Empresas y finanzas
Kenya swears in historic coalition cabinet
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya swore in a power-sharinggovernment on Thursday to soothe fury over a disputed electionthat plunged the east African country into a bloody crisis.
"Our people are now in the process of reconciliation,"President Mwai Kibaki said at the ceremony, nearly four monthsafter the December 27 poll that triggered what was arguably thedarkest period in Kenya's post-independence history.
"We can and must bring the cycle of violence to an end."
The 41-member cabinet -- Kenya's largest and costliest ever-- was sworn in at the official State House residence ofKibaki, who split government posts with the party of hisclosest election challenger, new Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The two men met secretly at the weekend to break a six-weekdeadlock over forming the coalition, the cornerstone of apower-sharing deal agreed in February.
"We have been to hell and back. Never again in our historymust we return to those times," Odinga said, promising that thecoalition government's priority would be to help the 300,000people uprooted from their homes during the crisis.
More than 1,200 people died in tribally-tinged clashes.
The establishment of the new cabinet has brought relief totraumatised Kenyans and nervous investors watching for signs oflasting peace in east Africa's biggest economy.
The shilling currency and local stock market have alreadyrebounded from sharp falls when the country erupted into riotsand ethnic killings for more than a month.
But there are doubts among Kenyans and foreign analystsover whether the government can stick together with so manydiverse groups, interests and personalities now in it.
The cabinet is supposed to steer the redrafting of a newconstitution within 12 months, to help address long-simmeringissues of land, wealth and power that fuelled the crisis.
But many in Kenya expect it to descend into bickering andconcentrate more on self-enrichment than major reforms.
"It's not going to be united," housewife Unia Isaac, 32,said. "It's the common man who is going to lose a lot."
IN THE FAMILY
The inauguration makes Odinga only the second primeminister in Kenyan history. Founding president Jomo Kenyattawas prime minister for the year after independence from Britainin 1963.
Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who mediated the deal,attended Thursday's ceremony, along with Uganda's PresidentYoweri Museveni and Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza.
"Don't believe that now we have a government all isresolved and we can relax," Annan said.
"Peace is precious. Let's not lose it again."
Museveni echoed that message: "Congratulations for treatingthe disease you had. Now you have a cure, don't joke with it."
For Odinga, it marks a bittersweet ascendancy to a top job.His father, independence figure Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, wasvice president under Kenyatta but the two fell out badly.
Showing how little the political cast of characters anddynasties have changed since then, Kenyatta's son Uhuru wassworn in as one of two deputy prime ministers under Odinga.
For years, the former political prisoner Odinga has soughtto be Kenya's president and came within a few hundred thousandvotes in the December election, which Odinga said Kibaki stole.
The ensuing violence and pictures of machete-wieldingyouths who for weeks paralysed parts of Kenya seriously harmedits image as the stable, prosperous anchor of turbulent eastAfrica.
Enormous international and local pressure brought the twosides to a deal to stem the violence, but still-raw rivalrieskept the cabinet from being named for weeks.
Critics of the size of the cabinet say it will cost $1billion (500 million pounds) a year -- about 5 percent ofKenya's GDP -- to maintain, between salaries for 41 ministersand 50 assistant ministers, plus large cars, bodyguards andsupport staff.
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say onthe top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )
(Additional reporting by Wangui Kanina, Duncan Miriri,Andrew Cawthorne, Hereward Holland; Editing by AndrewCawthorne)