WUOD ALEGO STEPS IN AS ODM RUNS SCARED

Barack Obama Tuesday evening called Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi and Raila Odinga in Singapore with the message
‘Give Kenyans a new constitution’

But before the son a Kenyan father made the calls, sources said, he first sent his envoy in Kenya to State House with a written message for Kibaki and Raila. It was here Mr Michael Ranneberger was said to have delivered the message and time of the call, believed to have been set for 8pm. Obama, the most persistent leader in the West pushing Kenya to embrace constitutional reforms, intensified the pressure on the two as a key House Committee raced against time to reach consensus on sticky clauses in the Revised Harmonised Draft.


Sources revealed Kibaki and Raila took Obama’s call as the heat rose within the Grand Coalition after it turned out Raila’s Orange Democratic Movement’s idea of a pure presidential system was fundamentally different from the model Kibaki’s Party of National Unity is pushing for.

It turned out ODM’s desired pure presidential system is far more restrictive to the holder of the office and comes along with tougher checks and balances, including a stronger devolved system, than PNU expected when it welcomed ODM’s decision to dump the hybrid system.

The two groups represented in the Parliamentary Select Committee on constitution review, which is meeting in Naivasha and to which Kibaki and Raila surrendered the task of haggling for a cross-party compromise, were meeting for the second day in Naivasha yesterday.

The Americans have since late last year pushed the country’s top leadership to give the country a new constitution. Ranneberger and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Mr Jonnie Carson have repeatedly cautioned America would no longer tolerate leaders opposed to the reform agenda in Kenya.

Confidential sources familiar with the behind the scenes negotiations in Grand Coalition, opine Kenya will continue using the presidential system of government should the PSC agree on one of the two options proposed by ODM and PNU.

ODM agreed to go with a radically changed presidential system after intense negotiations and lobbying in Nairobi last week.

It also emerged ODM dropped the hybrid model because of two fears. First, Kenyans could vote it out because of believe its weaknesses are mirrored in the problematic Grand Coalition, and two, PNU made it look like Orange mandarins ‘fear’ presidential elections because it would be harder for them to win.

"The ODM side proposed that both the President and members of the Cabinet should not be MPs," said an ODM source.

Sources said ODM’s PSC members argued the hybrid system proposed by Committee of Experts would be hard to sell. "Even majority of the PSC members do not agree with the hybrid system which is not also supported by the public," said a source.

At the Naivasha retreat yesterday evening ODM delegation went into closed-door consultations before joining those from PNU to start looking at the chapter on the Executive.

It was not established what was discussed but it was widely speculated they were making last minute consultations on what they agreed last week.

PSC led by Mandera Central MP Mohammed Abdikadir converged in Naivasha on Sunday to seek a consensus on contentious issues.

During the ODM meeting on Wednesday last week, the party dropped its demand for a pure parliamentary system as earlier proposed.

The party had only a day before released a statement read by Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi emphasising it would settle for nothing less than a pure parliamentary system. The country will get completely new structures of governance under a new Constitution should the PSC meeting strike a consensus.

During the meeting chaired by Raila the team of technocrats led by Dr Mutakha Kangu and Mr Miguna Miguna it was agreed that the technocrats draft a presidential system for presentation at the meeting with PNU side the following day and that the party would accept the system. "The technocrats were reluctant, saying ODM backing presidential system would be seen to be losing the reform agenda," said the source.

Raila then laid out what would be entailed in the pure presidential system that PNU was demanding and the ODM alternative. Based on the explanation, the technocrats drew laid down the party’s definition of a presidential system.

The PNU side insisted on the retention of the current presidential system of government. The Thursday meeting ended in a stalemate because ODM demanded that the presidential system should have checks and balances.

The party said the current system is not presidential but a "hybrid and a mongrel" that has caused confusion and blurred separation of powers.

ODM said the presidential system the party wants would have a President who will not be an MP.

It argued a president could not belong to the Executive and Legislature at the same time because that kills the checks and balances that come with separation of powers.

In the current system, the President is also an MP. But he never comes to the House except in his capacity as Head of State and addresses the House from the Speaker’s chair. ODM has proposed the President does not occupy the seating position the Head of State currently enjoys.

The presidential system ODM wants will also mean that ministers are picked from outside parliament. The ODM side argued currently, ministers, who are part of the Executive, are also MPs, thus making them part of the Legislature.

"When a ministry is being probed or when its accounts are being probed, the minister sits in the House and votes on his own ministry,’’ a source revealed the party concluded in its drive for its model.

ODM wants that changed so ministers appointed from outside parliament will not be allowed to vote.

Any MP appointed minister must quit the parliamentary seat. The presidency proposed by ODM is tailored on the US or Nigeria system, where a presidential candidate picks a running mate who will be VP and then picks ministers from outside Parliament.