Kibaki blames Moi for slow growth

Former President Mwai Kibaki has taken an indirect jibe at his predecessor Daniel arap Moi for slowing down the country’s growth even as its peers prospered.

In his first public lecture since he left office in April, Mr Kibaki who Monday spoke on Kenya’s journey since independence, said the first decade of the Moi regime was a “period of backsliding”.

“In terms of state organisation, there was an outstanding difference between the period spanning 1966 to 1982 and the one that followed 10 years after until 1991.

It was a fact that the leadership feared organised political opinion that went contrary to the ideology of the government of the day posed a threat to the interests of the state,” Mr Kibaki said.

Mr Moi replaced Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in 1978 after the latter had led the country since independence in 1963.

But Kenya’s third President argued the gains Mzee Kenyatta had brought on board were eroded during the Moi era.

“The descent into a period of backsliding and stagnation that followed this terrific start lasted almost one complete human generation.

Well, at times every country experiences down moments characterised by diminished fortunes.

And Kenya had its own share of time of wandering in the wild.”

The former president spoke to a gathering of about 2,000 students, lecturers, government officials and the public at The University of Nairobi’s Taifa Hall.

The talk was titled “Kenya @50: Of hindsight, Insight and Foresight, Reflections on the State of the Nation”.

Mr Kibaki’s 15-page speech lasted an hour and 16 minutes. After his talk, the audience asked 12 questions — he answered only one.

But there was a flowing irony — Mr Kibaki was an MP from 1963 to 2013, served as Finance and Health minister and even as Vice-President in the Moi regime until he parted ways with the second president during the clamour for multiparty democracy.

Yet he argued that only multiparty democracy brought back the hope that Kenyans had.

“It also opened up opportunities to give the country’s leadership a new vision.

Besides, the expanded political space gave the country hope for a new constitution.

That long awaited dream bore fruit once the promulgation of the new Constitution took place in 2010.”
Other success stories, he added, include free primary education, revival of the cooperative movement, annual economic growth of 7 per cent as well as an improved road network in the country.

However, he has a warm assessment of President Kenyatta’s government.

The former Head of State thinks the Jubilee administration has been above average in its first seven months in power.

“So far, the leadership of this country has done what has been within its ability and reach, with regard to getting Kenyans to the promised land. However, a lot still remains to be done,” he said.

-nation.co.ke