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Kenya swears in new cabinet
Kenya has sworn in its largest power-sharing coalition with a 20-20 split in government posts.
- Agencies
- Published: 12:50 April 17, 2008
- Odinga's cabinet post is the cornerstone of the power-sharing deal.
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Nairobi: Kenya swore in a power-sharing government on Thursday to soothe fury over a disputed election that 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 months after the December 27 poll that triggered what was arguably the darkest period in Kenya's post-independence history.
"We can and must bring the cycle of violence to an end," Kibaki said.
The 41-member cabinet - Kenya's largest and costliest ever - was sworn in at the official State House residence of Kibaki, who split government posts with the party of his closest election challenger, new Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The two men met secretly at the weekend to break a six-week deadlock over forming the coalition, the cornerstone of a power-sharing deal agreed in February.
"We have been to hell and back. Never again in our history must we return to those times," Odinga said, promising that the coalition government's priority would be to help the 300,000 people 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 to traumatised Kenyans and nervous investors watching for signs of lasting peace in east Africa's biggest economy.
The shilling currency and local stock market have already rebounded from sharp falls when the country erupted into riots and ethnic killings for more than a month.
But there are doubts among Kenyans and foreign analysts over whether the government can stick together with so many diverse groups, interests and personalities now in it.
The cabinet is supposed to steer the redrafting of a new constitution within twelve months.
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