I first met Mwai Kibaki, then a Finance Minister, when he came for a fundraising at his old Nyeri Primary School in 1978.
When I made my contribution, he proudly announced, "Na huyu kijana Isaiah ametoa 40 shillings".
It was a moment I cherished and since then, I became a Kibaki watcher, of course then a rising political star, who would a great influence over Kenya’s political and economic history for the next 35 years.
I proudly displayed a photo of Kibaki in my University of Nairobi room and was obviously disappointed when he was demoted from the post of Vice President. I, however, admired the gusto with which he performed his responsibilities as Health minister.
When I began my career in the media at KTN, like many journalists, it was always a pleasure attending Kibaki's press conferences, especially after he emerged from Kanu shadows.
This is the party he served as the first executive officer after he resigned from a promising academic career at Makerere University.
As leader of the opposition Democratic Party, he had become a guarded firebrand, happy to address the media but always ready to shoot back at reporters who would ask him what he often called ignorant and twisted questions.
In the opposition, Kibaki added great flavour to debate in the Kanu-dominated Parliament, with his deep grasp of policy issues and taking the government on over governance when he chaired the Parliamentary Accounts Committee.
It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise when after he was elected President, I was called in to the President's office for an interview as the head of the Presidential Press Service.
It was a pleasant interview and was happy to be invited for lunch and soon after, the announcement of my appointment made public.
On the next day, January 8, 2003, I began my 10-year journey working for a man I had long admired. The decade with President Kibaki was to be one of many highs and lows and only stabilised by a man whose calm demeanor helped steady a ship that had been boarded by leaders of political persuasion.
One of Kibaki’s very initial directions he gave was that people must stop any pre-occupation about former President Daniel Moi.
He insisted Moi had done what he did but it was time to deliver on Narc promises because his presidency would be judged not on how loud it criticised Moi but on how Narc had reformed the country and empowered Kenyans.
Working for President Kibaki was a tightrope through which you had to juggle between a man who had been shaped by events and people in his life.
Here was a man greatly influenced by the concept of the East African Union having horned his skills at Makerere University.
Again, there was this daily suit clad English gentleman who spent some of his most memorable university days at London School of Economics from where he emerged as the first African to attain a First Class economics degree in 1955.
Then there was the politician who admired American democracy that in many ways influenced to name his opposition outfit The Democratic Party. The election symbol was the lamp, meant to remove Kenya from an abyss of darkness.
While he remained focussed on an East African leaning policy, while still keeping his door open to American dealings that led to a State visit at the invitation of President George W Bush, it was the love–hate relationship with the British that will be debated for sometime.
However his signature Look East policy will for years define the Kibaki presidency.
Economist Kibaki was always an admirer of the Asian economic miracle that led to the lifting of millions of people from poverty within two generations.
In many ways, he sought to replicate this model but always reminded us that Kenya had to reengineer its economic model because of the uniqueness of our economic, political and social structures. So travel to China, Japan and countries such as Thailand would have a great impact on the Kibaki presidency.
But inside him was a true African. Born in the hills of Othaya, mentored by the Karima Catholic priests and Nyeri School teachers, spotted for his brilliance at Mang'u School and East Africaned at Makerere University where his vision of Africa was shaped.
Travel to any African country always lit a bulb in Kibaki, happy to talk to his peers and exchange views on shaping the African Century.
Kibaki was also greatly influenced by his family. He had a special relationship with Lucy, and anyone coming in between did so at his or own peril. He was loyal for most of his life and Lucy also knew he was a most admired personality who appreciated the love of being surrounded by family.
He was close to the masses, close friend to few, confidant to fewer and always played his cards very close to his chest.
He greatly loved his family and but was always aware he had larger family and national obligations he had to attend to.
A contradiction sometimes. He always told delegates to spend sometime when in Kenya for international conferences but was the first out when abroad at the end of any official engagements.
His critics accused him of not taking immediate positions on issues but thought through issues and made definitive and decisive decisions that he followed through on.
In public, he was slow to anger, never exuberant in display of emotions. However, in private, he would easily give you a msomo (dressing down) especially if you had not come prepared for a meeting or had no answers to questions relating to the docket he had assigned you.
His close friends accused him of being aloof but in many ways, he was transactional insisting on getting down to the agenda of the meeting. He had no room for small and casual talk.
He was an opposition leader to President Moi for long but aware that he served as his VP. He believed in giving every public officer, including a chief, his/her due respect but always defended people’s right to hold leaders to account.
In between all these influences was an often misunderstood introvert, who enjoyed the company of his books but a politician who loved talking to crowds at rallies.
He would turn from the hardened politician moving from rally to rally to the intellectual academic within minutes to the surprise of those around him. You had to always be sure if you are dealing with the politician or academic.
He was quick to insist on construction of roads and infrastructure but always challenged beneficiaries of such projects to use them to produce for the market.
PROUD MOMENTS
President Kibaki showed little emotion but would offer grins when he was called the father of the Constituency Development Fund. This kitty devolved funds to the people and unchained leaders from the rork of harambees that had reduced politicians to beggars and heavily compromised policymakers.
Kibaki was excited about midwifing the 2010 Constitution, officiating its August proclamation and the passing of over 70 bills to entrench it.
He was also in his full element whenever he launched an economic blueprint, having been the author, co-author or inspiration behind many economic blueprints in Kenya’s history, including Vision 2030.
Kibaki also cherished moments when he officiated the listing of companies on the stock exchange. He was a firm believer that the stock exchange was the best route for socialising capital, giving small investors an opportunity to have a stake in large corporations.
He was also very proud of his free primary education promise, arguing early in his presidency that though the government did not have enough funds, other things could wait but not the education of the youth. He, therefore, glowed when the programme was extended to secondary school tuition.
Kibaki was also happy about his over 40-year association with Starehe Boys Centre as a model school to be emulated around the country.
He was a proponent that education is the great equaliser and that once you got it no one snatch it away because an educated youth was an empowered youth. He was thus very happy to launch the youth and women funds.
Kibaki was also thrilled to handover power to the dynamic duo of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto seeing it as the smooth transfer of power from one generation to another.
LOW MOMENTS
Some of Kibaki’s lowest moments have been personal and national. Being involved in a car accident days to Election Day saw him sworn in on a wheelchair, which slowed down his leadership, was a great low.
The killing of two of his great friends, Tom Mboya and J.M. Kariuki, angered him. Politically, he felt very aggrieved and went into weeks of inhabitation after the 1997 elections that went into a second day of voting that cast some doubts over the outcome.
The 2007 post-election violence was of course the lowest moment in the Kibaki presidency and the Kriegler report did outline some of the challenges of the elections.
The crisis, however, offered the President the opportunity to form the Grand Coalition Government that has taken its place in Kenya's history. Different episodes have emerged on the Grand Coalition but President Kibaki took advantage of the political support and passion of Prime Minister Raila Odinga to deliver on legacy defining reforms and projects.
Kibaki believed in a free press and during his tenure, the media blossomed and grew. He, however, felt greatly mistreated, especially when it came to misrepresentations on his wife, Lucy.
It was unfortunate that despite the great strides that he made for Kenya, the media became pre-occupied with personal issues. In private, the President was angered but he always assured that despite the negativity, history will always be the best judge because the media may chronicle the past but will not herald the future.
Kenya was the richer and prosperous because of the gentleman of Kenyan politics. His demeanour in the murky world of politics may have delayed his ascendency to the presidency but he was a lesson in never giving up whatever the odds.
As a young man, he once worked as a bus conductor but his passion, determination and unsettled desire that drove a vision to see Kenya become an equitable and prosperous industrialising middle-income country. A country with citizens at peace within themselves and at peace and peacefully trading with neighbouring states. He will forever be engrained in our hearts.
He emboldened us all to make Kenya a working and caring Nation.
The writer is a former Press Secretary to Kibaki and immediate former envoy of Kenya to Australia
