Mwai Kibaki 3rd President of the Republic of Kenya Date of Birth: 15.11.1931 Country: Kenya

1. Biography of Mwai Kibaki
2. Early Life and Education
3. University and Career
4. Political Career
5. Presidency and Legacy

Biography of Mwai Kibaki

Mwai Kibaki was the third President of the Republic of Kenya. He was re-elected for a second term in office and sworn in on the night of December 30, 2007, after winning by a small margin in a fiercely contested election, which led to disputes, allegations of fraud, and other violations, resulting in civil unrest.

Early Life and Education

Mwai Kibaki was born on November 15, 1931, in the village of Gatuyaini, near the town of Othaya, in Nyeri District. He was the youngest son of peasant farmers from the Kikuyu tribe. Although Italian missionaries baptized him as Emilio Stanley during his youth, everyone continued to call him Mwai Kibaki. According to family legend, Mwai owes his primary education to his older relative, the husband of his sister named Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai attend school instead of herding sheep and taking care of his nephews, his sister's children. Kibaki proved to be a brilliant student. He spent his first two years in a local village school and then three more years in a missionary school, completing his primary education. From 1944 to 1946, he attended Mathari School, a boarding school in Nyeri, where in addition to regular academic subjects, he learned carpentry and the basics of the construction profession, as students had to repair furniture and help maintain the school building in good condition. In addition, Mwai, like all students, worked in the garden, growing vegetables, and during vacations, he worked as a bus conductor. From 1947 to 1950, Kibaki attended Mang'u High School and passed his exams with the highest percentage of excellent grades.

University and Career

Influenced by veterans of the First and Second World Wars, who lived in his native village, Kibaki decided to join the army in his final year of school. However, the decision of Walter Coutts, the head of the colonial administration, to cancel recruitment into the army among representatives of the Kikuyu, Embu, and Meru people, put an end to his military career. Instead, Mwai became a student at Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied economics, history, and political science. In 1955, he graduated from the university with a Bachelor's degree in Economics with distinction, achieving the best result in his class, and secured a position as an assistant sales manager in the Ugandan division of the Shell Company of East Africa. That same year, Kibaki received a scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies at any British university. He chose the prestigious London School of Economics, specialized in public finance, and graduated with honors.

Political Career

In 1958, he returned to Makerere and taught at the Faculty of Economics until 1960, holding a junior teaching position. In 1962, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a priest, who was then the headmistress of a secondary school. In the early 1960s, Mwai Kibaki left academia for politics, resigned from Makerere University, and returned to Kenya, taking up a senior position in the Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the invitation of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, who became Kenya's first vice president in 1964. As one of his assistants, Kibaki participated in the creation of Kenya's constitution. In 1963, he was elected a member of parliament in Nairobi, marking the beginning of a long political career that culminated in the presidency.

Presidency and Legacy

International analysts note that under Kibaki, Kenya became much freer and more democratic than under his predecessors. Mwai Kibaki and his wife Lucy have four children and three grandchildren. One of his sons, Jimmy Kibaki, is also a politician, seen as a possible political successor to his father. In 2004, a scandal erupted in the press regarding the discovery of a second wife, Mary Wambui, and a daughter named Wangui Mwai, allegedly married to the president in 1972. The president had to make several statements clarifying that he only had one wife and one family. Mwai Kibaki is an avid golfer.