Ministers in Kenya's fractious coalition should stop squabbling in public because they risk doing further damage to the reputation of east Africa's biggest economy, the president said in Mombasa on Friday.
The administration was formed last year to end ethnic and political violence that killed at least 1 300 people after a disputed election, uprooted more than 300 000 and badly dented the country's image as a stable trade, tourism and transport hub.
But the government has since disappointed donors and many Kenyans because of delays to promised reforms, fresh corruption allegations and, above all, its failure to prosecute the ringleaders of the 2008 turmoil, some of whom are now in its ranks.
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"You have the constitutional right to hold and express your personal opinion on any matter," President Mwai Kibaki told ministers attending a two-day leadership retreat at a plush beachside resort on the Indian Ocean coast.
"However, we all have a duty to promote government policy in public and private fora and are, in this regard, bound by collective responsibility. We must speak in one voice on issues over which the government has taken a position."
That appeared to be a veiled reference to discord over the fate of top suspects in last year's bloodshed. The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said last week he had a strong case against a few individuals.
Kibaki and opposition leader-turned-prime minister Raila Odinga have both said they will co-operate with the court, but the fear is that supporters of senior deputies who might be indicted could trigger a return to violence and ethnic clashes.
Meanwhile, a special local tribunal is supposed to try lower-level suspects, but three attempts to win parliamentary approval for the creation of the court have foundered so far, despite the backing of Kibaki and Odinga.
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