Kenya unveils 40-seat cabinet

13/04/2008| IslamWeb

Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's president, has named an opposition leader as the country's new prime minister after talks to end months of political deadlock.

 

Raila Odinga was confirmed on Sunday as head of a new 40-member cabinet, in which power will be shared between Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

 

The division of cabinet positions between the PNU and ODM comes after violence swept Kenya due to disputes over an election held in December.

 

The cabinet was initially scheduled to be unveiled on April 6, but was put off after the two rivals failed to agree on a 50-50 share of key portfolios.

 

The new line-up will replace the current cabinet that Kibaki assembled after Odinga accused him of rigging elections.

 

"My challenge to the new cabinet members and the entire national leadership at all levels is: let us put politics aside and get to work," Kibaki said, while announcing the replacement cabinet on Sunday.

 

"Let us build a new Kenya where justice is our shield and defender, and where peace, liberty and plenty will be found throughout our country."

 

Cabinet divided

 

Cabinet posts were divided between the PNU and ODM after a power-sharing agreement between the parties was brokered by Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general, six weeks ago.

 

Uhuru Kenyatta of the PNU and Musalia Mudavadi of ODM were named deputy prime ministers as well as ministers for trade and local government respectively.

 

Mohammed Adow, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Nairobi, said that the PNU appeared to have taken the "supreme ministries" although it appeared to have shared the number of posts equally with the ODM.

 

"The PNU ... has taken some key ministries including foreign affairs, the ministry of finance, the minister of interior security, defense and energy," he said.

 

"The ODM has taken the ministries of local government, immigration, roads and the ministry of public works, among others."

 

Size questioned

 

At least 1,200 people were killed and more than 300,000 were forced to leave their homes in violence that followed the disputed polls in December.

 

Kibaki pledged that the cabinet would immediately set itself the task of helping people displaced by the post-election violence.

 

"We are ... facilitating the displaced people to resettle back on their farms as we support them and the surrounding communities with farm inputs such as seeds and fertilizers," he said.

 

"The new cabinet will priorities resettlement of the displaced people so that they can resume normal lives and play their part in nation-building," he said.

 

But Adow reported that there was a lot of pessimism in Kenya despite the breakthrough.

 

He said many people were questioning whether the cabinet could solve the country's problems.

 

"Many people here are angry about the size of this cabinet ... they say Kenya can simply not afford to pay for all the ministries as well as the cabinet's salaries," he said.

 

Civil society groups and newspapers have campaigned against the size of the cabinet.

 

Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner, said that the country could be managed more effectively by fewer ministers.

 

"The international community has no business giving money, giving advances to a government that uses that money not to develop, but rather to sustain an extravagant lifestyle," she said.

 

"One minister can have as many as three cars, huge offices, extravagant allowances in a country where the majority of people live below one dollar a day."

 

Public impatient

 

The public has grown increasingly impatient with Kibaki and Odinga.

 

For three days this week, fighting broke out in Kibera, Kenya's largest slum, between police and people protesting against the delay to form a coalition cabinet.

 

Naomi Wanjiku, who fled her home in the Rift Valley during the violence that erupted after the disputed election, asked why neither Kibaki nor Odinga had helped thousands of displaced people, before the announcement on the new cabinet.

 

"They should come and see the suffering we are experiencing," she told Al Jazeera.

 

"On the issue of the cabinet, I hear that they will be getting a lot of money. But they do not give us any, here we are living in tents. Don't they think?"

 

PHOTO CAPTION 

 

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki addresses the media during the announcement of his cabinet at state House Nairobi April 13, 2008.

 

Al-Jazeera