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Kibaki re-elected as president
03/01/2008 09:09 - (SA)
President Mwai Kibaki's government accused rival Raila Odinga's party of unleashing "genocide" in Kenya as the death toll from tribal violence over a disputed election passed 300.
Following are key facts about Kibaki:
Kibaki was born on November 15 1931, in Othaya, near Mount Kenya, in the heartland of his Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest. The son of a tobacco trader, his name in Kikuyu means big tobacco leaf.
Kibaki became a legislator for the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) party at independence in 1963. Within two years, he was appointed commerce minister and then finance minister, from 1970-1983. He served 10 years as President Daniel arap Moi's vice-president, from the latter's election in 1978.
Gradually falling out of favour with Moi, Kibaki defected from KANU in 1991 and launched the Democratic Party to contest the first multi-party election in 1992. He lost that and a 1997 poll. In 2002 his National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) won power.
During his term, Kibaki's NARC coalition split, with one of its members, Raila Odinga, becoming his main election opponent. He introduced free primary and secondary education. Critics say he has done little to combat graft and tribalism, and reneged on pledges such as re-writing the constitution within 100 days.
Kibaki formed a new alliance, the Party of National Unity (PNU), as his 2007 re-election vehicle and was declared winner.
Married with four children, Kibaki was educated at Uganda's Makerere University and the London School of Economics, where he was the first African to graduate with a first-class degree. He returned to Makerere in 1958 as an economics lecturer.
Among Kenya's richest men, he has vast land holdings and interests in hotels, insurance and farming. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and socialising at Nairobi's exclusive clubs.
- Reuters
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