Kibaki had a great sense of humour and zero patience for time wasters

Former President Mwai Kibaki. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Kibaki was as contemptuous on politicians who he thought were wasting his time.
  • The private Mr Kibaki I first saw was an unassuming gentleman who didn’t demand attention.

In public, retired President Mwai Kibaki cuts the image of an aloof, even contemptuous, person. In his heyday, he was also known to be a great orator who rarely required written speeches.

At international forums, delegates from Africa would unanimously shout “Mwai Kibaki of Kenya” when asked who would speak on their behalf. That was vintage Kibaki who, as far back as 1974, was listed by Time magazine as one of the visionary African leaders to watch.

Much of that has been lost in his old age and failing health. But those who still interact with him say his witty one-liners are intact.

Today, I look back at the private and public Mr Kibaki I encountered.

The private Mr Kibaki I first saw was an unassuming gentleman who didn’t demand attention.

I had gone to see a friend at Ambank House on University Way when Mr Kibaki was the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament (1998-2002).

BUSINESS PARTNER

While seated at the reception on the 12th floor, a dark, tall man majestically strode in. I right away knew who he was. He had come alone and waited for his turn to talk to the receptionist — who did not seem to recognise him.

“Good morning, may I see John,” he said.

“Who do I tell him it is?”

“Mwai”

I later learnt John – his full name is John Murenga – was Mr Kibaki’s close friend and business partner.

Years later, on two occasions when he was President – at Nairobi’s Holy Family Basilica and at St Consolata Shrine – I watched on television Mr Kibaki walk to the crowds and shake hands with a man on a wheelchair. It was Mr Murenga, but nobody seemed interested in finding out the connection between the two.

On a separate occasion, I came to learn Mr Kibaki was a compartmentalised man who only discussed what he wanted to and nothing else.

I was stepping out after meeting with friends at the Blue Post Hotel in Thika when a retired senior military officer I knew beckoned me to his table and requested that I sit with him as he waited for a friend.

He ordered two small green bottles for me as we chatted. Suddenly, Mr Kibaki walked to our table alone. We stood to greet him.

“Meet my friend Kamau,” my friend introduced me.

“Nice to meet you Kamau, I am Mwai,” Mr Kibaki said as he shook my hand.

HIGH PROFILE

Out of good manners, I made to leave but Mr Kibaki said in Kikuyu: “Young man, just finish your drink, we aren’t chasing you away.”

I sat with the two gentlemen for about 30 minutes. All along they talked about sheep they reared – Mr Kibaki at his Timau Farm in Nanyuki and the retired military man at his farm in Nakuru.

There wasn’t a single word on politics throughout the time I sat with them, which was surprising because at the time, Mr Kibaki had a high-profile case in court petitioning declaration of President Daniel Moi as winner in the 1997 election. Internationally, the world was glued to the news of possible impeachment of US President Bill Clinton over the Monicah Lewinsky affair. But none of that, it seemed, mattered to Mr Kibaki on that day more than his sheep.

When he left, I apologised to my military friend since I thought my presence had stopped Mr Kibaki from discussing the issues they wanted  to talk about.

“No apology to make Kamau, he had come to discuss his sheep. If there was anything else we wanted to talk about and I didn’t want you to hear, I’d have signalled you to go the moment he came,” he said.

Then there is the public Mr Kibaki I came face to face with. The man can be cynical, dismissive and contemptuous.

I was a cub reporter at the Kenya Times newspaper on the day a supposedly Made-in-Kenya Nyayo Pioneer car was launched at Kasarani Stadium in 1990.

OPPOSITION

When President Moi went to test-drive the car, it couldn’t move at the first kick of the engine. I was standing near Mr Kibaki, then a Cabinet minister, when I heard him whisper to assistant minister John Gachui in Kikuyu: Ni wakiona ngari iyo yao kwagira! (See what a great car they have manufactured!)

At the next occasion, I was at Parliament Buildings looking for an MP I wanted to talk to when a colleague dragged me to a press conference Mr Kibaki was addressing as Leader of the Opposition.

Attorney-General Amos Wako, now Busia Senator, had said something the opposition didn’t like and they were issuing a joint reaction.

On reading the statement, Mr Kibaki made to go but journalists requested he take a question or two.

“What questions do you have? Our statement is self-explanatory,” he said, then added rather contemptuously, “OK, you people ask if you must.”

The Nation’s Njeri Rugene asked whether the opposition had sought to pick the AG’s brain on the matter, to which Mr Kibaki shot back right away as he walked out on us:

“Does he have any brain to be picked?”

At another occasion, Mr Kibaki, Mrs Charity Ngilu, and Mr Kijana Wamalwa had been in the news in regard to meetings to discuss how the opposition would pick a joint candidate to face Kanu in the 2002 election.

On this day, we had camped at Nairobi’s Hilton Hotel waiting for them to come out and brief us. As they emerged, journalists were all over them with microphones. Mr Wamalwa and Mrs Ngilu insisted the three had only been having tea and nothing more.

A journalist who was always going to assignments in a three-piece suit – never mind the hot weather – asked: “You mean it was all tea and no politics!”

KANU

Mr Kibaki, who had all along remained quiet, suddenly shot back in apparent disgust as he beckoned his colleagues to walk away: “But tea itself is political. Have you people ever heard of the Boston Tea Party?”

Mr Kibaki was as contemptuous on politicians who he thought were wasting his time. One time while contributing to a motion in Parliament on increasing funds for the adult literacy programme, an MP from the Coast interrupted him with a point of order. When he resumed his contribution, Mr Kibaki ignored whatever the MP had said and quipped:

“Mr Speaker, Sir, now you see why adult literacy can be such a good thing even in this House!”

But one I remember most came during a hotly contested by-election in Kipipiri Constituency where a Kanu candidate was pitted against Mr Kibaki’s Democratic Party nominee. 

After one campaign meeting I attended, Mr Kibaki and his entourage retreated to Thompson Falls Lodge in Nyahururu town where journalists were invited.

Some Kanu operative wormed his way to where Mr Kibaki sat and talked non-stop about the need to vote for an individual and not necessarily a political party.

Suddenly Mr Kibaki rose and said as he walked away: “Thank you very much for wasting our time!”
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Postscript: After Mr Kibaki retired as President in 2003, I asked my friend Mr Esau Kioni, his one-time security adviser, what he thought of his former boss. This was his reply: “You know people once called him General Kiguoya (the big coward). If you ask me, maybe they saw a lion that had been rained on and thought it was a cat!”