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Kenya Cabinet Choices Anger Foes

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By KATHARINE HOURELD, The Associated Press

Published: January 9, 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya - This country's president named half his Cabinet on Tuesday, angering opposition leaders who accuse him of stealing the recent election and undermining mediation attempts for a power-sharing agreement to end violence that has left more than 500 dead.

In the hours after President Mwai Kibaki announced his Cabinet appointments, police fired over the heads of youths who set up a roadblock of burning tires in the western town of Kisumu, according to a resident there.
Political violence in some areas since the East African nation's disputed Dec. 27 presidential election had deteriorated into clashes between other tribes and Kibaki's Kikuyu, which has long dominated Kenya's politics and economy.

Salim Lone, spokesman for opposition leader Raila Odinga's party, repeated the party's call for no demonstrations, saying it did not want to undermine African Union-mediated talks expected to begin today.

"We think that the announcement of the Cabinet was a slap in the face for all the effort that Kenyans and the international community is making to avoid the crisis," Lone said.

Earlier Tuesday, Odinga rejected an invitation from Kibaki for talks, calling it "public relations gimmickry" and charging the president with "trying to deflect attention from and undermine" international mediation.

One proposed solution was for Kibaki and Odinga to share power. But Cabinet members announced by Kibaki, among them his vice president, included no portfolios for members of Odinga's party. Most posts went to members of Kibaki's party.

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