Having lived abroad seems to make better presidents for Kenya

Having lived in an advanced country seems to be a positive factor on the quality of a president for Kenya. Three out of our five presidents so far lived in advanced countries for a significant part of their lives. Evidence so far appears to indicate that this experience made a significant difference in their management of the country and the legacies of their presidencies.

Granted that the first President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta came to power at the advanced age of 81, he had lived in England for 15 years. The most memorable evidence of his sterling leadership, and which was most likely shaped by his experience of having lived in Britain, was the choice of his first cabinet of 15 ministers. Kenyatta went for the most brilliant minds he could find and ensured that he assigned the dockets in line with the expertise of the people he appointed.

Notably, he gave his ministers autonomy to run their dockets and kept them there for a long time. Kenyans of that age will recall a time when school children could name ministers because cabinet reshuffles were virtually unknown during Kenyatta’s presidency. As a result, the country thrived during the first 10 years of Jomo’s leadership, which were marked by progress on all fronts before age caught up with him.

Mwai Kibaki, the third President, went to the United Kingdom for his post graduate studies. He, therefore, lived in an advanced country long enough to experience the impact that a working system makes on the life of an ordinary person. Today, even the most cynical commentators acknowledge Kibaki’s presidency as having been in a class of its own. None other than Dr William Ruto is on record as having said that Kibaki is the best president that Kenya ever had. Kibaki’s legacy would seem to vindicate those sentiments.

Despite having inherited an economy which was in a shambles, courtesy of his predecessor, President Daniel Arap Moi, who had never lived in an advanced country and who had only modest education, Kibaki never lamented about the fact that he found empty coffers at the Treasury. He got down to business from day one and is not known to have bragged about his sterling achievements at any time during the ten years he was at the helm.

Kibaki is today remembered for having introduced fee primary education within the first 100 days of his presidency. This act alone made global impact as was epitomised by one Kimani Maruge, who went to school at the age of 84. Maruge instantly became an international icon with his story becoming the subject of a major Hollywood blockbuster movie titled The First Grader.

Another of Kibaki’s legacy, principally because he was an accomplished economist, was the sustained growth of the economy and the radical reduction of Kenya’s reliance on domestic borrowing. This policy resulted in Kenya financing more than 90 percent of its development from taxes, virtually eliminating the need for support of the likes of the World Bank.

Another of impact of this brilliant strategy was creation of an unprecedented opportunity for Kenyan businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises and individuals Kenyans, now popularly referred to as “hustlers,” to access credit. The result was employment creation and ordinary people having money in their pockets. The other was the building of the Thika Superhighway.

The 4th President, Uhuru Kenyatta, received his university education in the United States. To his credit, he never abandoned development projects initiated by Kibaki. If for nothing else, Kenyans will remember the Uhuru presidency for having completed the standard gauge railway from Nairobi to Naivasha and the building the Nairobi Expressway.

It is can be argued that Kenyatta, Kibaki and Uhuru were first hand witnesses of working systems particularly those of infrastructure and good governance as well as advanced lifestyles. In their own ways, they managed, amid difficult circumstances, to replicate  some of what they experienced abroad during their respective presidencies.  

Dr Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua are, to use popular parlance, “home grown.” They have never lived in countries where systems actually work. They have, of course, made frequent but brief visits to many developed countries. Anyone who has lived abroad for at least one year will, however, attest that visiting a country and living there are as different experiences as day is from night.

Admittedly, both Ruto and Gachagua are well educated gentlemen by any standards. Granted that they have now led the country for only seven months, it would be unfair to judge them against the standards of Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta, all of whom had at least ten years to entrench themselves and build their legacies.

Only time will tell whether living in an advanced country has a positive impact on a president’s ability to move a country towards prosperity, a responsibility now personified by Dr Ruto. One hopes that his legacy will prove this hypothesis wrong.


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