Although widely lauded as Kenya’s best ever president, Mwai Kibaki, who died last Friday at 90, was also a subject of hate for many. A significant populace holds that all the great accomplishments of his tenure between 2002 and 2013 were nullified by the glaring negatives.
An otherwise successful presidency was blighted by the contentious 2007 presidential election and the ensuing violence, the Artur brothers saga, the raid on Standard newspapers and failure to effectively tackle the scourges of tribalism and corruption.
Many recall that, at the beginning of the Kibaki presidency, a survey placed Kenyans as the most optimistic people globally. It was the period when citizens keen to get away from the excesses of President Daniel arap Moi’s kleptocracy took to arresting traffic police officers for demanding bribes. The wave of optimism was buttressed by the nature of President Kibaki’s election at the head of a genuinely broad-based, all-inclusive and multi-ethnic coalition.
There is no question that President Kibaki failed to build on the goodwill, and soon enough Kenya regressed into the corrupt, tribalist society inherited from the Moi’s ‘Nyayo Error’.
Yet at the same time, nobody can honestly dismiss the stupendous dividends from the Kibaki regime — including bringing the country back from economic ruin, rebuilding institutions wrecked and plundered under his predecessor, restoring rule of law, delivering on the 2010 Constitution and embarking on the ambitious infrastructure program.
It is possible that many Kenyans grew up never having seen a tarmac road because such marvels had not reached their regions — or because Moi’s rule destroyed what had been inherited from the previous administration. Carrying on where President Kibaki left off on roads will become President Uhuru Kenyatta’s greatest legacy, one that can be seen and felt without need for self-promotion.
The lesson, in any case, is that the greatest of achievements can be completely undermined by just a few glaring errors. One illustration will suffice: Adolf Hitler may have presided over monumental rebuilding of Germany but will only be remembered for launching the Second World War and presiding over mass slaughter of Jews.
Today, politicians of all shades are eulogising President Kibaki, but one thing they must take home in praising him is that opinion on the man is divided for precisely the failures which stick out.
Whether the negatives outweigh the positives in President Kibaki’s life and times will be material for endless discussion but all our leaders — in fact all of us — must go beyond lionising the man and look inward to the lessons he leaves.
All we have to do is make two lists — one of the good things and great accomplishments and the other of the bad things and failures.
Honest self-assessment will provide rude shocks, especially when we factor in that just one negative can override a million positives.
It doesn’t matter if you have lived a pious life from childhood; the day you are caught with your hand in the till or sexually molesting a minor will cancel out everything that ever earned you respect as a God-fearing, law-abiding citizen.
I deeply admired President Kibaki as a great, visionary and selfless leader but also cannot be blind to his warts and, in that regard, fully understand those who do not see anything worth celebrating in his presidency.
It is for all of us, and especially those seeking the public mandate to lead, to take stock of our own lives and assess whether the bad will swamp the good.
In 2017, State House mandarins plucked the fellow out of the corporate world and imposed him on Jubilee Party candidate for Nairobi governor, Mike Sonko.
Mr Igathe, swallowing the nonsense that he would run the capital city as Deputy Governor while Mr Sonko busied himself with the usual crude theatrics, was itself proof that he was a politically naïve marionette with absolutely no leadership credentials. Once safely in office Mr Sonko showed him who was boss, and Mr Igathe quit in a huff to go back to one corporate top job to another.
Now the same State House honchos have gone for Mr Igathe again and imposed him on Kenyans as the Azimio coalition candidate for Nairobi governor. Even if we accept that President Kenyatta’s Jubilee takes the capital city seat in exchange for leaving the presidential ticket for ODM’s Raila Odinga, surely, they could do better than select a rolling stone that gathers no moss.
