The bipartisan team pushing for a truce between President William Ruto and Azimio leader Raila Odinga has finally embraced a hybrid route.
The delegates from both camps have agreed to integrate both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary processes in resolving the fronted issues. Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo chairs the Azimio team, with Tharaka MP George Murugara chairing the Kenya Kwanza faction. The new agreement will see the bipartisan team conduct the talks outside of parliament with regular parliamentary consultation on a need basis. The Rarieda MP on Wednesday morning confirmed the arrangement.
“We settled on a hybrid process, where we recognised that Parliament may have a role. We agreed that we would engage Parliament where necessary but otherwise, the process essentially is outside of Parliament,” Otiende said.
The team rejected the option of formalizing their engagement through an executive order on the account that it might result in massive constitutional amendments probable of facing the same headwinds witnessed with the Building Bridges Initiative. The Supreme Court pronounced the BBI unconstitutional on the grounds that retired President Uhuru Kenyatta initiated it.
Mr Otiende while speaking on Tuesday appreciated the efforts of the joint committee, saying that they will resume negotiation on Wednesday. He added that both the faction reached a decent compromise of merging the traditional parliamentary process with the extra-parliamentary process. The nature of the talks was one of the issues that the joint committee strived to agree on.
“We discussed and ruled out the one of Executive Order for a number of reasons including the BBI experience. In so far as this process can end up in some constitutional amendments, we do not want the team to be initiated by the President,” Otiende said.
MP Otiende exuded confidence in smooth negotiations ahead, saying that they will now proceed to discuss interim measures.
