Mwai Kibaki generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners. President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia".
Forum for the Restoration of Democracy – Asili card and refusal to stand in the 1997 Presidential Elections. Martin Shikuku therefore won the party's presidential nomination and went on to win only 0.6% of the Presidential Vote, with the party winning 1 National Assembly seat. In the 2002 election, Ford-Asili won 2 out of 212 elected seats and did not field a presidential candidate, choosing to support the successful NARC alliance candidate Mwai Kibaki. In 2007, Ford-Asili supported Mwai Kibaki again as presidential candidate, this time under the Party of National Unity banner and won a single parliamentary seat in its own right (Kirinyaga Central - John Kariuki).