NAIROBI, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has urged his government officials to better serve the country, the Presidential Press Service (PPS) said here Tuesday.

    Kibaki said that the country's leadership across the political divide must focus on the needs of the majority of Kenyans, insteadof preoccupying themselves with issues that were not for the national good, according to a press release from the PPS.

    The Kenyan president made the remarks when hosting a luncheon for the newly appointed ministers and assistant ministers.

    Kibaki criticized some leaders and individuals in the country, who are "regrouping and giving the impression to Kenyans and the international community that the country was about to go into elections."

    Kibaki said it is unfortunate that due to purely individual interests, some Kenyans are pursuing an agenda that is at variancewith national good.

    "There are some people who are even listening to misguided people who are pursuing narrow interests and others are regroupingto do things that are at total variance to the aspirations of the Kenyan people. I wonder where they are heading," he said.

    He stressed that multiparty democracy is not equivalent to enmity as all Kenyans and particularly members of parliament should work for the national good.

    Talking about the recent cabinet reshuffle, Kibaki said that co-opting members of parliament from other political parties into government is a way of ensuring national cohesion.

    He said that the new ministers would complement the existing cabinet efforts in accelerating national development, adding that ministers who have changed portfolios need not to feel slighted with the changes, but instead prove that they were capable servants of the people.

    "Kenyans will judge you for the job you do for them. Do not feel sad about the changes. Do not think that competition has increased in parliament. Let us all work together," he said.

    Currently, Kenya is being annoyed by a constitution crisis.

    The Kenyan government has repeatedly promised that the country's 40-year old constitution, which dates back to independence from Britain, will be replaced.

    Kibaki had also promised to introduce a new constitution within100 days after coming to power in December 2002, but the deadline then slipped to June 30 this year and then further postponed.

    Instead, Kibaki on Wednesday reshuffled the Kenyan cabinet, bringing some people from the former ruling party Kenya African National Union into the government and demoted members of the Liberal Democratic Party, a faction within the ruling coalition party that had been lobbying for a new constitution.

    There has been a mixed reaction to the announcement by Kibaki on the cabinet reshuffle and the postponement of the deadline for a new constitution. Members of parliament in the ruling party saidthat Kenya could be headed for chaos while others praised Kibaki'scall for consensus. Both camps planed rival rallies at last weekend.

    However, the Kenyan police were on Saturday put on a high alertin capital Nairobi and clashed with the demonstrators who accused the government's failure to introduce a new constitution in the country. Enditem