Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's third president, recently died at the age of 90. This is after a 40 year-long run of leadership from the former ruling party. Kibaki had laid his legacy in Kenya and achieved great successes and growth for the country, though many people criticise that his legacy is overshadowed by the violence that followed the 2007 election where more than 1,200 people died, as well as immense corruption from his government.
Who Is Mwai Kibaki and What Have He Done For Kenya?
Mwai Emilio Stanley Kibaki was born Nov. 15, 1931, in Gatuyani, a village near Mount Kenya. His parents were tobacco and cattle farmers. He was a brilliant student who won a scholarship to Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where numerous future leaders from all through Africa were taught. He graduated in 1955 and then got a degree in Economics and Public Finance from the London School of Economics in 1958. During that time, one of his siblings was killed while battling in a progressive guerrilla development in Kenya.
Kibaki lectured at Makerere for a very long time and became dynamic in Kenya's developing independence. He likewise coordinated the KANU party, which pushed Kenyatta to drive.
In 1962, Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni, who passed on in 2016. They had four children. He also had an involved acquaintance with Mary Wambui, with whom he had a girl.
Mwai Kibaki was the last Kenyan President who agitated strongly with the generation that purposely drove the country to Independence in 1963, after decades of being colonized by British rule. After Independence, Kibaki helped in drafting the country's first constitution and became an early member of the Kenyan African National Union (KANU), which dominated Kenya politics for 39 years.
Kibaki was later elected for Kenya's most memorable parliament under autonomy and held a few government positions throughout the following 25 years. Before he began his political career, he was a London-trained market analyst and one-time Professor, he then became the Minister of Finance and monetary preparation in 1970 under Jomo Kenyatta's presidential rulership.
After Kenyatta's passing in 1978, his Vice President, Daniel arap Moi, accepted the administration and chose Kibaki as VP. Moi followed Kenyatta's example of progressively dictatorial rule, selfish interest and widespread money laundering. The Citizens of Kenya under Moi's rule battled with poverty, lack of education and an unreliable health care system.
In the mid-1980s, the political relationship between Kibaki and Moi began to collapse due to conflict in political interests. In 1988, Moi downgraded Kibaki from Vice President to Minister of Health and Wellbeing. In his duty, Kibaki invested efforts to diminish the spread of HIV/AIDS in Kenya by launching education efforts and treatment programs in the local communities.
Meanwhile, global organizations and loaning associations started to request quick effective changes in a country that hosted a bad one-get-together state. Moi's absolutist tendencies were apparent in the official pictures that held tight the dividers of stores, on the streets that bore his name and on Kenya's currency, which highlighted his resemblance.
In late 1991, Moi's opposition political groups were authorized, and soon thereafter Kibaki left his politics-administration position and founded a new Democratic Party. He challenged Moi for the presidential election in 1992 and 1997, losing twice in the elections that external spectators said were overflowing with casting ballot anomalies.
In 2002, with Moi constitutionally banished from representing re-appointment as President, Kibaki ran as the President from another party called the National Rainbow Coalition. He vowed to make essential education for children free and to give medical services to all. Additionally, he promised to end the widespread bribery and corruption that affect Kenyan life.
On Dec. 3, 2002, somewhat more than three weeks before the political election, Kibaki was brutally injured in a fender bender and travelled to London for therapy of his wounds — a demonstration that featured the requirement for working on clinical benefits in Kenya. At the point when he returned following 10 days, he held crusades from a wheelchair.
Celebration broke out when he won 63% of the vote. Moi's appointed replacement, Uhuru Kenyatta — the child of the country's first president — completed a far off second. To the astonishment of many, Moi didn't challenge the outcome and discreetly surrendered his office to Kibaki.
“I am inheriting a country which has been badly ravaged by years of misrule and ineptitude. You have asked me to lead this nation out of the present wilderness and malaise onto the promised land, and I shall do so.” Kibaki said during his inaugural speech.
Initially, he made good changes. He started improving access to education and launching efforts to reduce corruption in the judicial courts. He also sought to reform the country’s banking system, which led to the resignation of several top officials.
What Led to Kenyans' Criticism Against Kibaki?
Mwai Kibaki wasn't the best President, he had his faults. Kibaki was put into office by supporters from a multiethnic alliance, not only individuals from his own Kikuyu people, the biggest ethnic gathering in the country. In any case, tribalism stayed a solid component of Kenyan legislative issues, and he encircled himself with an affectionate politics of his kindred Kikuyus.
His inward circle became known as the Mount Kenya Mafia, and quite expeditiously, Kibaki was criticised for the same cronyism and payoffs he had discredited in his predecessors.
Kibaki, who had worked in government for what seems like forever, became probably Kenya's most affluent individual and was humiliated by disclosures that, notwithstanding his wife and four children, he had a second family with another lady.
It is hazy whether they were hitched — polygamy is lawful in Kenya — however, Mary Wambui got VIP treatment while Kibaki was president and, for a very long time, held his old seat in the Kenyan parliament.
In 2005, his top anti-corruption guard dog, John Githongo, resigned, saying he suffered death threats and had been frustrated in his endeavours to research government authorities in Kibaki's circle.
Kenyans immediately became disappointed with Kibaki's authority, and in 2007 he faced a solid reelection challenge from Raila Odinga. Odinga was driving in the early returns, however, election authorities stopped delivering vote counts, hindered columnists and journalists from providing details regarding the outcomes and announced Kibaki the victor. He was quickly confirmed as president on that night.
Political decision observers from the European Union charged that the outcomes "needed validity" and experienced "an absence of straightforwardness." Violence emitted all through the country, and Kenya wavered near the very edge of nationwide conflict, with additional 1,100 individuals killed.
Lessons To Learn
1. Everybody has a fault, but leaders should never compromise good governance for personal interests.
2. Always surround yourself with honest and accountable people.
3. Be ready to accept your faults and work on them when criticised. It is a democracy, not a dictatorship.
4. Value your duty as a leader and solely focus to serve the people, this is the duty of a leader.