Published on : Altered :
The Kenyan presidency announced the death of former President Mwai Kibaki on Friday, April 22, 2022. He passed away at the age of 90. He was the country’s third head of state, from 2003 to 2013. The current president lamented the disappearance of a ” great leader †
Mwai Kibaki taught economics for several years before joining the struggle for independence. He took part in drafting the constitution and broke his teeth into politics after independence in 1963.
At the end of the 1970s, his rise in politics was lightning fast: Mwai Kibaki was successively Minister of Trade, Finance and then of the Interior. In 1991, and with the advent of the multi-party system, he switched to the opposition.
Mwai Kibaki succeeded Daniel Arap Moï, who served as the authoritarian president for 24 years, and took office in 2003 through an anti-corruption program. In 2007, his re-election to a second term was accompanied by inter-communal violence. But Kenyans are still characterized by the reforms in education, health care and development. Like the train that connects Nairobi to Mombasa.
A bloody re-election of “Kenya’s best president”
In the wake of the announcement of his death, a national mourning was declared until the day of his funeral, the date of which has not yet been announced. The praise pours in. The former president’s economic and social legacy is widely acclaimed.
This Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta pays tribute to this economist who carried the development plan “Vision 2030” from which he drew inspiration. † As a political figure in the post-independence era, President Mwai Kibaki has earned the affection and respect of Kenyans. He leaves the image of a gentleman in politics, a brilliant man of debate, whose eloquence, wit and charm have won him over time and again.† Raila Odinga party also pays tribute to memory of head of state worker †
A few hours after the announcement of Mwai Kibaki’s death, a sense of sadness dominated the streets of the Kenyan capital, our correspondent in Nairobi noted, Albanian Thirouard† Like George Mwandi and Donovan Magoba. † We have lost a hero, we will remember all the things he did. He mainly built roads and made primary school free. † † he pushed us up. With him, Kenya has changed, be it the economy, the roads, the infrastructure. For example, the Nairobi-Mombasa railway was launched by Kibaki. I am so sad, I will miss him. †
His decade in power was marked by the country’s economic development. Lewis Mativo remembers it with nostalgia. † It was not like now, where everything has increased, where it is complicated for simple people like me to put a meal on the table. It wasn’t that hard in his day… it was for him, but as an economist, he’d managed to keep things in balance. It is a great loss for us. We lost a man who was there for the nation.†
However, his presidency also remains associated with the violence of 2007/2008 when more than 1,000 people were killed after his controversial reelection against Raila Odinga. This is also the great black spot of his heritage, says Alfred Bob from his motorcycle taxi. This Odinga supporter accuses Kibaki of it at the time” manipulated the election“. This does not prevent him from qualifying it as “best president of kenya“. A title that came back a lot on Friday in the streets of the capital.
