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Kenyan rivals to try to finalize cabinet
2008-04-07
Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki cancelled a trip to India on Monday to try to finalize a deal on a power-sharing cabinet with his main rival after they failed to reach agreement at the weekend. The joint cabinet is the key part of an accord brokered in February to end the east African nation's worst political crisis -- a post-election spasm of riots and ethnic attacks that killed at least 1,200 people and displaced 300,000 more. Kibaki had been due to join other African leaders at a two-day Africa-India summit starting in New Delhi on Tuesday, but Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula's office said he would represent Kenya "due to urgent and unavoidable State matters." The new cabinet line-up was initially due to be announced on Sunday, but Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga failed to agree on dividing up ministries. They said they still expected a deal on Monday after making "substantial progress" in talks. The shilling eased against the dollar to close at 62.35/45 to the dollar compared to Friday's 61.80/90 on fears there would still be no breakthrough on the cabinet on Monday. The violence that followed Kibaki's contested victory at a December 27 election eroded Kenya's image as a stable, prosperous country and hurt its economy, currency and stock market. "We appeal to all Kenyans to be patient," Kibaki and Odinga said in a joint statement after a meeting on Sunday. Both sides have been under intense local and international pressure to break a month-long deadlock over the cabinet. On Thursday they said they had agreed on how to share 40 ministerial jobs, but bickering broke out immediately. Sources on both sides said most of the disagreement involved just a few ministerial posts. Each side will get 20. One post not in dispute is finance, which means current Finance Minister Amos Kimunya is likely to keep his job. Salim Lone, spokesman for Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, told reporters the party had already made a concession by accepting an enlarged cabinet. He said the group had rejected a cabinet list proposed by Kibaki's Party of National Unity. In an editorial titled "Talks over cabinet becoming a charade," the leading Daily Nation newspaper warned that Kenyans' patience was running out. "As long as the agreement is not actualized we cannot be confident that we are enjoying peace and normalcy," it said. "At the moment we are merely enjoying the respite of a ceasefire as our feuding leaders try to reach accommodation." (Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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