By Wangui Kanina

NAIROBI, May 15 (Reuters) - Kenya's month-old coalition cabinet met for the first time on Thursday in a test of its ability to set aside differences lingering from the nation's bloody post-election crisis.

The formation of the 41-member cabinet, Kenya's largest and costliest, was the core of a deal to end violence sparked by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election. The pact saw his electoral rival, Raila Odinga, appointed as prime minister.

In its first collective decision, the cabinet resolved to make Kenya's food security its top priority in the face of inflation that hit 26.6 percent in April and anticipated crop disruption caused by the election violence.

"We must have the drive to succeed in serving our country and Kenyans at large. There is much expectation from the Kenyan people and we must deliver on the promises we made," Kibaki said at the meeting, which was attended by 36 ministers.

But questions remain whether ministers whose constituencies were literally at war with each other in a conflict that saw at least 1,200 people killed and 300,000 displaced on ethnic grounds, will be able to work together.

"This is the first time the so-called grand coalition is meeting. We are getting very conflicting signals already," political analyst Gitau Warigi said. "This government is clearly two-headed."

The presidential statement said the cabinet also reviewed plans to resettle the displaced and formed five committees to address urgent issues, four of which Odinga will chair.

"TURF WARS" The cabinet's greater mission is to steer the redrafting of a new constitution within a year, to address long-simmering disputes over land, wealth and power that underlay Kenya's darkest moment since independence from Britain in 1963.

"I think the odds are stacked against it performing cohesively and effectively because of its size and potential for turf wars," said Robert Shaw, an independent analyst.

But he said crises facing Kenya, including a potential food shortage, inflation and lingering insecurity, might help forge cabinet unity.

Since its inception, the cabinet that merged Odinga's former opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) with Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and its allies has confirmed the fears of many Kenyans that it would do more bickering than working.

Warigi said cracks that have already emerged -- disputes over an amnesty for those who killed members of the Kikuyu tribe in the Rift Valley, or whether to negotiate with the violent Mungiki gang drawn from the same tribe -- were worrying signs.

"They are talking at cross purposes. That is the background of this cabinet meeting," he said.

Public jostling between Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and Odinga over who is second-in-command to Kibaki also raised eyebrows in east Africa's biggest economy and invited scorn from many Kenyans who saw the spat as childish.

Besides the political fracture and its attendant woes, including the need to get more than 100,000 people still displaced back to their homes, Kenya's government has plenty of other challenges on its agenda.

Those include a violent crisis in the remote Mount Elgon region, where the police and military are trying to root out a militia blamed for at least 600 killings over land dispute.

The government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights on Thursday accused security forces of torture, illegal detention and extrajudicial killings during the operation.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua rejected the accusation and urged the rights body to "bring up some evidence that may be openly scrutinised." (Additional reporting by Hereward Holland) (Editing by Bryson Hull and Catherine Evans) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)

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