Early Childhood
Mwai Kibaki was born in Gatuyaini village in Othaya on November 15, 1931. He was the youngest in Kibaki Githinji and Teresia Wanjiku’s family. The young Kibaki was often left in the care of his elder sister, Waitherero, as their mother busied herself in the garden. Born in a large peasant Kikuyu family, Kibaki grew among his eight siblings.
Education
Kibaki left home to join one of the newly established schools, the 50 cent-a-term Gatuyaini village school. This was when the World War II had started.
Family Life
In 1961, Mwai Kibaki married the Lucy Muthoni of Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri County. Lucy was a trained teacher with a sterling career at Kamwenja Teachers College and Kambui College. In 1963, however, she sacrificed her teaching career at Kambui College to focus on family life and support her husband’s budding political career.
Kibaki Delves into Elective Politics
In the first pre-independence elections of 1963, Kibaki contested for a parliamentary seat in Donholm (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi.
He shifted his political constituency to Othaya from Donholm constituency in 1974. The motivations behind this emanated from the 1969 controversial election that saw him beating his fiercest competitor, Mrs. Jael Mbogo narrowly. It also made much sense for him to represent his home constituency.
A Sterling Career as Cabinet Minister
In the 1969 elections that followed the Mboya crisis, Kibaki almost lost his Donholm seat to Mrs. Jael Mbogo and in the 1974 he shifted his base to his Othaya home.
His re-election also availed an opportunity for him to continue to serve in the Kenyatta regime as Cabinet Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. He served in this docket for 13 years that were marked by tremendous economic growth. The country attained its first highest Gross Domestic Product rate in 1973 at 14.0% from 9.7% in 1969.
Kibaki Decamps to Opposition, Runs for president
Mwai Kibaki’s journey to opposition politics was slow but full of impact. In 1983, President Moi conducted a Cabinet reshuffle and stripped his Vice President of the Finance Ministry and gave him the less glamorous Home Affairs docket.
After the 1988 elections, Moi dropped Kibaki as Vice President and appointed him as Minister for Health.
Kibaki reported to his new docket and worked until 1991 when he resigned from the Moi Cabinet and quit Kanu to launch his own party, the Democratic Party (DP), after the introduction of multi-party politics
First Term in Office
Kibaki was sworn in as the third President of Kenya on 29 December 2002 while sitting in a wheelchair. In his swearing in speech, Kibaki called the times “a critical moment in the history of our country”. The swearing-in was followed by a power-sharing formula between the NARC parties namely NAK and LDP on a 50-50 basis.
Second Term
Kibaki made his intention clear that he would vie for the second term on 26th January 2007. As a tactical move, Kibaki took up a new political vehicle dubbed Party of National Unity (PNU) which brought together other parties such as DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford People and Shirikisho.
Kibaki, more robust and healthier than he was in the leadup to the 2002 polls, took an active role in the campaigns. The PNU campaign rode on the “kazi iendelee” slogan which sought to have Kibaki continue with his good service to the country.
