Annan left Kenya on March 2, leaving Oluyemi Adeniji, a former Nigerian Foreign Minister, to lead talks on remaining issues, such as land, political reforms, and the uneven distribution of wealth between various ethnic groups. On March 3, 13 people were killed in an attack near Mount Elgon that was attributed by police to the Sabaot Land Defence Force. Kibaki and Odinga met again on March 4 as part of the follow-up negotiations. Odinga said that this meeting was "very productive". On March 6, rights groups including Reporters Without Borders stated that the Kenyan media played a positive role during the violence despite being inexperienced with such situations.
Speaking in the National Assembly when it convened on March 6, Kibaki urged it to quickly pass the legislation required to implement the power-sharing agreement; he said that the people were watching and that they wanted to see "pragmatic solutions, not ideological posturing". He named four bills that the National Assembly needed to pass: the National Accord and Reconciliation Bill, a bill amending the constitution, a bill establishing the truth, justice and reconciliation commission, and a bill dealing with ethnic issues.
On March 9–10, the army attacked the Sabaot Land Defence Force near Mount Elgon; this attack included aerial bombardment. 30,000 people were reported to have fled from the army's attack, although this number was disputed and the army said that it was "not intimidating or harassing residents".
On March 10, Francis Muthaura, the head of the public service, stirred controversy by saying that Kibaki would remain both head of state and head of government and that Odinga would only rank third in the government, after Kibaki and Vice-President Musyoka. Government negotiator Kilonzo and Foreign Minister Wetangula backed this interpretation of the agreement, with the latter saying that "we are not setting up a government within a government". The ODM, however, angrily rejected Muthaura's interpretation. William Ruto said that "Kenyans should treat Mr Muthaura's statement with the contempt it deserves" and that it was "uncalled for, unnecessary and contemptuous of the agreement". ODM spokesman Salim Lome said that it was unacceptable to have Odinga ranking third, as "a minor hanger-on", and that the ODM would never have agreed to such an arrangement.
On March 11, a parliamentary committee made a request for the bills implementing the agreement to be fast-tracked, which would provide for them to be considered within five days, rather than two weeks. The National Assembly passed two bills implementing the agreement on March 18. The first of these was the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, which passed unanimously with 200 votes in favor; this constitutionally established the posts of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. The amendment was followed by a law providing for those posts in a new government and detailing the terms of the power-sharing arrangement. Kibaki signed the bills into law a few hours later. He said that he was "now confident a permanent solution to the crisis will be achieved" and called for the drafting of a new constitution; meanwhile, Odinga called for a "national ethnic conference where we will have representatives from all the 42 tribes in the country come together to discuss openly how we want to lead this country".
As part of consultations on the composition of the new Cabinet, the ODM proposed a Cabinet with 34 members (twice the number in the partial Cabinet named by Kibaki in January), while the government proposed a Cabinet with 44 members. On April 1, a protest of about 100 people was held in Nairobi against these proposals on the grounds that it was unaffordable to have so many ministers and that having them would not serve a constructive purpose; the protesters demanded that the Cabinet be limited to no more than 24 members. This protest was broken up by police with tear gas. In a statement on April 2, Annan expressed concerns about the length of time that it was taking to name a new Cabinet. He urged Kibaki and Odinga to put the national interest first, conclude consultations, and name a Cabinet with an equal division of power in line with the agreement.
On April 3, the two sides announced that they had reached an agreement on the size and composition of the Cabinet. According to a statement from Kibaki's office, the new Cabinet would have 40 ministers, would be announced on April 6, and would be sworn in on April 12. This Cabinet would be the largest in Kenya's history, and the announcement of its size was greeted with substantial dissatisfaction among the people, with many believing a 40-member Cabinet to be wasteful, unnecessary, and intended merely to provide additional jobs with which to reward politicians. The government argued that the large size of the Cabinet was needed in order for it to be properly inclusive. Alfred Mutua, the government spokesman, said that "there is no price that is too high for our country to ensure peace, harmony and reconciliation, healing and stability that will spur and grow the economy and create even more wealth", and he suggested that the cost would not be as great as anticipated because "most of the new ministries are subdivided from formerly existing ministries and therefore the budget and members of staff for those new ministries already exist."
On April 5, the day before the Cabinet was to be announced, the ODM said that the announcement had been delayed because there was still disagreement on the allotment of ministerial portfolios. The disagreement reportedly hinged on the particularly important portfolios of finance, local government, energy, and internal security. According to the government, the finance, defence, foreign affairs, and justice portfolios were to go to Kibaki's party, the PNU, while the ODM was to receive the roads, public works, tourism, and agriculture portfolios. Mutua said that Odinga had not submitted his list of proposed ministers to Kibaki, and he said that Kibaki had invited Odinga for talks on the morning of April 6. Kibaki and Odinga accordingly met, and afterwards they said in a joint statement that they had made "substantial progress" and that they expected an agreement to be reached in further talks on April 7. However, on April 8 the talks were suspended due to the continued disagreement; according to Nyongo, they were suspended "until [the PNU] fully recognises the 50/50 power-sharing arrangement and the principle of portfolio balance". Odinga said that he had received a letter from the PNU, which asserted that "the constitution grants the president exclusive executive powers to run his country on his own and ... his powers supersede the provisions of the accord". Meanwhile, a protest in Kibera was broken up by police with tear gas; this was the largest protest to occur since the agreement was signed.
It was reported on April 12 that Kibaki and Odinga had reached an agreement on the Cabinet and that it would be announced on the next day. Accordingly, the Cabinet, with 40 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, was named on April 13; there were 20 ministers each for PNU and the ODM. The PNU was considered to have kept most of the main portfolios despite the dispute that led to the delay, and some in the ODM complained that because of this there was not a true balance in portfolios. The PNU took portfolios such as foreign affairs, finance, internal security, defence, and energy, while the ODM took portfolios such as local government, immigration, roads, and public works.Odinga was named Prime Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta was named as the PNU's Deputy Prime Minister (as well as Minister of Trade), and Musalia Mudavadi was named as the ODM's Deputy Prime Minister (as well as Minister of Local Government). Kibaki challenged politicians to put politics aside and "get to work".
Odinga and the Cabinet were sworn in on April 17, 2008 at State House. Annan travelled to Kenya again for the occasion; he called on Kenyans to support the new Cabinet and, noting that there was "still a long way to go", said that the next task would be to "mould the cabinet as a cohesive, effective and productive thing that will help steer this nation right".(Courtesy of AP and DNA).
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