Kenyan leaders reach cabinet deal
12/04/2008| IslamWeb
Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan president, and Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, have struck a deal on a power-sharing cabinet after secret one-on-one talks to end a six-week impasse.
Sources close to the talks said that president Kibaki and would-be prime minister Odinga had reached a coalition government agreement on Saturday.
"There is a deal and the cabinet will be announced tomorrow (Sunday)," the sources close to the talks said.
A diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity also said the deal had been reached and would be announced on Sunday.
The formation of a power-sharing cabinet is the key element of a deal to end the east African nation's post-election crisis in which 1,200 people died and more than 300,000 were displaced.
There were no immediate details about the make-up or size of the cabinet, nor about whether either side gave up on claims to influential ministries they had haggled over.
Spokesmen for Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and the government declined to comment.
The two leaders had agreed to announce a coalition cabinet on April 6. But the deal fell apart at the last minute, unsettling Kenyans and investors fearful of a return to violence.
Over the past week, Kibaki and Odinga have urged calm and said their positions were not that far apart.
However, both refused to budge and said it was the responsibility of the other.
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