Kenya passes power-sharing deal

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Kenyan lawmakers unanimously approved a power-sharing deal Tuesday aimed at salvaging a country once seen as one of the most stable and prosperous in Africa, bringing together two men whose dispute over the presidency unleashed weeks of deadly violence.

President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga both claimed victory in the December 27 presidential election, which observers said was so flawed by rigging that it was impossible to say who had won.

Under the deal approved Tuesday, Odinga will fill a newly created post of prime minister.

"Let us make up our minds," Kibaki told lawmakers Tuesday in urging them to pass the deal, saying the agreement was necessary to rebuild the nation.

The dispute over the election tapped into a well of resentment over land and wealth that resurfaces regularly at election time in Kenya, but this year's bloodshed was the most brutal and sustained by far.

More than 1,000 people died and a half-million displaced from their homes in the violence. Much of the violence was ethnic, pitting other tribes against Kibaki's Kikuyu, long resented for their dominance of politics and business here.

Odinga will likely be sworn in within days.

The men agreed to share power February 28 under mounting pressure from leaders in Africa and beyond, including the United States, which issued veiled threats about its future relationship with Kenya's leaders.

The leaders now must try to heal a divided nation, as well as restore one of Africa's most promising economies. Kenya, one of the most tourist-friendly countries in Africa, has seen up to $1 billion in losses linked to the turmoil.

In many regions, the violence brought a bloody end to decades of coexistence among Kenya's ethnic groups, transforming cities and towns where Kenyans had lived together -- however uneasily at times -- since independence from Britain in 1963.

On Monday, a global human rights watchdog accused pro-government and opposition politicians of helping finance and organize the violence.

New York-based Human Rights Watch also accused police of shooting hundreds of people protesting the election result in Nairobi, the western port town of Kisumu and other towns between late December and early January.

In many cases, HRW said, witnesses reported that the police had not acted in self-defense and had not been provoked.

Odinga's party rejected the charges Monday, and a spokesman for Kibaki's party said he could not comment as he had not seen a copy of the report.

Kenya's police spokesman Eric Kiraithe rejected the report Tuesday, saying "it is professionally wrong for the report to make a blanket accusation that police were partisan or used excessive force."

He added: "Every case reported by any party, including where police officers were suspected of either criminal or unprofessional acts, were investigated and appropriate action taken."

Kibaki and Odinga have a long and complicated relationship. Odinga made his first bid for the presidency in 1997 but finished third -- behind incumbent Daniel arap Moi and Kibaki.

Odinga then joined with other opposition leaders to back Kibaki under the banner of the National Rainbow Coalition -- rare political cooperation between tribes that historically voted along ethnic lines.

After Kibaki won the presidency in 2002, Odinga served as Cabinet minister for three years before being kicked out in 2005. He then joined with six other Cabinet members to defeat a draft constitution that Kibaki had supported. E-mail to a friend

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