Published on: 04/22/2022 – 11:58 am Modified on: 04/22/2022 – 21:48
The Kenyan Presidency announced the death of former President Mwai Kibaki this Friday, April 22, 2022. He died at the age of 90. He was the country’s third head of state from 2003 to 2013. The current President regretted the disappearance of a “great leader”.
Mwai Kibaki taught economics for several years before joining the struggle for independence. He helped draft the constitution and got involved in politics after independence in 1963.
In the late 1970s, his rise in politics was meteoric: Mwai Kibaki successively became Minister of Trade, Minister of Finance and then Minister of the Interior. In 1991 and with the advent of the multi-party system, he switched to the opposition.
Succeeding Daniel Arap Moï, who had been the authoritarian chairman for 24 years, Mwai Kibaki came to the top office in 2003 thanks to an anti-corruption program. In 2007, his re-election to a second term was marred by intercommunity violence. But Kenyans are still shaped by reforms in education, health and development. Like the train that connects Nairobi to Mombasa.
Bloody re-election of “Kenya’s best president”
Following the announcement of his death, a state of mourning was ordered until the day of his funeral, the date of which has not yet been announced. The praise spills over. The former President’s economic and social legacy is widely celebrated.
This Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta pays tribute to this economist, who supported the “Vision 2030” development plan, from which he himself was inspired. “As a political figure in the post-independence era, President Mwai Kibaki has earned the affection and respect of Kenyans. He leaves behind the image of a gentleman in politics, a brilliant man of debate whose eloquence, wit and charm have won him over again and again. Raila Odinga’s party is also honoring the memory of a “hardworking” head of state.
A few hours after the announcement of Mwai Kibaki’s death, a sense of sadness is sweeping the streets of the Kenyan capital, our Nairobi correspondent noted. Albane Thirouard. Like George Mwandi and Donovan Magoba. “We lost a hero, we will remember all the things he did. He notably built roads and made elementary school free. » ; “He pushed us up. Kenya has changed with him, be it the economy, the roads, the infrastructure. For example, the Nairobi-Mombasa train line was created 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 wasn’t like now, when everything has increased, when it’s complicated for ordinary people like me to put a meal on the table. It wasn’t that difficult in his day…it was before him, but as an economist he had managed to balance things out. It’s a big loss for us. We lost a man who was there for the nation. »
However, his presidency also remains linked to the violence of 2007/2008, when more than 1,000 people lost their lives after his controversial re-election against Raila Odinga. That’s also the big black mark on his heritage, Alfred Bob tells us from his motorcycle taxi. This Odinga supporter accuses Kibaki of “rigging the election” at the time. That doesn’t prevent him from subsequently qualifying him as “Kenya’s best president”. A title that came back a lot in the streets of the capital on Friday.