Rice, an emissary of US President George Bush, will carry this message from him to President Kibaki and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Mr Raila Odinga, “…The US desires to see that there be a power-sharing arrangement that will help this nation resolve its difficulties”.

Power-sharing, now at the centre of the ongoing talks to broker a deal out of the crippling political impasse — and which could entail shifting some of the imperial powers of the presidency to another institution — is, in fact, a child of the much sought-after reforms.

Tragically, few lessons have been learnt after many years of false starts dating back to 1997, and billions of shillings gone down the drain, including a referendum on the draft Constitution which the Government lost.

But after failing to reform its constitution in peacetime, Kenya is now confronted with a fresh and even more urgent need to reform its constitution in the middle of a crisis.

Prof Yash Pal Ghai, a consultant during the search for a new constitution in the Kibaki-led National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) government, once remarked at the height of his frustration that if Kenya failed to reform its supreme document in peacetime, it somehow would still have to do so in turmoil.

The need for reforms is also in cognizance of the fact that while the mayhem that engulfed the country was a spontaneous response to the Electoral Commission of Kenya’s (ECK) declaration of Kibaki as winner of the 2007 presidential elections, a plethora of other underlying issues that have remained unresolved since Independence helped fuel it.

Mediators have conceded that the crisis cannot be resolved by merely dealing with the puzzle of who won the presidency and sharing out Cabinet positions.

With the international community backing the idea of power sharing, that has also strongly featured on the mediation table, there was no doubt at the weekend that a deal was shaping up along these lines.

New hardliners emerge

A political settlement that could usher in a new government is expected to be announced anytime this week. The talks, led by former UN secretary-general Dr Kofi Annan, former South African First Lady Mrs Graca Machel and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, resume tomorrow.

But a new breed of status quo proponents similar to those who blocked change in Kanu’s last days of a 24-year hegemony and another that frustrated reforms for the most part during Kibaki’s first tenure as President emerged in the form of Party of National Unity (PNU) hardliners.

Power-sharing, which the international community has openly backed and is pressuring the protagonists to accept as the most viable political settlement, appeared to be deeply unsettling for PNU.

In a seemingly well choreographed fight-back, Foreign Affairs minister Mr Moses Wetangula fired the first salvo at US President George Bush — who has backed power-sharing and which idea he branded as a constitutional landmine.

“It is not possible to reach an agreement in affront to the Constitution. We have a country, laws and a Constitution. Whatever we reach as an agreement must be within the law,” Wetangula told journalists.

“Kenya will not take the road of agreements through hurried processes influenced by foreign states. We want a fully thought-out process because this is a Kenyan problem.”

In a direct response to Bush’s call for power-sharing, Wetangula lashed out: “We will not be led, guided or given conditions by foreign states on how to reach a solution to solve the political impasse in Kenya.”

And taking the cue was a group of 10 MPs from PNU and allied parties, who gathered at Hotel Boulevard and dismissed proposals on power sharing.

The MPs also told off President Bush and several envoys, including British High Commissioner Mr Adam Wood, over what they termed as, “infringing on Kenya’s sovereignty”.

“It is unacceptable that close to 45 years after independence, we shall allow foreign domination to steal the dream we had at Independence,” said part of the statement read at the press conference attended by Mr Peter Munya (Tigania East), Mrs Beth Mugo (Dagoretti), Mr Peter Mwathi (Limuru), Ms Wavinya Ndeti (Kathiani) and Mr Dick Wathika (Makadara), among others.

ODM has proposed a power sharing arrangement that will make the President head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, but cede his role as head of government to an executive prime minister, who has two deputies.

In the proposal, the President and premier are to share executive authority with proportionality at all levels of government.

PNU, however, wants the President to remain head of State and government in the event of a grand coalition, with the President appointing members of the Cabinet as he/she wishes.

The party also insists that positions already filled in the Cabinet must not be tampered with, reflecting a hardline position.

Today will represent another busy day on the talks trail, with Rice scheduled to land at 10.30am and thereafter meet with Annan at the Serena Hotel.

She will later meet President Kibaki, ODM leader Raila, and members of the civil society and business community.

Rice is expected to later brief the media before winding up her tour of Kenya.

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More than 200 others who had taken the oath escaped because the officers who had laid the ambush were few.

The suspects, who included a class seven pupil, said they were taking an oath before they could be taken to Rift Valley for an “event” they did not know.

Meanwhile, it emerged that a special police squad that had cracked down on the sect had been secretly disbanded.

Kwekwe Squad, which has been fighting the sect’s activities since last year, was disbanded early this month in unclear circumstances.

On Sunday, police said they were tipped that there was a group of youths taking an oath in a house and that they had been there overnight.

Witnesses said the group arrived in vehicles, bicycles and on foot and proceeded to the event that kicked off at about 2am.

The house where oath taking allegedly took place is near a stream, and this makes it easy for them to escape whenever police strike.

Kayole OCPD, Mr Leonard Omolo, said the youth were ferried from Murang’a and Maragwa.

“They have confessed that they were brought here from Murang’a and Maragwa for the event,” he said.

In the house, they slaughtered seven sheep, whose blood they used in the oath-taking event.

Also recovered were several paraphernalia, 37 pangas, literature that showed where they planned to attack, five knives, sheepskins, sufurias full of fresh blood and seven head of sheep whose eyes had been gouged out.

Some of the youth confessed that they were brought there to take an oath.

Asked what they intended to use the pangas for, the youth said the recent chaos that were witnessed in parts of the country forced them to be armed.

“There could start a fight anytime and it is good for one to be ready. It can happen anytime,” said one.

By the time police arrived, at about 9am, majority of the youth aged between 14 and 28 had taken the oath and were ready to leave.

Omolo hinted that they had been informed that the exercise has been going on for the past two days and that more youths could have taken the oath.

Police have linked the sect to the killing of a man whose headless body was found lying in the sewage system in Dandora at the weekend.

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