The scorecard of Kenya’s third President is easy to summarise: Top achievement – Free primary education and thriving economy. Biggest let down: Bungled 2007 election and worst political violence since independence.
When the Rainbow movement, championed by Raila Odinga, ushered Mwai Kibaki into power in 2002, the government immediately scrapped all fees in primary schools and made schooling compulsory.
The Ministry of Education says primary school enrolment rose from 5.9 million pupils in 2002 to 7.2 million in 2003 and then 8.2 million pupils by 2007.
This was Kenya’s second attempt to introduce the policy in the post-colonial Kenya, after the first attempt in 1970s failed to achieve much.
In the first attempt in 1971, President Jomo Kenyatta abolished tuition fees for the poor districts of Marsabit, Isiolo, Samburu, Turkana, Garissa, West Pokot, Mandera, Wajir, Tana River and Lamu.
According to government records, the enrolment in Samburu went up by 31 per cent, Wajir 72 per cent, Isiolo 23 per cent, Marsabit 29 per cent, and Tana River 26 per cent.
In his 2003 attempt, President Kibaki was complying with a recommendation by the on the children’s right for education, which was reinforced by the recommendations of the Unesco Addis Ababa conference of 1961.
This probably stands out as the biggest achievement of his presidency.
Late octagenarian Kimani Ng'ang'a Maruge became the poster child of this education success story, when he enrolled in Std 1 in 2004 at Kapkenduiywo Primary School, Eldoret.
He now holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest person to start primary school.
Research carried out in 2008 by the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and the Kenyan government showed that since 2003, more of the poorest children in Kenya went to primary school.
However, on the other side, the number of children in private primary education nearly tripled.
“School results and overall enrolment rates in some Kenyan state primary schools have fallen,” the report shows.
Kibaki’s free primary education also experienced Kemsa-style looting.
Billions of shillings were lost between 2003 and 2013 through fake training workshops.
According to media reports, the cost of textbooks stolen in the first six years of Free Primary Education was Sh1.7 billion.
Nevertheless, the FPE gains spilled over to secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
By 2007, the government had increased the number of pupils in secondary schools from 778,000 to over one million by supporting needy children with bursaries.
At the tertiary education level, enrolment in national polytechnics rose from about 13,000 in 2002 to over 18,000 in 2007. Other vocational tertiary institutions showed similar progress, with student enrolment rising from about 51,000 in 2002 to over 69,000 in 2007.
Annual admissions in universities rose from 10,000 in 2002 to 122,831 students admitted to the 68 public and private institutions in 2020, according to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service data.
Most of today's public universities were diploma colleges but were granted charters during Kibaki era.
Since Kibaki succeeded President Daniel Moi in 2002, Kenya also enjoyed a real improvement of its economic indicators, facilitated by the resumption of funding by donors, mostly the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The annual growth rates averaged above five per cent, compared to the end of President Moi’s rule when the rates revolved around zero per cent.
The unemployment rate quickly decreased. However, inequalities worsened (Kenya was ranked 10th on the world list of the countries with the highest level of inequality in terms of wealth) because the rapid growth only benefited a part of the population, while the poorest classes experienced a reduction in their purchasing power.
But while President Kibaki revamped the economy, he did not do the same in health.
The hospital infrastructure remained mostly dilapidated and dialysis, for instance, was still being offered only at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
The system had been slowly crumbling since a cost-sharing scheme was introduced in 1989 following pressure from donors such as the World Bank and the IMF.
These costs were abruptly removed nine months later after it became apparent they were untenable and were disastrous to the poor.
However, in April 1992, when Kenya held its first multiparty election under Moi, facility dependent outpatient fees were reintroduced.
Those charges remained until they were scrapped by the Jubilee administration of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Such costs greatly limited access to healthcare during Kibaki’s reign.
Subsequently, health indicators did not improve significantly.
While Kibaki tried to introduce free maternity services in 2003, the initiative never took off.
Charity Ngilu, the Minister of Health, appeared to have declared free maternity ahead of the 2007 General Election. But there were no structures to support it until June 1, 2013, when the Jubilee administration abolished maternity fees in public hospitals.
However, one of the most laudable attempts by the Kibaki government was to broaden the coverage of the National Hospital Insurance Fund by making it compulsory albeit gradually.
That had been mooted as a proposal in 2002 immediately Kibaki came to power. At that time, a National Social Health Insurance Fund was proposed to replace the NHIF.
This idea was being pushed by the World Health Organization and the German non-profit Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
The contribution structure to HSHIF would be three-tiered: The money from five per cent VAT should finance the contribution of the poorest 30 per cent of Kenyans. For half of the population, there was a flat-rate contribution. Finally, 20 per cent of the population made up of contributing employees who would have half their contributions paid by their employers.
“A highly controversial corresponding bill was passed by Parliament in December 2004, but President Mwai Kibaki declined to sign it into law 'citing problems related to technical design, affordability, implementation and sustainability',” writes Daniel Kunzler of the University of Fribourg, in his paper, The Politics of Health Care Reforms in Kenya and their Failure.
In his second term, Kibaki’s health agenda was bogged down by a binary Ministry of Health headed by Beth Mugo (Public Health) and Anyang Ny’ong’o (Medical Services).
Prof Nyong’o is, however, credited with NHIF reforms that increased contributions from Sh300 to the current tiered deductions, which have considerably increased benefits.
The 2007 bungled election remains a stain on Kibaki’s achievements. At least 1,500 Kenyans were killed in the country’s worst tribal violence, which followed the election results in which he was hurriedly announced winner and sworn in at nightfall.
