Mwai Kibaki Biography – Age, Career, Presidency, Health Issues, Family, Cause Of Death And Net Worth
TSB News reports that Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki better known as Mwai Kibaki, was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
Age
He was born 15 November 1931
Career
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Presidency
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya, in front of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: “Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals.”
Kibaki’s swearing in marked the end of four decades of KANU rule, the party having ruled Kenya since independence. Moi, who had been in power for 24 years, began his retirement.
President Kibaki’s style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat. He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya’s currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities – however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
Health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
Family
Mwai Kibaki and Mrs. Kibaki with U.S. President George W. Bush and Laura Bush at the White House during a state visit in 2003. President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They had four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also had several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father’s political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki had a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki’s only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only had one wife. The matter of Kibaki’s alleged mistress, and his wife’s usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a “new Kenyan soap opera”.
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular “other woman”, who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki’s family, led publicly by Kibaki’s son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki’s public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN’s Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoyed playing golf and was a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He was a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attended Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment. Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki’s family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Cause Of Death
Kibaki died on 21 April 2022, at the age of 90. The cause of his death was no stated.
His death was announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday.
“It is my sorrowful duty to announce to the nation the passing on of H.E. Emilio Mwai Kibaki, the Third President of the Republic of Kenya. H.E. Mwai Kibaki lived a dedicated life of public service. We salute a notable father figure in the chronicles of our Nation. A leader who strove so hard and accomplished so much for his country. A nation he so deeply cherished and served with commitment and an unbending will to improve the lives of our people,” he said.
Net Worth
Mwai Kibaki had a net worth of $50 million dollars