Just like many politicians in former President Daniel Moi's regime suffered under his iron-fisted rule, former President Mwai Kibaki was not spared after he lost his fledgling company under controversial circumstances.
The Daily Nation, in April 2016, quoted court documents in a protracted court case revealing Kibaki was seeking to repossess a bank that was forcefully taken from him.
The publication revealed that the company, Nationwide Finance Company, had been sold off at a shocking price of Ksh20 and combined together with other firms to form a solid bank that is in existence until today.
The documents filed by Kibaki and seven other interested parties argued that they did not sell the company willingly and that Moi had used his presidential powers to dispossess them of their investment.
The team further argued that the bank had been an upright institution whose image was tainted when it got merged with other institutions after the sale.
The tycoons who had shares in the institution had claimed their firm was different from others which had been set up in the 80s.
Kibaki had partnered with prominent politicians at the time he was the Finance minister to set up the company.
The partners included former Gatanga MP Joseph Mwaura Gachui, land economist J.K. Mbuu, Kibaki’s cousin the late Kibaki Muriithi (former Narc chairman), and lawyer Peter James Kiragu Mwangi.
The institution was initially named General Credit Savings Ltd which was later changed to Nationwide.
Kibaki, who had at some point served as Mzee Moi's vice president, fell out with Kanu in 1986 after he attacked the National Disciplinary Committee over what he referred to as pettiness.
Kibaki served as the vice president between 1978 and 1988 as well as the Finance minister between 1969 and 1982.
The then-upcoming minister George Saitoti who took over the finance ministerial position from 1983 to 1989 and again from 1990 to 2002.
