Odinga Skips Scheduled Meeting with Kibaki as Power-Sharing Agreement in Kenya Falters
By Daniel Hollingsworth
April 7, 2008 | Printer Friendly

Kenya’s Prime Minster-delegate Raila Odinga was unexpectedly absent from a meeting with President Mwai Kibaki that was expected to finalize the details of a power-sharing agreement following the disputed elections of December 2007.  The BBC reports that Odinga decided to skip the meeting after he accused Kibaki of “[reneging] on an earlier deal about the distribution of cabinet seats.”  Attempts to agree upon the division of cabinet posts between Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which won a majority of parliamentary seats, and Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) had been seen to be making progress, but now “there appears to be a complete deadlock… and the situation in the country remains tense.”

The Associated Press reports that former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was instrumental in getting the rivals to the table to negotiate an agreement, has expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress in the formation of the new government.  Odinga and Kibaki agreed in principle to cooperate in February after weeks of violence that claimed more than 1,000 lives and displaced an estimated 300,000 more.  A breakthrough in the talks was announced last week, but no details of this breakthrough were revealed, and this latest development makes clear that the two remain far apart on the final terms of an agreement.

According to a report by the East African Standard in Nairobi, Kibaki has cancelled a trip to the India-Africa Heads of State summit in India due to the stalemate.  Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula will instead attend the summit; the ministry of Foreign Affairs is at the heart of the cabinet dispute as one of the ministries jointly claimed by ODM and PNU.   

References:

BBC News: Kenya’s Kibaki snubbed by Odinga

Associated Press: Kenya delays forming Cabinet as part of peace deal (International Herald Tribune website)

East African Standard: President Cancels Trip to India (allAfrica.com)