NASA presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta at KICC during a past event. Analyst says that it is only after isolating Uhuru and Raila from their hardliner advisers that a deal on the ground rules that will facilitate October 26 election, will be struck. [the-star.co.ke]In order to be able to craft ground rules successfully ahead of repeat presidential poll, President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA leader Raila Odinga may have to meet face-to-face.Columnist and Political analyst Macharia Gaitho says that the stubbornness exhibited by both Jubilee and NASA indicate that hard-liners have taken over, limiting room for a negotiated settlement that would be critical ahead of the elections."Even Mr Chebukati seems to believe that the answer would lie in bringing President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga face-to-face across the negotiation table, thereby cutting out the extremists from both sides and allowing the principals to strike a deal," Gaitho writes on Friday's Daily Nation.He quotes IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati as saying: "Next time we want principals to come in person. We don’t want generals to cause sideshows here ahead of the election. We must meet sooner rather than later.”This strategy, Gaitho writes, borrows from the playbook of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who brokered the political settlement that ended the 2007/08 post-election violence with a power-sharing deal between President Mwai Kibaki and Mr Odinga.He notes that it was only after Annan isolated President Kibaki and Odinga at a retreat away from their respective bands of hard-liner advisers, that a deal was struck.

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