By Katie Nguyen
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's political rivals faced criticism on Friday over the size and cost of a power-sharing cabinet meant to steer the east African country back on the path to economic recovery.
President Mwai Kibaki is due to name a 40-ministry cabinet on Sunday, ending a month of deadlock that threatened Kenya's chances of peace after a bloody post-election crisis.
Though the shilling has rallied 1.7 percent to 61.80/62.00 to the dollar on the breakthrough, many Kenyans were angry at the prospect of having to foot the bill for what will be the country's biggest cabinet since independence in 1963.
Business groups have long complained that Kenya's public wage bill took too large a chunk of expenditure, eating into money that would otherwise fund development projects.
Kibaki and prime minister-designate Raila Odinga agreed to share power after a disputed December election sparked ethnic clashes that killed more than 1,200 people, uprooted more than 300,000 and hit economic pillars such as tourism and transport.
Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, which argued for 25 ministries compared to the 44 that Kibaki's team wanted, is expected to get half the cabinet seats though it was still unclear which ones.
All of Kenya's post-independence rulers have used the emoluments of public service jobs as a tool for patronage, and many Kenyans view government work as an easy route to money.
'SHAMEFUL'
Anti-corruption campaigner Mwalimu Mati estimated the cost of maintaining the new cabinet at 352 billion shillings or 52 billion shillings a year.
He said that was equivalent to all the aid in loans and grants received from bilateral partners for development and twice the grants received from lenders such as the World Bank.
"The government has asked donors for 31 billion shillings to resettle 500,000 displaced Kenyans over three months," Mati wrote on his Mars Group Kenya Web site.
"How shameful that they would rather spend our tax money on pampering 40 politicians than to ameliorate the pathetic living conditions of hundreds of thousands."
Market players warned the extra cost could send Kenya's interest rates higher in the 2008/09 fiscal year, with the government more likely to resort to higher domestic borrowing than imposing higher taxes.
"The impact is likely to be felt from July, when the budget for the increased ministries is read," said Chacha Nyamohanga, head of money markets and fixed income at Kenya Commercial Bank.
"The politicians are ruining the economy while citizens go hungry," said photographer Christopher Ikutwa.
Government officials defended the move saying the cabinet needed to accommodate all interests in the country of 36 million people and more than 40 ethnic groups.
"The main emphasis here has been: is every region in the country comfortable and feeling that they are part of the government, part of the large cake?" government spokesman Alfred Mutua told a news conference.
"In this time of healing, there is no price too high for our country to ensure peace, harmony, reconciliation, healing and stability that will spur and grow the economy and create even more wealth," he said.
The opposition-leaning Standard newspaper said by agreeing to such a big cabinet, Kibaki and Odinga may have unwittingly set the tone for the grand coalition -- "expensive, unhappy compromise."
