Mwai Kibaki

Mwai Kibaki
Mwai Kibaki, October 2003
President of Kenya
Incumbent
Assumed office  30 December 2002
Prime Minister	Raila Odinga
Vice President	Michael Wamalwa Kijana Moody Awori Kalonzo Musyoka
Preceded by	Daniel arap Moi
Born	15 November 1931 (1931-11-15) (age 77) Gatuyaini, Kenya
Political party	PNU
Spouse	Lucy Kibaki
Religion	Roman Catholic

Mwai Kibaki (born November 15, 1931) is the President of Kenya. Kibaki was previously Vice President (1978 - 1988), and has held several other cabinet positions, including Minister for Finance (1978 - 1981), Minister for Home Affairs (1982 - 1988) and Minister for Health (1988 - 1991).^[1]

He was baptized Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth but he rarely uses this name. ^[2] He was sworn in on 30 December 2007 for his second term as president of the Republic of Kenya after controversially emerging winner of an election that was marked by accusations of fraud and widespread irregularities that have led to civil unrest.

Early life

Born in Gatuyaini village in Othaya division of Nyeri District, Kibaki was the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ (both now deceased). He was educated at Gatuyainĩ School (two years), Karĩma Mission School (three years), Mathari Boarding Primary School (between 1944 and 1946). Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who believed that Kibaki should not be baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. He studied at the prestigious Mang'u High School between 1947 and 1950 and obtained the maximum possible score in his high school terminal examinations. Kibaki was eager to join the army after high school, but due to a ruling by Walter Coutts, the Chief colonial secretary, people from GEMA communities were prevented from the British army.

He studied Economics, History and Political Science at Makerere University College, Kampala, Uganda. During his studies, he was chairman of the Kenya Students' Association. In 1955, he graduated as best student of his class, and was therefore awarded a scholarship to undertake further studies in the United Kingdom, obtaining a B.Sc.^[3] with distinction in Public Finance at the London School of Economics.

Kenya African National Union

After obtaining his Master's degree, he became an economics lecturer at Makerere. In early 1960 however, he gave up his job to become executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU). He helped to draft Kenya's constitution. In the 1963 elections, he took the then Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. He has been a member of parliament (MP) ever since.^[4]

Mwai Kibaki (standing, back right) with Jomo Kenyatta and Zafrud Deen sitting in front

His election was the start of a long political career. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1978. Moving his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, he was re-elected to parliament in 1974 to represent his native Othaya Constituency. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He was re-elected Member of Parliament for the same constituency in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997 and 2002.

When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to the Vice Presidency, but was allowed to keep the Finance portfolio, which he exchanged for that of Home Affairs in 1982. Kibaki fell out of favour with President Moi in 1988, and was dropped as Vice President and moved to the Ministry of Health.

Multi-party politics

In December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the constitution, which restored the multi-party system, Mwai Kibaki left KANU and founded the Democratic Party (DP). He came third in the presidential elections of 1992, and was second in the 1997 elections.

In January 1998, Mwai Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party.

Presidency

In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other parties to form National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK). NAK allied itself with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On December 27, 2002, NARC won a landslide victory over KANU. Kibaki got 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta.

On December 30, 2002, still nursing injuries from a motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya.

Kibaki's first cabinet was a careful balancing act with one Minister or Assistant Minister coming from each of Kenya's forty-two areas. His Presidential style is very 'hands-off', unlike his predecessor, who attempted to control everything from the centre. Kibaki's style has the benefit of allowing his Ministers the freedom to manage their departments and introduce much needed reforms; however there is talk in opposition quarters that he has been unwilling to give any public lead in the fight against corruption. To date despite the efforts of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) through numerous investigations and prosecution of cases, no high-profile figures have been convicted in court on corruption charges.

In November 2004, in an ABC PrimeTime interview with Peter Jennings, former US President Bill Clinton identified Kibaki as the one living person he would most like to meet "because of the Kenyan government's decision to abolish school fees for primary education."^[5] Clinton added that, by providing free and compulsory primary education, what Kibaki had done would affect more lives than any president had done or would ever do by the end of the year. The free education programme saw nearly 1.7 million more pupils enroll in school by the end of that year. Clinton's wish was granted when he visited Kenya in the summer of 2005 and finally met president Kibaki on July 22nd.

Constitutional referendum and dismissal of cabinet

The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on November 21, 2005. The main issues of contention throughout the drafting of the constitution were over how much power should be vested in the Head of State (the President, in this case). In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an all-powerful Prime Minister appointed by the President. However, the final draft of the constitution retained sweeping powers for the Head of State, which were however well checked by other branches of Government, including Parliament.

Though supported by Kibaki, some members of his own cabinet and the main opposition party mobilised a powerful campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% Kenyan voters rejecting the draft.

As a consequence of this, Kibaki made a historic and decisive political move on November 23, 2005 by dismissing his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term.^[6] About his decision Kibaki said, “Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organise my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". Although the dismissal of individual officials is commonplace in government, the dissolution of the cabinet in its entirety is rare. The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. The Cabinet was thereafter appointed, but some MPs who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.^[7]

New cabinet

On July 24, 2006 Narc-Kenya, a new political Party set up by Kibaki allies won three out of five parliamentary seats. This indicated Kibaki's government had recovered from the defeat at the constitutional referendum.

Vision 2030, a scheme to raise annual GDP by 10% was unveiled by Kibaki on October 30, 2006 ^[8]. The prudent management of the economy under Kibaki has seen continued Kenya GDP growth during 4 straight years from a low 0.6% (real -1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005 and 6% in 2006. GDP growth of 7% in is projected for 2007, a very significant recovery from total decay preceding Kibaki's presidency. As a direct result of the consistent reforms undertaken by Kibaki's government, infrastructure rebuilding has been going on in earnest, and all the sectors of the economy have recovered from total collapse pre-2003.

On 15 November 2006 he reinstated Kiraitu Murungi, who had stepped down to allow for independent investigations of corruption allegations in the Anglo-Leasing scandal, as Energy minister, and George Saitoti, who had been previously accused in connection with the Goldenberg scandal, as Education minister.^[9] Both the ministers were exonerated in the investigations.

2007 elections

On January 26, 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election.^[10] So far four major parties have stated that he will be their presidential candidate of choice in the coming general election. The parties are DP, NARC, Narc-Kenya and Ford People. In opinion polls from Steadman International released in October 2006, it was stated that 41% of Kenyans would vote for Kibaki. His closest rival, Kalonzo Musyoka, got 20%.^[11] Kibaki was initially considered the front-runner in the presidential election, although he was subsequently overtaken in the polls by Raila Odinga.

On September 16 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance called the Party of National Unity, which will include a number of parties, including KANU,^[12][13] DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.^[13]

Kibaki began his presidential campaign on September 30 at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi.^[14]

Following the election, held on December 27, the electoral commission declared Kibaki the winner on December 30 2007, placing him ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in a hotly contested election. This was announced despite accusations by the ODM that the election was rigged. Odinga accused Kibaki of fraud and violence broke out in some places.^[15][16] Kibaki was immediately sworn in for his second term, calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin.^[16] Independent election observers have since declared that the elections were marred with irregularities on both sides, but especially at the final vote tallying stage. ^[17]

In July 2008, an exit poll commissioned by Steadman International was released, alleging that Odinga won the election by a comfortable margin of 6%, 46% to 40%, well outside of the exit poll's 1.3% margin of error. ^[18]. This contradicted the exit poll commissioned by Institute for Education in Democracy released immediately after elections which provided more detailed information http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL277107920071227;

Private life

Mwai Kibaki and Mrs. Kibaki with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush at the White House during a state visit to Washington, D.C. in 2003.

He is married to Lucy Kibaki (née Muthoni), with whom he has one daughter, Judy Wanjiku, and three sons, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji.

In 2004 the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a common daughter, Wangui Mwai. Mary Wambui is said to be provided with state bodyguards and other VIP privileges. She is also a National Rainbow Coalition activist. After the news broke, the State House released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family is his wife, Lucy and their four children. ^[19]

Mwai Kibaki is known to be a keen golfer and is one of the longtime members of the Muthaiga Golf Club.^[20] He belongs to the Roman Catholic Church and attends the Holy Family Basilica Church.

See also

• 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis
• Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-IV), 2008.

References

External links

• Mwai Kibaki official website
• Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
• Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
• Review of Mwai Kibaki: Economist for Kenya by Ng'ang'a Mbugua

Presidents of the Republic of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta • Daniel arap Moi • Mwai Kibaki

Vice-Presidents of Kenya Odinga • Murumbi • Moi • Kibaki • Karanja • Saitoti* • Mudavadi • Kijana • Awori • Musyoka  *post vacant 1997-1999, interrupting his term

Candidates in the 2007 Kenyan presidential election Raila Odinga · Mwai Kibaki · Kalonzo Musyoka · Ngacha Karani · Pius Muiru · Kenneth Matiba · Nazlin Omar · Kukubo Nixon · Waweru Ng'ethe