Can a coalition cabinet save Kenya?

last updated 8 January 2015

What happened

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga was sworn in Thursday under a power-sharing deal with President Mwai Kibaki after weeks of deadly violence sparked by disputed elections. The former presidential rivals agreed in February to share power. After weeks of wrangling over a Cabinet that will include dozens of ministers, evenly split, Kibaki named Odinga as prime minister Sunday. (AP in The Wall Street Journal)

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It won’t be easy to create harmony in a cabinet with 40 ministers and 52 assistant ministers, said Adam Mynott in BBCNews.com. And it won’t be cheap. In a country with annual per capita income under $400, the millions of dollars needed to pay for “the bloated unity cabinet” will hurt. “Some see it as a price worth paying for reconciliation after the disputed election, but many people view it as another example of the political class enriching itself on the backs of ordinary Kenyans.”

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