Nairobi: Kenya's rival parties were stuck on Tuesday over how to share power despite pleas from home and
abroad for quick resolution to a crisis that has killed 1,000
people and wrecked their nation's reputation.
The majority of Kenya's people and foreign powers are eager for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to come to a political solution.
"The time for a political settlement was yesterday," US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the end of her trip
to Kenya to push for a power-sharing deal.
But Tuesday's resumption of negotiations yielded no breakthrough on the crucial issue of how Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and Odinga's Orange
Democratic Movement (ODM) can come together in government.
The government team is resisting calls by Rice, mediator
Kofi Annan and other western powers to allow a power-sharing deal or "grand coalition".
The opposition wants a virtually 50:50 arrangement, with a powerful job like a new prime minister's post for Odinga and a new vote in two years.
Government negotiator Mutula Kilonzo bristled when reporters quoted Rice to him as he walked into the afternoon session.
"Those are her own views. This is not America, this is
Kenya. We have a constitution," he said, noting a sub-committee was formed to discuss the issue of "structures of governance".
"We have a system of laws. I believe we are going to come to
a reasonable arrangement."
In a pointed statement, Kibaki's office said he was "willing
to work together and share responsibilities in government" with ODM, but any solution "must be in tandem with the current Kenyan constitution."
"President Kibaki pointed out that the current negotiations
had reached a critical stage and gave his assurance to Kenyans that he would follow through the remaining stages," it added.
The government's insistence on sticking to the constitution
- a colonial-era treaty which all sides agree is long overdue
for reform - could block any special new arrangement to
accommodate ODM like a premier's post for Odinga, analysts say.
