Kenya's rivals trade blame in cabinet delay

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's political rivals traded accusations on Saturday over a last-minute delay in naming a coalition cabinet, the crux of a power-sharing deal to end the country's bloodiest crisis in 45 years of independence.

Bickering over the cabinet started almost immediately after the announcement on Thursday that President Mwai Kibaki's allied parties and opposition leader Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) would split 40 ministries evenly.

The cabinet's formation is seen by Kenyans and investors as a sign that the east African nation is ready to leave behind the post-election violence that killed at least 1,200 people and displaced 300,000 more.

Kibaki and Odinga, who will become the prime minister under a peace deal brokered in February by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, were under heavy local and international pressure to break a month-long deadlock on the cabinet.

By Saturday evening, a meeting to work out the final details and submit the names of ministers had not happened and both sides were accusing the other of publicizing the incorrect division of ministries.

"The widely expected announcement tomorrow of a new cabinet that all Kenyans were so keenly awaiting has been delayed," opposition spokesman Salim Lone said in a statement.

Odinga called Kibaki's list "unacceptable", and Lone said the party "has already made numerous concessions, such as a bloated cabinet of 40 members, which have gone against the strong wishes of ... most Kenyans".

MEETING UNCERTAIN

Shortly afterward, the government laid the blame on Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

"Today, President Mwai Kibaki requested Hon. Raila Odinga to submit his proposals for appointments into the cabinet. The president is yet to receive the list," government spokesman Alfred Mutua said in a statement.

He said Kibaki had called Odinga to a meeting on Sunday "to finalize consultations".

Lone said it had not been decided if Odinga would meet the president.

The two former allies split in 2005, with Odinga blaming Kibaki for reneging on a promise to create a prime minister's position for him after the incumbent was first elected in 2002.

That sense of betrayal propelled Odinga as he and Kibaki vied in what became the nation's closest-ever presidential election on December 27.

The fury over Kibaki's disputed re-election prompted rioting and ethnic killings which harmed the shilling currency, stock market, tourism and economic growth, eroding Kenya's image as one of Africa's most stable, promising states.

One thing both sides agree on is that Kibaki's side will retain the finance ministry, meaning current Finance Minister Amos Kimunya is almost certain to stay in his job.

Besides their own rivalry, both ODM and Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and its allied parties faced internal struggles for the plum and lucrative ministerial jobs.

The previous cabinet had 32 members and many civil society groups and ordinary Kenyans complained about the new one's size.

It will be the biggest since independence from Britain in 1963 and by some estimates will cost about $1 billion a year. That is nearly 5 percent of Kenya's 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) of $21.2 billion, the latest reported by the World Bank.

"Clearly this is an enormous expense on the economy, but frankly it is the better of two bad options. The better option is to have a functioning government where at least they are in place," stock analyst Aly-Khan Satchu told Reuters.

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(Editing by Caroline Drees)