Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki will announce a coalition Cabinet on Sunday following talks with opposition leader Raila Odinga, officials said, confirming the rivals have ended protracted negotiations over how to implement a power-sharing deal.
Kibaki and Odinga made "a breakthrough" in daylong talks Saturday at an official presidential residence outside the capital, Nairobi, the president's office said in a statement.
The new Cabinet will be announced at 4 p.m. (1300GMT).
Kibaki and Odinga agreed in February to share power after weeks of deadly violence following the country's disputed presidential election on Dec. 27.
They were expected to announce a new coalition government once parliament quickly passed laws to legalize the power-sharing deal in March, but the men did not work out how to implement the accord, with both sides trying to secure the most powerful positions in a new Cabinet.
Kibaki and Odinga had said they would announce a new Cabinet on April 6, but they did not do so after failing to reach agreement on how to divide a 40-member Cabinet.
Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement party had suspended talks with Kibaki on Tuesday, saying the president must first dissolve the current Cabinet and share the posts equally.
The public has grown increasingly impatient with Kibaki and Odinga. For three days this week, scuffles broke out in Kenya's largest slum, Kibera, between the police and people protesting the Cabinet delay. There were no reports of injuries.
Kibera was the scene of some of the worst postelection violence in January and February, which killed more than 1,000 people and displaced around 300,000 across the country of 36 million.
Kibaki and Odinga also came under international pressure this week to reach agreement, with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling them on Monday and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressing dismay at the delay.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar