NAIROBI, Kenya, April 26 – “Mwai Kibaki was not born great, he acquired greatness,” were the words of FORD Kenya leader Moses Wetangula as he paid tribute to the fallen leader during a Senate sitting.
While addressing other legislators, Wetangula described Kibaki as a hard worker who was successful in what he was doing through “sheer hard work, and a commitment to patriotism.”
“We can say and identify upon those whom greatness has been thrashed and how they are unable to carry its weight. He was not one of them. President Mwai Kibaki at the time he left his service, was the longest-serving MP in the commonwealth having served for 50 years. None of us will reach there,” he recalled.
The Bungoma Senator reminisced that when he joined politics and subsequently parliament, Kibaki was one of the people, among others, he admired for his articulation during debates and his diligence for the Kenyans who elected him.
“Kenyans will remember Mzee Mwai Kibaki as a man who came to the presidency at a very difficult time. The shilling was at its weakest level, the economy was in tatters as it is today and many things had gone wrong,” he stated.
“But when he left the seat, we all look back with nostalgia. We all look back in amazement as to how a man could do so much for a country within such little time. Within three months of taking power, Kenya was rated by UNDP as the happiest country on earth and Kenyans were classified as the most hopeful people in the world.”
Further, the senator recalled that it is due to Kibaki that Kenyans tasted the sweet cake of free primary education within the first three months of his administration leading to a quadruple of enrollment into primary schools around the country.
Wetangula lauded Kibaki as the greatest president Kenya has ever heard and gave his condolences to his children and extended family as a whole.
