Mwai Kibaki and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals." Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence. Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement. President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat. He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish
Mwai Kibaki 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it. Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official