Kenyan political leaders have concludeda retreat to harmonize their position on political reforms including a newconstitution.
The two-day cabinet retreatheld at the coastal city of Mombasa ended on Saturday with an outline of aclear road map on how disputes over the new law are to be resolved, according toa statement issued after the retreat.
Theretreat in Mombasa was basically to drum up consensus and put all cabinetmembers on the same page and show unity in line with the thinking of the people,said David Ohito, a senior political reporter with the Kenyan newspaper, The East African Standard.
?It was aimed at gaining support of errant Kenyan ministers and toensure a common position on critical matters like constitution review,? hesaid.
Adraft [constitution] will be published on Tuesday, he added, plus ?the retreatalso sought to drum up support for the creation of a special tribunal whichwill try suspects of the post-election violence.?
Ohitonoted the obstacle of ?sharing of executive authority between the President andPrime Minister.? There was a technical committee nominated by both sides of thecoalition, and this committee had drafted a position paper that was to bepresented at the retreat, he said. ?But there was disagreement and they[cabinet] agreed that the committee present only an informal report.? Hesaid ?essentially that means there are some obstacles that the cabinet has toovercome in order to achieve a new constitution.?
Ohitonoted that although President Mwai Kibaki would not run for re-election becauseof the constitutional term limits, the Prime Minister Raila Odinga hasexpressed interest in running for office. ?Interesting, Odinga?s team wants thepowers of the president reduced ? that means he wants reduced powers for thatoffice should he ascend to it in the next election. It is the other team of [Mwai]Kibaki/ [Uhuru] Kenyatta that is opposed to trimming of presidential powers.They want an imperial presidency,? he said.
Ohitopointed out that the people at the grassroots have been involved throughrepresentation. ?Actually what is in the draft constitution is about 80% ofwhat the Kenyan views were two years ago.?
Becauseof constraints of money, he said, a committee of experts was used to avoidgoing around collecting views. ?However, after the draft constitution ispublished on Tuesday there will be a 30-day period for the public to factor in issuesthey feel are important.?