The general tone in this site has been one of castigating Raila while pretending to give President Kibaki stick as well, but it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to get the net result of the general sentiment. Half-truths and outright lies have been peddled, the shortcomings of Mwai Kibaki have been glossed over while the shortcomings of Raila Odinga have been amplified. So, today let us look at Kibaki's term from a different perspective.

Kibaki trounced Uhuru Kenyatta to take over the leadership of the country in 2002. The term began with promise, Kenyans were voted the most optimistic people on earth, the mwananchi had started taking steps in addressing the corruption problem at the lowest level. Bribe soliciting policemen were being 'arrested' by the ordinary people. A brighter future beckoned? Kibaki's handling of Kenyan politics is a catalogue of how not to do it. So where did the rain start beating us?

There was the small issue of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the different political players in the run up to the 2002 elections. The MoU, was a gentleman's document and it relied solely on the president to carry out the pledges included therein. Among other things, it set out the sharing of cabinet and other senior government positions in the new government. The first cabinet was a fair representation of Kenya and the constitution's make-up. There were murmurings in the background but most Kenyans were still solidly behind the president. However after several missteps with the subsequent appointments, the voices of the rebels grew bolder. What was the response of the Kibaki government to the brewing rebellion? Did he involve the 'Summit' , that party organ that had been involved in the resolution of such issues in the run up to the elections?

No. He chose instead  to involve some hitherto unknown lieutenants whose my-way-or-the-highway style only served to alienate the president and his inner circle from the rest of the coalition. It was clear that the president's men knew nothing about managing coalitions. It was common knowledge that although NARC went to parliament as a single entity, it was in fact a loose coalition composed of politicians from the NAK and the LDP, and that the NAK was in turn composed of more than ten parties.

Coalitions are extremely difficult to manage and by involving the likes of Chris Murungaru, John Michuki and Kiraitu Murungi in the coalition management, Kibaki made his job more difficult. The 'summit' was as good as dead and with no way of bringing the warring parties back together, a split was inevitable. Things got so bad, that at one time, all of the major players in the coalition, had been completely sidelined.

Could Kibaki have done a better job in managing the coalition? What about the appointments? Kibaki made filling influential with tribes mates a habit. For a confirmation, just look at the top appointments the list is self-explanatory.

Then there was the issue of supplying the constitution in 100 days. A satirist has said that that may be the only promise that Kibaki has kept because he didn't say that the constitution would be delivered after 100 consecutive days of being in office, so he still has time to deliver his promise.

In the run up to the 2002 elections a draft constitution had been released by the CKRC. It was hailed by the then opposition as the best thing to happen to Kenya. The then leader of the official opposition called it a 'beautiful' document, Kivutha Kibwana cautioned against making fundamental amendments to the draft. Incidentally, the proposals made to the Ufungamano initiative by Kibaki revealed that the final draft was closest to the Democratic Party's proposals. He wanted  a prime minister to run the government and he wanted the president to garner a clear majority of 50% + 1 vote, failure to which the top two candidates would have to face each other off in a run-off. Kibaki's party finally got what they wanted all along, they were elated.

Fast forward to 2003, was Kibaki's inner circle still upbeat about the new constitution? The answer is anybody's guess. We started hearing excuses like "Garnering 50%+1 then ceding the power to a PM would be a constitutional coup", "No African country can survive with two centers of power", "These are proposals by people who don't want to face the president in a popular vote", "They want power through the backdoor", "Have you tried holding uncooked liver in your hands?", etc. The Kibaki inner circle didn't stop at that, they took the war to the Bomas delegates by mocking their intellect, abstaining from the proceedings while not abstaining from the pay cheque.

In the end the proposals on the executive proved to be the most controversial, they had to be taken to the plenary where the government side was beaten hands down. The Kibaki inner circle's efforts were not ended however. When a private lawyer sued the government over the constitution process, the government lost the case but then celebrated a result that gave them leeway to butcher the draft. The suing lawyer was Dr. Githu Mungai, the judge delivering the verdict was a certain Aaron Ringera, the minister for justice was Kiraitu Murungi, all of whom were former partners in the same law firm so the verdict was to the critics an inevitability.

After losing at Bomas, the government took the draft to parliament. The MPs that were previously unanimous on contentious issues were now satisfied with a simple majority to pass the entire draft through. Why? Because in parliament the government had a 'bought' majority who were willing to sell their vote for the carrots from the executive. The government side successfully pushed through the draft bill and presented it to the Kenyans in a referendum. Kenyans had different ideas on the draft and defeated the government in 7 of the 8 provinces with clean sweeps in two provinces. Could Kibaki have done a better job in delivering an acceptable constitution to the Kenyans? Seems like for Kibaki, what was true yesterday didn't hold the next day. But like with the coalition management, rather than engage the protagonists to a meaningful debate, his side chose the opposite solution.

The war on graft? Are you having a laugh? Kibaki was elected on a platform of zero tolerance on corruption. However, it is noteworthy that people who were struggling financially became overnight millionaires, Murungaru anyone? Then there was the resurgence of grand corruption with Anglo fleecing serving as the clearest example. The war on graft started on a 'positive' note, however, it seems like the war was an ethnic based witch hunt. Bernard Chunga was hounded out of office, judges were hounded out of office based on conjecture and were not given a chance to argue their cases. Then came the Euro bank corruption scandal, the major player in the saga was one Mr. Muthamia and the governments handling or the lack thereof of the corruption scandal proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the war on graft was lip service.

A lot has been made of the 'Economic growth', however, the economic growth has not filtered down to the grassroots in most areas in the country. The economic growth stands at 6%, the inflation however is at double digits and the net result is that more people are impoverished. The prices of consumer goods have sky rocketed and these commodities are increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary Kenyans. Oil prices may be beyond the inflence of the government, however, increased taxation on oil products didn't help matters. A few years ago, the road license fees were scrapped and instead of the license fees, the tax was moved to petroleum products. The increase in oil taxation was a blanket increase and it affected unrelated products like Kerosene that is used for cooking and lighting by most Kenyans. It is true that Kenya has experienced growth, but has the entire country felt the growth? PNU zealots may argue that the government only does the facilitation, well, this 'facilitation' only seems to be happening in certain regions in the country, some sectors have seen precisely nil government 'facilitation' since 2003. The allocation of money for water projects for Nyeri district vis a vis the North Eastern province best captures the kind of 'facilitation' we are speaking of.

Then there was also the matter of roadside declarations, which the president had at his swearing-in emphatically declared was behind us. Was it really? It seemed like the president was keeping a promise after all. There came the 2005 referendum, Kibaki went into an overdrive of declaring districts, public universities. State house that was a closed shop finally opened its doors to ethnic delegations where pledges of allegiance were rewarded with districts, title deeds and other goodies, the old times were back after all. The creation of districts was not factored into the budget and there was no financial provision made. Creation of a district is no trivial task, it involves the addition of more bureaucrats, health officials, district hospitals, district offices, educational infrastructure etc. So much for Kibaki the economist. Then came 2007, Kibaki was trailing, the response? More districts, pay hikes for teachers, public universities etc. The most hilarious one was reserved for Kibaki's campaign in Kuria where it was clear that the president had no intention of creating a districts, but the crowd were having none of it, Kibaki was adamant. Then Machage & Nyachae enter into the scene, Kibaki stands firm. THe crowd starts chanting ODM slogans and the president's resolve finally capitulates and voila, a new district is declared, meaning that Kuria constituency now has two districts!!!

For a president who once enjoyed an enormous approval rating, an approval rating that will likely never be surpassed, Kibaki blew his opportunity to heal Kenya's divisions. He had the most decisive mandate ever given to a Kenyan leader and the gap between him and the next best presidential candidate was larger than any single ethnic bloc, but he decided to nurture the tree of ethnicity. His handlers have finally decided that the best way out is to bring the siege mentality central Kenyan voters. But would he need at all to rally his ethnic base if he had the wider electorate?

For me, it is a massive thumbs down for Kibaki.