If indeed a breakthrough has occured in the constitutional review stalemate, then that is wonderful. But one gets the sneaky feeling that Prof Yash Ghai, the optimist he looks to be, is not speaking for everybody.

Already, there are rumblings from some elements in Ufungamano that Prof Ghai needed to wait a little longer until his mediation mission was fully and satisfactorily concluded. There are still outstanding points of disagreement, and even the Rev. Mutava Musyimi, the public face of the Ufungamano team, was saying on Thursday that the Ghai-imposed deadline of January 31could be missed.

Sure, differences remain. It is not yet clear whether the issue of parity on the number of commissioners both sides will bring has been cleared. And even if that is sorted out, the whole vexing issue of philosophy and approach in rewriting the Constitution will have to be confronted.

Still, there is no mediation which can go on forever. Time frames are essential. And one needs to keep in mind that the alternative to the persistent search for a middle ground is failure. From the word go, Prof Ghai had demonstrated his integrity by delaying taking the oath until he could persuade both sides to come together. If by finally taking this oath he sought to prod the process into coming to a close, that is a relief.

You don't need to be a fan of Prof Ghai's to appreciate what he is trying to do. One has to admire his grit amidst the bitter divisions he has been struggling to wade through. On one hand has been the Kanu-NDP hardliners, who have been loudly grumbling that Prof Ghai had better start work on the job he was called for instead of wasting weeks trying to coddle the "anarchists" at Ufungamano.

From the latter side, Prof Ghai has encountered the scorn of some smart Alecs who believe the professor is a softie with no clue he is being set up by the powers that be. Play statesman as much as you like, they chide Ghai behind his back, but you will soon realise who exactly you are dealing with.

Still, the stolid Prof Ghai has perservered. Only an exceptionally strong-hearted person could keep going in this poisoned atmosphere. It is a miracle he did not succumb to the temptation of packing his bags up and returning to his academy job in Hong Kong.

Despite whatever misgivings, anybody who wants to scuttle Prof Ghai's initiative at this stage will risk looking tiresome. If truth be said, quite a number of busybodies at Ufungamano appear so already. The clergymen and moderate politicians involved may understand the wisdom of seeking compromise, but there are certain other so-called "stakeholders," going variously by the tag of lobbyists and activists, who have managed to turn the whole thing into a farce. Unfortunately, the extremists have managed to cow the moderates through sheer intellectual fiat.

Consider somebody like Hon Kiraitu Murungi, who ordinarily does not come across as a frivolous gentleman. Still he saw no problem, many weeks after Prof Ghai first arrived, to call into question the man's legimitacy in chairing the constitutional review commission. Reason? Some obscure technical points of law, one of which is that he has not practised law in Kenya since God-knows-when. Surely, Mr Murungi, is that what matters more than making sure the constitutional reform work takes the correct path?

One is reminded of John Harun Mwau, he of the slogan "Think, Work and Grow Rich," who once went to court seeking a ruling that the government was illegally in office because the President upon nomination had failed to list the names of his seconders in the prescribed format – a foolscap. The curious thing is not that the suit was thrown out, it was that some judge thought that it merited to be listened to.

There is no doubt that the "lobbyists" have played a vital role in clarifying and putting into perspective the constitutional issues in dispute. Yet the discordant voices coming from there have sometimes played into the hands of the Kanu-NDP side who have busily fostered the view that Ufungamano is but a nest of eccentric and maverick noises which can never be transformed into anything workable. The ideas certainly they have, the problem is the growing perception that some of those allied to Ufungamano never miss the slightest opportunity to split hairs.

Muungano wa Mageuzi, for one, has been telling anybody who can listen that the Ghai Commission, from the Act of Parliament that created it, is illegal. There we are, with one faction telling us the whole thing is useless. So where does this leave us? Nobody knows. Mageuzi, apart from telling us to come out en masse for their rallies, don't tell us the next stop on their road-map.

Then comes the National Convention Executive Council, better known as the NCEC. To restate its reservations over a merger of the Parliamentary and Ufungamano teams would be to belabour the point needlessly. Sure, the lobby group protests it is not against a merger, "in principle." Then it comes in with a raft of earnest qualifications which, while eminently intelligent, have only added to the public confusion over the entire reform process.

Behind it all, there is an important lesson Prof Ghai has bequeathed our primitive political process. And that is, without doubt, the example of the necessity of negotiation and compromise. Posturing and brinkmanship on the part of the Opposition forces in this country has become the name of the game, the trouble being it rarely takes them anywhere.

From the government side, there is the immature conviction that, when all is said and done, it is not winning the hearts and minds of its subjects which matters but the display of raw power. No wonder the country is in the fix that it is.

Prof Ghai must be commended for refusing to be trapped in either mind-set. And for demonstrating that however differently we may see things, we can still be brought together.

You either feel sorry or enraged with somebody like Dr Peter Kamau, the engineer with a PhD whose family almost fasted to death in Ngong as they awaited some unspecified vision from the Almighty.

You feel enraged, first of all, with the idiocy of his behaviour. The calculated intention of wanting to starve six innocent children – his own – in the service of some twisted belief is sick enough. Even more galling is that this is somebody whose entire academic training, as an engineer, emphasises rationality and logic, not mysticism.

You also feel terribly sorry for this pathetic man. He says he is waiting for a message from God, no less. You feel like shouting at him, when his mind clears, that the Most High is not normally in the habit of dropping by for chats with any Joe, even the holy ones.

Since time immemorial, it has been zealots and fanatics (both religious and ideological ones), not common criminals, who have caused the greatest harm in this world.

They can be gentle and soft-spoken, like Kamau. But there is always some little disturbing detail about these messiahs. We hear our engineer divorced his wife, and took up with the house-help who, by all accounts, is a simple and uncomprehending girl.

Then there was that Kibetwere fellow, the Ugandan who led thousands of believers into mass suicide last year. Oddly, the former Catholic priest, who preached the goodness of virtue, was living with a prostitute.

* This columnist can be reached at gwarigi@dailynation.com