Kenya's Kibaki pushes peace deal and honours dead

By C. Bryson Hull and Wangui Kanina

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki urged parliament on Thursday to pass into law a power-sharing deal intended to keep the peace after a post-election crisis that left at least 1,000 dead.

Kibaki -- who last week agreed to bring opposition rival Raila Odinga into a "grand coalition" government -- opened Kenya's 10th parliament with a minute's silence first for two slain legislators then for all the victims of violence.

He called on the divided house to set aside partisanship and enact last week's political agreement brokered in the hope of ending the darkest spell in the east African country's post-independence history.

"Please succeed. Please forget the history of what has happened," Kibaki, 76, said in off-the-cuff comments at the end of his speech.

The agreement will create the post of prime minister for Odinga, 63 -- a former political prisoner who says Kibaki cheated him of the December 27 presidential vote by fraud.

"The accord is a victory for all Kenyans, laying the foundation for peace and stability in our country," Kibaki said. "The successful implementation of the accord will require goodwill, unity, good faith and integrity from this House."

Parliamentarians, who next meet on Tuesday, must pass a raft of legislation to approve the deal, amend Kenya's constitution to make the agreement legal, establish a truth and reconciliation commission, and pass an ethnic relations act.

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