Isaiya Kabira: The Mwai Kibaki I knew

I first met Mwai Kibaki, then a Finance minister, when he came for a fundraising event at his old Nyeri Primary School in 1978. When I went over to make my contribution, he proudly announced: “Na huyu kijana Isaiah ametoa 40 shillings”. It was a moment I cherished and since then I became a Kibaki watcher, of course then a rising political star, who would greatly influence Kenya’s political and economic history for the next 35 years.

Also Read: Kibaki - The policy wonk and sharp economist

I proudly displayed a photo of Kibaki in my University of Nairobi residence room and was obviously disappointed when he was demoted from the post of Vice-President, but was quick to admire the gusto with which he performed his responsibilities as Health Minister.

When I began my career in the media at KTN, like many journalists, it was always a pleasure attending Mwai Kibaki’s press conferences, especially after he emerged from the shadows of Kanu, the party for which he served as the first executive officer after he resigned from a promising academic career at Makerere University. As leader of the opposition Democratic Party, he had become a guarded firebrand, happy to address the media but always ready to shoot back at reporters who would ask him what he often called ignorant and twisted questions.

In the opposition, Kibaki added great flavour to debate in the Kanu-dominated Parliament with his deep grasp of policy issues and taking the government hard on issues of governance when he chaired the Parliamentary Accounts Committee.

It was therefore a pleasant surprise when, after he was elected as Head of State, I was called into the President’s office for an interview as Head of the Presidential Press Service. It was a pleasant interview and I was happy to be invited to lunch and soon after the announcement of my appointment made public.

On the next day, January 8, 2003, I began my 10-year journey working for a man I had long admired. The decade with President Kibaki was to be one of many highs and lows and only stabilised by a man whose calm demeanour helped steady a ship that had been boarded by leaders of different political persuasions. One of Kibaki’s very initial directions that he gave his team was that people must stop any pre-occupation about former President Moi, insisting that Moi had done what he did but it was the time to deliver on the promises that the National Rainbow Coalition had made to the people, because his presidency would be judged not on how loud they criticised Moi, but on how NARC had reformed the country and empowered the people.

Also Read: Statesman Mwai Kibaki

Working for President Kibaki was a tightrope through which you had to juggle between a man who had been shaped by events and people in his life. Here was a man greatly influenced by the concept of the East African Union having horned his skills at Makerere University. Again there was this suit clad English gentleman who spent some of his most memorable university days at the London School of Economics from where he emerged as the first African to attain a First Class Honours degree in economics in 1955. Then there was the politician who admired American democracy, and who was in many ways influenced to name his opposition political party the Democratic Party, whose election symbol the Lamp (TAA) was meant to remove Kenya from an abyss of darkness.

While he remained focussed on an East African leaning policy, while still keeping his door open to American dealings that led to a memorable State visit at the invitation of President George W. Bush, it was the love-hate relationship with the British that will be debated for sometime.

However, his signature foreign and economic Looking East policies will for years define the Kibaki presidency. Economist Mwai Kibaki was always an admirer of the Asian economic miracle that led to the lifting of millions of people from poverty within two generations.

In many ways, he sought to replicate this model but always reminded us that Kenya had to re-engineer its economic model because of the uniqueness of our economic, political and social structures. So travel to China, Japan and countries such as Thailand would have a great impact on the Kibaki presidency.

But inside him was a true African. Born in the Hills of Othaya, mentored by the Karima Catholic Priests and Nyeri School Teachers, spotted for his brilliance at Mang’u High School and ‘East Africaned’ at Makerere University where his vision of Africa was shaped. Travel to any African country always lit a bulb in Mwai Kibaki, happy to talk to his peers and exchange views on shaping the African Century.

Kibaki was also greatly influenced by his family. He had a special relationship with Lucy, and anyone coming in between did so at his or own peril. He was loyal for most of his life and Lucy also knew that he was a most admired personality who appreciated the love of being surrounded by family.

Also Read: How Kibaki lived his last days

He was close to the masses, close friend to few, confidant to fewer and always played his cards very close to his chest.

He greatly loved his family and but was always aware that he had larger family and national obligations that he had to attend to.

A contradiction sometimes. He always told delegates to spend sometime when in Kenya for international conferences, but was the first out when he was abroad at the end of any official engagements. His critics accused him of not taking immediate positions on issues, but he thought through issues and made definitive and decisive decisions that he followed through on. In public, he was slow to anger, never exuberant in display of emotions, but in private he would easily give you a msomo especially if you had not come prepared or had no answers to questions relating to the docket he had assigned you.

His close friends accused him of being aloof, but in many ways he was transactional, insisting on getting down to the agenda of the meeting and no room for small and casual town talk

He was an opposition leader to President Moi for long but aware that he served as his VP. He believed in giving every public officer, even if it is a lowly chief, his due respect, but always defended people’s right to hold leaders to account.

In between all these influences was an often misunderstood introvert, who enjoyed the company of his books, and a politician, who loved talking to the crowds at political rallies.

He would turn from the hardened politician moving from rally to rally to the intellectual academic within minutes to the surprise of those around him. You had to always be sure if you are dealing with the politician or academic.

He was quick to insist on construction of roads and infrastructure, but always challenged beneficiaries of such projects to use them to take produce to the market.

Proud  moments

President Kibaki showed little emotion but would offer grins when he was called the father of the Constituency Development Fund that devolved funds to the people and unchained leaders from the yoke of harambees that had reduced politicians to beggars and heavily compromised policy makers.

Kibaki was also excited about midwifing the 2010 Constitution. Officiating the August proclamation of the Constitution and passing of over 70 bills to entrench it brought much joy to him.

He was also in his full element whenever he launched an economic blueprint, having been the author, co-author or inspiration behind many economic blueprints in Kenya’s history, including Vision 2030 that he fondly talked about.

Kibaki also cherished moments when he officiated at the listing of companies on the stock exchange. He was a firm believer that the stock exchange was the best route for   Socialising capital, giving small investors an opportunity to have a stake in large corporations.

He was also very proud of his signature promise of free primary education, arguing early in his presidency that even though the government did not have enough funds, other things, but not the education of the country’s youth, could wait. He therefore glowed when the programme was extended to free secondary school tuition.

He was also happy about his over 40-year association with Starehe Boys Center as a model school to be emulated around the country.

He was a proponent that education is the great equaliser and that once you got it no one “kan tunya” you because an educated youth was an empowered youth. He was therefore very happy to launch both the youth and women funds.

Kibaki was also thrilled to hand over power to the dynamic duo of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, seeing it as the smooth transfer of power from one generation to another.

Low moments

Some of Kibaki’s lowest moments have been both personal and national. Being involved in a car accident days to election day that inflicted him with injuries that saw him sworn in as Head of State on a wheelchair and slowed down his leadership, was a great low.

The killing of two of his great friends, Tom Mboya and J.M. Kariuki, angered him. Politically, he felt very aggrieved and went into weeks of inhabitation after the 1997 elections that went into a second day of voting, casting doubts over the outcome.

The 2007 post-election violence was of course the lowest moment in the Kibaki presidency and the Kriegler report did outline some of the challenges of the elections. But the crises offered the President the opportunity to form the Grand Coalition Government that has taken its place in our nation’s history. Different episodes have emerged on the Grand Coalition, but President Kibaki took advantage of the political support and passion of Prime Minister Raila Odinga to deliver on legacy defining reforms and projects.

Kibaki believed in a free press and during his tenure the media blossomed and grew. He however felt greatly mistreated especially when it came to misrepresentations on his wife Mama Lucy Kibaki. It was unfortunate that despite the great strides that Kibaki made for Kenya, the media became pre-occupied with personal issues. In private, the President was angered but he always assured that despite the negativity, history will always be the best judge because the media may chronicle the past, but will not herald the future.

Kenya was the richer and prosperous because of the gentleman of Kenyan politics. His demeanour in the murky world of politics may have delayed his ascendency to the presidency, but he was a lesson in never giving up whatever the odds.

As a young man, Kenya’s third president once worked as a bus conductor but his passion, determination and unsettled desire that drove a vision to see Kenya become an equitable and prosperous industrialising middle-income  country with its citizens at peace within themselves and at peace and peacefully trading with neighbouring nations will forever be engrained in our hearts. You emboldened us all to make Kenya a working and caring nation.