Mwai Kibaki, the President

President Mwai Kibaki has always had a very successful career as a politician. He is the only Kenyan politician who has contested and won every parliamentary election since independence. By the time he retires from active politics, he will have been in Parliament for half a century. He has been everything in the world of Kenyan politics—MP, Assistant Minister, Minister, Vice President, Leader of Official opposition and President!

A career so long and so successful has, expectedly, drawn all sorts of analyses. There are those who argue that fate and luck have always conspired to hand him more than he deserves. To them, he has not sacrificed enough for most of the positions he has held. But then in politics, just like in sport, who doesn’t need luck?

On the other hand, there are those who insist that beneath the veneer of disinterest and ambivalence is a skillfully calculating politician who understands very well the battles to fight and those not to. He has always been presenting his case to the people and according to them, all power comes from God and legitimate authority on earth comes from the people.

A friend of mine, an avid supporter of the President, recently recounted to me the behind the scenes negotiations that President Moi spearheaded in the 1998/1999 period while trying to craft a quiet succession plan. According to him, the first step was to lure Michael Wamalwa into killing his party and joining KANU. The Kanu think tank considered Wamalwa a poor man who, with the promise of a couple hundred million shillings, would be all too willing to play ball. That almost succeeded had it not been for the fierce opposition voiced by Party MPs James Orengo, Musikari Kombo and Mukhisa Kituyi. The second plan was two-fold; Talk to both Kibaki and Raila Odinga and convince them that Moi was willing and ready to build his political world around them with Kibaki on top of the ticket. Mark Too was tasked with approaching Raila while both Njenga Karume and Paul Muite were to approach Kibaki. While Raila Odinga played along, Kibaki is said to have sat quietly as the Kiambu delegation made their case about how their community had suffered in the opposition and how badly they needed him at that moment. Kibaki’s response-----‘Stick with the opposition. I have worked with Moi long enough and I know him well’. Whether that was insight or plain disinterest is hard to tell.

We all know that Kibaki has always been an eminent economist and a committed public servant, but what really is his legacy as President? How has he handled the two halves of democratic reform (political and economic) so far?

Economially, the President has, by and large, steered the country in the right direction. Approximately, average annual revenue collection has tripled under his watch and that has enabled Kenyans to fund most of their development projects without so much of external aid.

The free (I would rather call it affordable) primary school education program will always remain his biggest achievement as President. Inasmuch as the program has not been 100% successful, it has changed the lives of so many Kenyan children. President Bill Clinton, in an interview with Peter Jennings in 2004, mentioned Kibaki as the one living person he would most like to meet and thank for his government’s abolishment of primary school fees. It may not mean much to those of us who never considered primary school fees a headache, but to that family that lives under a couple dollars a day, that means the world to them.

The CDF program has also been a success. The mere fact that we are able to construct cattle dips, dispensaries, schools and even colleges without the need for fundraisers is a major step forward. The idea of the CDF makes a lot of economic sense because regions (constituencies) are able to prioritize development goals and buy that which they need most.

But the biggest problem still remains corruption. Mega scandals like the Anglo leasing have been such an embarrassment. A reduction in official corruption has enabled the government to collect more revenue and do with very little foreign aid, but a startling failure to wipe it out completely has also meant that we have not lived up to our potential. The abetment of corruption is responsible for the meager salaries that civil servants, policemen and teachers continue to earn.

As much as this President wants to be remembered as the one who put Kenya’s economy back on track that is going to prove really hard if, in his own words, corruption doesn’t cease to be a way of life.

When it comes to political reform, President Kibaki has been a stark failure. To this end, he can only be credited with promoting press freedom and expanding the democratic space. Unlike the KANU era when Moi, for a quarter century, kept a lid on political dissent by maintaining a permanent state of emergency, now people can say whatever they want without looking over their shoulders. Police harassment of opposition politicians is a thing of the past. But Kenyans can also remember that it was his own wife who terrorized innocent journalists, slapping them and asking them stupid questions in the middle of the night. The President never saw it fit to issue an apology. His lieutenant, John Michuki, with the help of Armenian terrorists, presided over the most barbaric attack on any media house in recent history!

President Mwai Kibaki promised Kenyans a decent agreeable constitutional document within 100 days of his assumption of office. It has now been more than 2000 days and that promise continues to be a pipe dream. You cannot talk of any meaningful political reform if the constitution that guides you is a hoax. It is the very renege on this promise that is responsible for last year’s disputed election. It is the reason why, in some people’s minds, he is not the legitimate President of Kenya.

I also do not think the President can claim to have overseen meaningful political reforms when almost half of those sitting in his cabinet are characters with dubious pasts. Whatever reasons he has them in government and not in jail are, to me, not buyable.

As far as I am concerned, President Kibaki has been good for the country economically but awful politically. Which begs the question; which one comes first-the economy or the politics? And can we really have both? The way we want them?