President William Ruto and Azimio leader Raila Odinga’s teams in the bipartisan talks have sharply differed on four key issues.
The dialogue team chaired by National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has among other issues hit a deadlock on the impending boundaries review as well as reconstitution of IEBC.
The points of departures are contained in the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) document christened 'harmonised unbundling of the framed issues'.
According to the document, the Bomas team has also locked horns on how to navigate the skyrocketing cost of living, whether or not to audit the 2022 presidential elections as well as boundaries delimitation.
The sticky issues, according to sources, are key to the success of the process that comes months after a similar initiative suffered a stillbirth.
Azimio has been pushing for creation of a new constitutional entity to handle the impending boundaries review, a position that Kenya Kwanza has objected.
According to Kenya Kwanza, the delimitation of boundaries should be left to the reconstituted Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
But the opposition argues that the electoral agency should not have both elections and boundaries reviews, citing the pressing timelines.
It is also Azimio’s position that with new commissioners in office, they may be overwhelmed handling the two gigantic tasks which require institutional memory.
Ruto men have also been pushing for talks on filling of vacancies in the commission.
The Minority side wants the talks to explore on the constitutional, legal, policy and administrative arrangements, poll preparations, declaration of results, dispute resolution as well as monitoring and evaluation of election outcome.
There was however concurrence to have the delimitation done within the constitutional deadline.
“The forthcoming constituency boundaries delimitation should be done within the deadline envisioned by the Constitution,” the document of the bipartisan team read.
The Constitution provides for periodic review of the names and boundaries of constituencies at intervals of not less than eight years, and not more than 12 years.
With the review having happened in March 2012, a new boundaries review must happen by March 2024.
Another obstacle awaiting the Bomas team is clamour to audit 2022 presidential election results that gave Ruto victory with 200,000 votes over his main rival Raila.
While Kenya Kwanza maintains that last year's results issue was settled at the Supreme Court and not keen on any talks around it, their counterparts want a though forensic audit of the same.
In Raila team, the forensic audit should settle once and for all the ‘winner’ of the closely contested poll.
Azimio is yet to concede defeat and recognise Ruto as the President and has on several occasions called for the audit of the presidential election servers.
Surprisingly, both teams are in agreement for a public inquiry on interference with electoral process in 2022 but differ sharply on what should be the focus of such inquiry.
According to Kenya Kwanza, the public inquiry should be centered on the alleged attempts by state functionaries to interfere with the declaration of the outcome of the polls.
On the other hand, the opposition wants the inquiry to reveal intrigues that led to commissioners taking differing positions on the 2022 results.
The two sides also differed on the entrenchment of NG-CDF, National Government Affirmative Funds as well as Senate Oversight Funds, with Azimio insisting that the proposal is subjected to the people through a referendum.
Azimio also wants fate of four former IEBC commissioners determined regarding their tenure and compensation. They are Juliana Cherera, Justus Nyang'aya, Irine Masit and Francis Wanderi.
The team that is resuming talks on Thursday has also differed on the cost of living. Azimio is still pressing for the repeal of Finance Act 2023, which they claim has imposed punitive tax measures on struggling Kenyans.
However, Kenya Kwanza is not keen on any talks around the cost of living citing the robust policies the government has put in place to address the matter.
The committee has gained almost a near unanimous consensus on the need to entrench into law the offices of Leader of Opposition as well as the Prime Cabinet Secretary.