Annan charm: Cabinet to be named Sunday

NAIROBI, April 3 - President Mwai Kibaki will announce the new coalition cabinet on Sunday, breaking a deadlock over the core component of a landmark power sharing deal reached in February.

After a near two hour meeting with the President, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) boss Raila Odinga told journalists that they have finally agreed on the size of the new cabinet.

The merged government structure will be made up of 40 ministers.

President Kibaki and Odinga have been in discussions for more than two weeks now, and the announcement will come as a relief to anxious Kenyans.

“I told you people that these issues need time to discuss so that an agreement is reached. Today we have reached some agreement about the size of the cabinet,” Odinga stated.

Their meeting on Thursday comes amid pressure from the civil society and the international community to quickly name the cabinet.

The ODM leader confirmed that the new ministers would be sworn in on Saturday, March 12.

President Kibaki and Odinga had resumed negotiations Thursday on the formation of the Coalition Government, a day after civil society groups and the international community raised the red flag over the delay in naming the unity government.

The latest pressure came from Chief Mediator Kofi Annan, and the European Union (EU).

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel said the impasse was causing "uncertainty and anxiety" in the country and beyond.

In a statement, Michel said the two principals ‘should assume fully their joint responsibility and come to definite decisions for the sake of Kenya’.

On Thursday, the President arrived at his office at 10am for talks with senior World Food Programme officials visiting Kenya, and Odinga arrived for negotiations two hours later, before emerging with the good news.

The deadlock in naming the new cabinet was centred on disagreements over its size, portfolio balance and the names proposed to the team.

The government side was demanding a cabinet with 44 members, whom they said should be ‘clean’ and ‘credible’.

Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula explained this as those with no court cases, especially revolving around corruption, and those involved in the recent post poll violence over disputed elections that claimed more than 1,000 lives.

The ODM side was asking for 34 ministers and an equal balance of high profile ministries.