Kenya’s president and opposition leader met to break an impasse over the naming of a power-sharing Cabinet and the government said the ministerial line-up would be unveiled later on Sunday.
President Mwai Kibaki and opposition chief Raila Odinga, the future prime minister, went to the president’s office after plans to name the cabinet, the crux of a deal to end Kenya’s post-election crisis, fell apart on Saturday.
”Mr Odinga will at that meeting reiterate that he has made numerous concessions … in the interest of a quick conclusion to the crisis gripping our country. But he will not make any further concession,” opposition spokesperson Salim Lone said.
Government spokesperson Alfred Mutua said the naming of the Cabinet would go ahead at 3pm local time.
The Cabinet is a critical part of a deal brokered in February to end the East African nation’s bloodiest political crisis, a post-election spasm of rioting and ethnic slaughter that killed hundreds of people and displaced 300 000 more.
The two men are under heavy local and international pressure to break a month-long deadlock over the Cabinet. On Thursday they announced they had agreed how their sides would share 40 ministerial jobs and pledged to name the Cabinet on Sunday.
But almost immediately, the two sides began bickering and by Saturday had published conflicting lists over how the ministries would be split up. By the evening, the two sides were trading blame and said the naming would not go ahead.
The inflated Cabinet, the biggest since independence from Britain in 1963, has angered civil society groups and many Kenyans who view it as yet another case of the country’s political elite enriching themselves from the public coffers. — Reuters