20110218
reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's president said on Friday he had acted properly in making nominations for top legal posts after the speaker of parliament deepened divisions in the coalition by declaring them unlawful.

The row over whether President Mwai Kibaki acted within the law in naming the chief justice, attorney general and director of public prosecutions has raged for weeks, pitting Kibaki's allies against those of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who opposed the nominations because he was not consulted.

The dispute has left their fragile coalition cabinet tottering on the brink of collapse, and worried investors who sent the shilling and stock market tumbling.

Kibaki's nominations were meant to improve confidence in the judiciary, and support his case for transferring the trials of key suspects behind the post-election violence of 2008 to Kenya from the International Criminal Court headquartered in The Hague.

Kenneth Marende, the speaker of Kenya's parliament, said in an eagerly-awaited ruling on Thursday that Kibaki acted unconstitutionally by failing to consult the prime minister sufficiently.

Marende asked the president to start the nominations afresh in a ruling seen by analysts as a slap in the face for Kibaki and a symbolic political victory for Odinga.

Lawmakers allied to Kibaki -- who said they had marshalled enough numbers to endorse the president's nominees -- promised to contest Marende's ruling. They said he was biased because he had been elected as speaker by Odinga's party.

Kibaki said on Friday he would turn to the judiciary for a resolution of the dispute. Kenya's High Court has already issued temporary orders declaring the nominations unlawful, pending the outcome of a constitutional court hearing.