Kibaki had no time for walking sticks, reading glasses, hats or trench coats

Dressed in his dark-blue suits,President Mwai Kibaki often took afternoon strolls along pedestrian walkways outside his Muthaiga residence in Nairobi. Instead of sneakers, he spotted his laced black Oxford shoes, the security detail in tow.

Even under a baking sun, the retired president was ever in dark-blue ties, never the red ones preferred by politicians as the colour of power.   

“Kibaki is a creature of habit. That’s why he’s rarely seen in T-shirts or sweaters,” a former golfing buddy familiar with his routine told The Nairobian, when we sought to know how he was doing since being flown to South Africa after a mild stroke caused medical anxiety last year.

In any case, April 26 2018 would be the second anniversary since his wife, First Lady Mama Lucy Kibaki died and we sought to know how he was coping without her.

Assuring us that the retired president was in good health, our source continued with that small bit about his dressing.

 “You will never see Kibaki in a red tie. He is always in ties of blue shades, just like his suits, which are either blue or gray.”

To elaborate, the friend with whom he shared tea when Kibaki dropped in at the Muthaiga Golf Club, explained that the rich or the elite don’t care much about dressing and find no reason to fuss  over the colour of their clothes, and that’s why most can buy many suits of one or two different colours, and simpletons think they have only one or two suits.

  While he greeted passersby during his strolls, he rarely engaged in small talk.

“He detests small talk that is below his cranium. He prefers highbrow stuff. But don’t try hard to sound too clever, he’s well-grounded himself,” a close family friend intimated to The Nairobian.

Besides sticking to his suits, Kibaki was also still a sucker for riding in sleek limousines, even when his leg joints seem to need a little bit of a raised sitting position.

His staff gripes that the 85-year old still insisted on riding  in his Mercedes S600, ignoring suggestions that a Range Rover or other models would be easier on his knees.

Although his towering frame and weight seem to weigh heavily on his pronounced limp suffered from a road accident in the late 2002, ‘Baba Jimmy’ insisted on walking, be it from a plane or car.  

Kibaki had a personal dislike for the walking stick, neither would you catch him with reading glasses.

 “The man has no time or appetite for retirement paraphernalia like walking sticks, reading glasses, hats or trench coats,” an old colleague said , adding that “he  attends  business board meetings and hosts local and foreign dignitaries at his Mwai Kibaki Foundation offices in Nyari Nairobi, but I have never seen him request, or seem to need a bakora. He is so determined to walk  on his two legs, even if he walks  slowly. He will stand when making speeches and not lean on a walking stick,” explained an aide. 

Among the dignitaries who paid him a courtesy were former German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroder and Botswana statesman, Sir Ketumile Mesire.As a personal principle, Kibaki sought no publicity and shunned it if he could help it.

This is how he managed to sneak via impromptu visits to the Muthaiga, Limuru and Thika golf clubs, where he shared chats with his old golf buddies while sipping tea.

Kibaki stopped playing golf after the 2002 accident.

“Even at the golf club, he will never start a conversation that will degenerate into an argument. He thus avoids vexatious people as one is more peaceful that way,” says another family friend who was familiar with his routine.

Besides golfing pals, the original founders of Transcentury  company were the other friends in his orbit.

Sunday used to be church day and the Consolata Catholic Shrine was the place to be. He kept time, sat at the front pew with fellow wazee and there was always a spectacle during salamu za amani, as children, all the way from the back pew, made a beeline to shake his hand.

Like their grandpa, Kibaki’s grandchildren often kept out of the limelight “but they’re always part of his life at Muthaiga,” revealed another former golfer of the retired president, adding that although a few people visited Kibaki at his Muthaiga home, he kept tabs on the few who brought him books and magazines, mostly biographies, memoirs and magazines on economics as “he keeps in touch with what is going on in Kenya and around the world. He is a keen reader of local dailies which he consumes voraciously.”

The retired president read the likes of Nic Cheeseman’s, Democracy in Africa: Successes, Failures, and the Struggles for Political Reforms published in 2005 and which looks into the evolution of democracy in Africa in recent decades.

Kibaki did not grant an interview since retirement, locally or abroad, and neither he nor his immediate family is yet to launch a charitable cause, as is the trend with retired political high fliers.

Aides said he split his time between attending to family businesses, walking around his hood for exercise, writing his memoirs, reading, and officiating local and international events.

Such is the man Jomo Kenyatta fondly referred to as kamwana ka Nyeri (this youngster from Nyeri), the one politician who hardly wore the trademark jogoo badge on his coat lapel, deeming it a sign of sycophancy to the Kanu regime.

Asked what Kenyans don’t know about their former president, our source in the know said: “He hates praise and platitudes. He is very compassionate and can’t stand to see those he knows suffering. He will help, but would be very cross if it was broadcast. He also has a very deep love for Kenya.”