Kibaki, Raila meeting called off

The wrangling in the Grand Coalition took a fresh twist on Saturday as the widely anticipated meeting between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga scheduled for Sunday was called off.

The Prime Minister's advisor Salim Lone said the meeting had been put off for a day or two.

Speaking to the Nation on phone Mr Lone said: "The meeting between the President and the Prime Minister has been postponed".

The Prime Minister, who is on an official tour in Japan, is expected back in the country on Sunday and is set to address the media when he arrives.

Mr Lone however said he could not state reasons for the cancellation of the meeting.

On Thursday, Mr Lone had said the two principals had agreed to hold talks. "President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga will meet on Sunday to chart the way forward out of the impasse that has created a notion of crisis," he said.

The two coalition principals spoke on Wednesday night and agreed to meet as soon as Mr Odinga got back from Japan. They also agreed to ask their respective supporters to tone down the rhetoric that suggested that the coalition was on the verge of collapse.

The meeting was said to have followed high level intervention from key international allies calling for a ceasefire between the President and the Prime Minister.

ODM had asked former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to intervene after President Kibaki revoked the suspension of two Cabinet ministers by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The Prime Minister suspended ministers William Ruto (Agriculture) and Prof Sam Ongeri (Education) saying their ministries had been plagued by corruption scandals that had ripped Kenyans off millions of shillings.

But the President later overruled the suspension saying there had not been any consultations on the matter. The two ministers had also earlier dismissed their suspensions saying only the President could remove them.