How Bomas talks will work more for Ruto than Raila

"They are very keen on using these talks to entrench the office of the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Cabinet Secretary and the National Government Constituency Development Fund in the constitution," says Naituli.

He argues that the Azimio side should have pushed more for tax reliefs and other cost of living issues they had raised earlier during mass protests because that was why Kenyans supported calls for dialogue.

Other political pundits also agree that creating the two offices will require a referendum, which the Kenya Kwanza side knows can be achieved through consensus.

That could, therefore, explain why Ruto's side is also eager and desperate for the talks to succeed apart from creating a calmer environment for governance.

Naituli also argues that entrenching NG-CDF may go through a referendum because the role of Parliament is specified in the Constitution as representation, legislation and oversight and additional responsibilities, therefore, will amount to altering those functions.

"I think they will have to decide whether they want the presidential or parliamentary system because most of the proposals they are making are not possible in a hybrid system of government," says Naituli.

Some factions in Azimio led by leaders from the Mt Kenya region have been forcefully repelled by the Kenya Kwanza side for attempting to derail the talks.

But as the frenzy of making submissions continues at the Bomas of Kenya, Naituli cautions Kenyans that they should not engage in a mob patchwork of defacing the supreme law based on myopic sensations, self-interest and political opportunism.

He thinks the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) that was subjected to legal scrutiny by the High Court should be a good point of reference for the dialogue team.

Centre for Multi-Party Democracy director Franklin Mukwanja advises against a total constitutional overhaul, instead asking for incremental reforms to improve and strengthen the institutions that can better implement the 2010 constitution.

Both sides appear to agree on the reconstitution of IEBC although National Dialogue Committee co-chair Kalonzo Musyoka says they have so far not agreed on how it should be done.

President William Ruto. [File, Standard]

"They want it done through a selection panel but Azimio is adamant that the IPPG way should be the means of recruiting commissioners," said one of the members sitting in the committee at Bomas.

The constitution currently provides for not more than nine commissioners including the chairperson but IEBC has since the enactment of the current constitution been managed by seven people while observing the two-third gender rule.

The IEBC secretariat led by the CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan says the process of scrutiny of election technology that Azimio is demanding is not fully defined in law.

Marjan told the Kalonzo-Ichung'wah-led committee last week that a legislative framework should be created to guide the process of scrutinising presidential election results before the Supreme Court renders a decision.

The issue of poaching MPs from the opposition by the President has also raised temperatures in opposition ranks and is also another point of departure at the NADCO talks.

"What new thing can we also do with the office of the Registrar of Political Parties to improve regulation and management of parties for better performance or to create intra-party democracy and mature multi-party democracy?" asks Mukwanja.

Asked if President Ruto's hidden hand could be behind some radical proposals like increasing the president's term limits, Naituli says it is highly likely because of the control he has on Kenya Kwanza MPs and others who have technically defected from the opposition.

Andati also contends that the president's side has already reaped benefits from the dialogue through the tranquillity the country is enjoying after Raila entered into a truce with Ruto.

Issues like the two-third gender rule that Kenya Kwanza itemized on its agenda for the talks will also resonate with women and help them manage Raila and his troops better.

"Nobody is talking about the cost of living now and yet that is what gave Azimio traction but they also don't seem to have prepared their side fully in the fight for reduction of taxes and food prices," says Andati.

The bottom line, therefore, is that the goodwill the Azimio side was enjoying because of humming on the cost of living issue is no longer there.

The clamour for more county governments has also featured in the ongoing talks with most of the demands coming from regions that support President Ruto's Kenya Kwanza side apart from Mwingi and Gucha that largely voted for Azimio in the last election.