Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) is the current and third President of the republic of Kenya.

Kibaki was previously Vice President of Kenya for ten years from 1978–1988 and also held cabinet ministerial positions, including a widely acclaimed stint as Minister for Finance (1969–1981), Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991).

After resigning as a cabinet minister in 1991, Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1991 up to his election as Kenya's third president in 2002 after two unsuccessful bids for the Kenyan presidency in 1992 and 1997.

He was sworn in on the night of 30 December 2007 for his second term as president after controversially emerging as the winner of a bitterly contested election that was marked by accusations of fraud and widespread irregularities that led to the post-election violence of 2007-2008.


Kibaki was born in Gatuyaini village in Othaya division of Nyeri District. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ (both now deceased). Though baptized as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known for all intents and purposes as his name.[2] Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister.

Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination.[3]

Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics.[3] After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a B.Sc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1960.[3] In 1962, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a Church Minister, who was then a secondary school Head Teacher.[3]
Mwai Kibaki (standing, back right) with Jomo Kenyatta and Zafrud Deen sitting in front
[edit] Political Career Prior To Presidency
[edit] 1960–2002

In early 1960,Mwai Kibaki left academia for politics when he gave up his job at Makerere and returned to Kenya to become executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga (who went on to become Kenya's first Vice President). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.

In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi.[4] His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury.[5] 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.[6] In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.[7]

In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Doonholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections,[8] 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 has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992,1997,2002 and 2007.[9]

When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.[10]

Kibaki fell out of favour with President Moi in 1988, and was dropped as Vice President and moved to the Ministry of Health.[9][10] He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.

Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non confrontational. This mild style also exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand- "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on",so went the joke.[11] He also,as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the then ruling single party, KANU.In the months before multiparty 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".[11]

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 Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation,Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP).[12] and entered the presidential race in the up coming multi party elections of 1992. He was criticised as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multipartysm despite not having fought for it .

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.[13] In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
[edit] 2002 Elections

In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta, 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![14]

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 km From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident.[15] He still walks 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 who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating that"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.

kenyan president mwai kibaki / biography