Mwai Kibaki

Mr. Kibaki died on 21 April 2022, at the age of 90. His death was announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who issued a proclamation that he (Kibaki) would be granted a state funeral with full civilian and military honors and declared a period of national mourning with flags flying at half-mast until President Mwai Kibaki is buried. On 25 April 2022, his body was taken to Parliament buildings on a military gun carriage to offset the lying in state component of his state funeral. President Uhuru Kenyatta and First Lady wife Margaret Kenyatta led Kenyans in viewing the body. His body was laid on a catafalque at the Speaker's way bearing the colour of his presidential standard and dressed in his trademark pin-striped suits. His body was also guarded by four Kenya Defence Forces colonels changing shifts after two hours. The lying in state continued until 27 April 2022 ahead of funeral service held at Nyayo National Stadium on 29 April 2022 which was attended by key dignitaries including some sitting presidents. He was finally interred at his Othaya home in Nyeri County on 30 April 2022 with full military honors after a church service held by the Catholic church at Othaya approved school. The honors included the Last Post and The Long Reveille bugle cry, a 19 gun salute and The Missing Man formation fly past. South Sudan declared three days of mourning; Tanzania declared two days of mourning.

On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment. Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.

Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-

The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:

Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.

Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.

The passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.

Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.

On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister of Kenya, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".

On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.

Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential candidate for the 2007 elections.

On 30 September 2007, President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.

Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting, destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings, and sexual violence reported.

When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation, and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.

The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi tenure – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.

President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.

The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. 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 executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.

As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said;

In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki had a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only had one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's unusually dramatic public reactions therein, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".

In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation after that was that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not seem well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.

In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who met Kibaki in Kenya in July 2005. In his tenure he was involved in numerous academic events including the famous Equity Group Foundation, Wings to Fly 2013 scholars commissioning.

Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and began performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation, and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years were completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.

The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health, and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced, and strengthened.

In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form the National Alliance of Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had Uhuru Kenyatta (founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son and Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election) nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration; "Kibaki Tosha!" (Swahili for "Kibaki [is] enough")

On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. After the accident, he had to move using a wheel chair up to months later after his presidency. For the remainder of his life, he walked rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries.

The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue." On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.

On 30 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Kibaki was sworn in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya, in front of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}

It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.

Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006, and 7% in 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.

President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Jomo Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.

Critics noted that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.

Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.

Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. Kibaki joined third-placed Raila Odinga in accusing the president of rigging the poll, and both opposition leaders boycotted Moi's swearing in for his fifth term in office.

It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the then Constitution of Kenya, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. Kibaki was regarded as one of the favourites among Moi's challengers, although his support came mainly from the Kikuyu voters as the election was fought along ethnic lines, confirming a prediction made by both Moi and political analysts at the beginning of multipartyism.

Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on".. Similarly, Kenneth Matiba also referred to him as "General Kiguoya" for refusing to resign the Kanu government and join the opposition after he was dropped as vice president in 1988. 'Kiguoya' translates to the 'fearful one' in the Kikuyu language. He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".

He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi governments, including as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.

When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to the Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. He had in 1978 rejected an offer to become World Bank Vice President for Africa instead choosing to further his political career. As of 2023, he is still regarded as one of the most effective and consequentual finance ministers of the Republic of Kenya. Later as President, he kept close tabs with the treasury and directly influenced key economic policies resulting in steady economic growth. Kibaki fell out of favour with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health.

In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Doonholm Constituency seat from an opponent Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. 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 Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002, and 2007.

President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.

In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for the Doonholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. 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 1982.

Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They had four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also had several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni, Mwai Junior, and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki has declared and aspired to be his father's political heir, though he has been unsuccessful in that endeavor so far.

In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.

In his last year at Mang'u, Kibaki briefly considered enlisting in the army, but this ambition was thwarted when Kenya's Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, prohibited members of Kikuyu, Embu, and Meru communities from joining the military. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied economics, history, and political science. He graduated with a first class honours degree in economics. After graduation, Kibaki remained in Uganda, working for the Shell Company of East Africa. He then earned a scholarship entitling him to undertake postgraduate studies at any British university. He chose the London School of Economics, from which he obtained a BSc in public finance, with distinction. In 1958, he went back to Makerere, where he taught as an assistant lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.

Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki CGH (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013 and is regarded as one of Kenya's founding fathers.

Kibaki was born on 15 November 1931 in Gatuyaini village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District (now Nyeri County). He was the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life. Kibaki started his schooling at the village school in Gatuyaini, where he completed two years. He then continued his education at the Karima mission school, close to Othaya town, before moving to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946. In addition to his academic studies, he learned carpentry and masonry at the school. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School, where he studied between 1947 and 1950, gaining the highest grade in his O Level examinations.