Former President Mwai Kibaki is one of the few prominent politicians whose influence can be traced back to independence days and still rings out loud 56 years later.
His political journey began when he was elected a member of parliament for Donholm (Makadara) in 1963, and then the minister of Finance, and consequently became president in 2002.
The year 1988, however, was the year when his fortunes as a KANU politician began to dwindle. Loyal to the core, Mwai Kibaki was demoted from the position of the vice president and announced as the minister of health.
He took the demotion in stride and grace, earning him criticism and condemnation from many quarters who thought him to be cowardly and spineless.
Nobody knew what he was planning, but he already had in mind an exit strategy. He was keenly studying the happenings in the political scene.
Politicians at that time were agitating for multi-party politics as he played coy, defending president Moi and KANU, a party that he suspected would betray him.
On Christmas day, December 25, 1991, days after the restoration of the multi-party politics, Kibaki made a surprise move and announced that he was leaving KANU, a decision that was stated to have caught Moi by surprise.
He formed the Democratic Party (DP), a new political outfit, and from the shells of a 'cowardly' politician, a ruthless and thorough strategist emerged.
He ran for the presidency in the contested 1992 polls, and he emerged 3rd behind Moi and Matiba. He then ran again in another blighted election in 1997 and emerged second, narrowly losing to Moi.
As an opposition leader, his political currency improved, and using his wit, he did the unprecedented and united the anarchical opposition parties for the first time in the country's history.
With 67 percent of the votes, Mwai Kibaki condemned Moi's candidate Uhuru Kenyatta to an embarrassing defeat and became the third president of the Republic of Kenya.
Throughout his rule, he is reported to have marked the start of his journey to the top seat to that key decision on Christmas day in 1991.
