- published: 09 Apr 2013
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Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) is a Kenyan politician who has been the third President of Kenya since December 2002.
Kibaki was previously Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 and also held cabinet ministerial positions, including a widely acclaimed stint as Minister for Finance (1969–1981), Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991).
After resigning as a cabinet minister in 1991, Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1991 up to his election as Kenya's third president in 2002 after two unsuccessful bids for the Kenyan presidency in 1992 and 1997.
He was sworn in on the night of 30 December 2007 for his second term as president after controversially emerging as the winner of a bitterly contested election that was marked by accusations of fraud and widespread irregularities that led to the post-election violence of 2007–2008.
Kibaki was born in Gatuyaini village in Othaya division of Nyeri District. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ (both now deceased). Though baptized as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known for all intents and purposes as his name. Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister.