Githinji Kibaki and Teresia Wanjiku, both peasant farmers in Gatuyaini village in Nyeri County, had no heartburn about their last born of eight children going to school in the 1930s, when tending livestock was more profitable pastime. That path later gifted Kenya its third president.
Mwai Kibaki: The now 84-year-old has an appetite for milk and meat, which were luxuries at Nyeri High School where he reported to in 1947, sleeping on hay mattress and timber board, but still scored six straight A’s when he went to Mang’u High School.
The alumnus of Uganda’s Makerere University (economics, political science and history, best student of 1955) and London School of Economics (economics and public finance, 1958) was thrust into politics courtesy of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
Former Machakos Town MP, Jonesmus Kikuyu, was jailed for six months in the 1980s after predicting that Kibaki would one day be Kenya’s president! It came to pass in 2002.
The Kibaki years will be remembered for free primary education, improved healthcare, the 2010 Constitution, infrastructure, freedom and economic vibrancy, despite the 2007/8 post-poll chaos that stained his presidency.
READ MORE
Funeral of a kind as street families bury nine
Youthful political leaders who believe Kibaki's good times can return
Why Mt Kenya must resist attempts to divide it into East and West
We normalised stealing exams then discovered brains cease without Viagra
Besides The Mwai Kibaki Library at the University of Nairobi’s Chiromo Campus, there are no roads or monuments named after Kenya’s third president.
Lucy Kibaki: The recently departed, no-nonsense former First Lady, Mama Lucy Muthoni Kibaki was married in 1962 after dating the dashing economist for two years. The patron of Kenya Girl Guides Association and former chair of Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), attended Alliance Girls before specialising in education, rising to the position of college principal.
The staunch Catholic and lover of music spearheaded the formation of the State House Choir. The mother of four children; Jimmy, David, Judy and Tony Kibaki, died at the age of 82 (even though it was earlier indicated that she was 76 at the time of her death) at Bupa Cromwell Hospital in London.
Jimmy Kibaki: He was “caned thoroughly at St Mary’s,” from where he proceeded to Canada’s Salve Regina University (political science and business administration), returning to Kenya in 1988. But when he tried squeezing a business loan from his old guy, Kibaki argued he was “neither a director nor shareholder of any company...get the loan from a bank!”
The father of Mwai Kibaki Jnr (with former Saints schoolmate Sheryl Anne) is now in property development. The golfer caused political jitters in 2009 with Simama Kenya, a youth outfit that has since fizzled out.
Judy Kibaki: The only daughter and the other visible member of the Kibaki brood. The mother of Joy Marie served on Brand Kenya and Export Promotion Council boards besides a directorship role at Thika-based Bulleys Tanneries, which was put under receivership in 2004.
Her brothers, who also attended ‘Saints’ with her, are David Kagai (motocross buff) and Tony Githinji. Both siblings are in real estate, besides overseeing the family’s interests in Heri Ltd, Ginger Lily Farm and Lucia Ltd, their holding vehicle for their forays into, among others, the hospitality industry.
