Mwai Kibaki, who served as Kenya’s third president from 2003 to 2013, has died aged 90, President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Friday.
Kibaki is credited with reviving Kenya’s then ailing economy, but his tenure was marred by deadly violence that erupted following his disputed re-election in December 2007.
Kenyatta ordered a mourning period to honour Kibaki, during which flags will be flown at half-mast.
Kibaki’s other great reforming instinct beyond education was to bring civil society in to help fight corruption. He appointed John Githongo to act as the permanent secretary for governance.
But by then, vested interests in the regime stepped in, and edged out Githongo. A weakened and sick Kibaki was not able to stand up to them.
He presided over a tax and spend growth boom which should have propelled Kenya into mid-income status , with extensive tech and industrial investments but was undermined by corporate short-term greed and political graft.
Under pressure from Kofi Annan, Kibaki agreed to power-sharing after the election violence of 2007-2008, which opened the pathway to the Odinga-Uhuru deal of today.
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