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- Mwai Kibaki, former Kenyan president has died aged 90.
- He led the nation between 2002 and 2013.
- His tenure was marred by the 2007 elections that led to lethal violence.
Former Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki, who led the nation from 2002 to 2013, has died at 90.
As chief, Kibaki, one of many nation’s richest males, ushered in financial reforms and a brand new structure however didn’t ship on guarantees to fight corruption. His tenure was marred by the disputed 2007 polls that led to lethal violence.
In 2002, the British-educated economist gained a landslide election, upsetting a candidate handpicked by outgoing president Daniel Arap Moi. Kibaki had beforehand served as Moi’s vp.
READ | Former Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi has died
Kibaki’s fiscal prudence and infrastructure tasks breathed life again into Kenya’s sluggish economic system, and he’s additionally credited with ending many restrictions on freedom of expression.
Nevertheless, a rift with the favored Raila Odinga, a fellow chief within the NARC coalition, led to a bitter showdown that turned violent in the course of the subsequent election in 2007.
With Odinga forward by a number of hundred thousand votes, the electoral fee abruptly stopped asserting the outcomes and ejected journalists. Hours later, the fee introduced Kibaki had gained by a slender margin and he was hurriedly sworn in.
Election observers stated the polls had been flawed and Odinga known as for protests.
Former President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki.
Amid a crackdown by safety forces, ethnic violence flared in Nairobi’s slums, the Rift Valley highlands and the lakeside metropolis of Kisumu. In a single incident, a number of individuals had been burned alive in a church.
At the very least 1,250 individuals had been killed earlier than former United Nations chief Kofi Annan brokered a peace deal that noticed the formation of a grand coalition authorities, with Odinga as prime minister.
The coalition lasted 5 years and a brand new structure was enacted in 2010 that devolved some powers from the presidency to the counties.
The son of a tobacco dealer, Kibaki attended Kampala’s Makerere College earlier than changing into the primary African to earn a first-class diploma from the London College of Economics.
He returned to Makerere as an economics lecturer in 1958. Following Kenya’s independence, he was chosen to parliament and have become an aide to founding President Jomo Kenyatta. Two years later, he was appointed commerce and business minister.
Kibaki later served as Moi’s vp, however a spat noticed him moved to a number of much less outstanding posts earlier than he switched to the opposition and gained the election.
He’s survived by a number of youngsters and grandchildren.
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