft is debated next week.