Five women MPs were on April 17 sworn in as Cabinet Ministers in the grand coalition cabinet. The others, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua and Special Programmes minister Naomi Shaaban were sworn in January.

The ceremony witnessed a total of 23 Cabinet ministers and 52 assistant ministers swearing in.

At the ceremony, President Mwai Kibaki called for haste in resettlement of internally displaced persons as Prime Minister Raila Odinga pledged to lead the campaign against violence Hon. Raila said the government was ready to discuss with the outlawed Mungiki sect.

The President addressing the new ministers, members of the diplomatic corps and key guests including former United Nation’s Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, said: “Now that we have agreed to work together, let us not go back to what we have come from. The most important thing was coming together and we should not stray from the course.”

On his part, Hon. Odinga offered condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones “in the mindless violence during the election campaign and in its tragic aftermath”.

Mr. Odinga promised to spearhead efforts to end further violence in the country.
“We want our Mungiki brothers to come out and talk to us to end the killings. We will go an extra mile to ensure there is peace in this great country of ours. We do not want to see Kenyans killing each other,” he said,

While Kofi Annan reckoned that the ceremony was the fruit of his mediation effort which saw President Kibaki and Mr. Odinga sign a power-sharing deal on February 28, ending two months of violence over the disputed presidential elections which left more than 1,200 people dead and 350,000 displaced from their homes.

The President and the Prime Minister pledged that the grand coalition will work as a team.
President Kibaki said he had spoken to Mr. Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka on the need for a united administration that has to pull the country out of the political and economic crisis and place it firmly on the path to recovery and progress.

While Mr Odinga on the same subject said: We will break with the past and create a new inclusive Kenya. We will embark on institutional transformation in our society and give Kenyans what is long overdue — a new constitution. Mr. Odinga, who had just taken the oath to become the country’s second PM since independence, said PNU and ODM had come together to form one government and assured Kenyans that there was only one centre of power.
“We have decided to create a grand coalition government; we are not creating two governments but one,” he said.