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 Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities. Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the