NAIROBI, Aug 23 (Reuters) - President Mwai Kibaki named a new attorney general on Tuesday as part of reforms to improve public confidence in Kenya's judiciary as a new constitution is slowly implemented.
A statement issued by State House said that Kibaki nominated Githu Muigai, a lawyer, after talks with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who rejected Muigai's initial nomination to the same post in January because he had not been consulted.
That row, which also involved Kibaki's nominations for a new chief justice and director of public prosecutions, threatened to throw the East African region's biggest economy into a constitutional crisis.
It deepened rifts within Kenya's rocky coalition cabinet formed in the aftermath of disputed elections in 2006, requiring months of horse trading before three names for the posts were accepted by Kibaki and Odinga's political camps.
Muigai's nomination will go Kenya's parliament for approval. If endorsed, he will replace Amos Wako, who has held the post for more than two decades.
Critics of Kibaki's administration said Wako had failed to get tough on grand-scale corruption among senior officials and politically connected business tycoons.
He has also been blamed in part for the sluggish implementation of the new basic law, a process beset by the very partisan politics it aims to overcome.
"Muigai is beholden to Kibaki's wing of government so his appointment must be seen as a win for Kibaki's side," said government critic and political commentator Mutahi Ngunyi.
"It's a new face but with regard to corruption he will play to the tune of the regime," said Ngunyi.
Muigai was not immediately available for comment on his nomination. (Reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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