Kenya expects to seal deal on power sharing today

A POLITICAL deal to end Kenya’s post-election crisis is expected today, with the two sides having largely agreed on a government structure, including a prime minister’s post, officials said yesterday.

The prime minister’s post is a huge demand of the opposition, which accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the December 27 election. The agreement could mark a breakthrough in a political crisis that has unleashed weeks of violence leaving more than 1,000 people dead.

The election, which observers say was rigged, returned Kibaki to power for a second five-year term after opposition leader Raila Odinga’s lead evaporated overnight. The controversy has stirred grievances over land and poverty that have bedeviled Kenya since independence in 1963.

Mutula Kilonzo, a top government negotiator, said “we have more or less agreed on a non-executive prime minister but with some substantial meaningful responsibilities”.

According to a statement from former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s office, the sides “outlined a joint proposal, that had been largely agreed, on the governance structure”.

Kenya’s opposition on Wednesday had threatened mass protests unless serious work to put power-sharing into the constitution starts within a week — the latest sign the country remains delicately balanced on the edge of violence despite weeks of peace talks.

Much of the bloodshed has pitted other ethnic groups against Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, long resented for dominating politics and the economy.