Fact files of: Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga

[Guest guest]

Fact files of: Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga

January 03, 2008 Ed

Mwai Kibaki

Here are key facts about President Mwai Kibaki who has claimed

election victory in Kenya:

Kibaki was born on November 15, 1931, in Othaya, near Mount Kenya, in

the heartland of his Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest.

The son of a tobacco trader, his name in Kikuyu means " big tobacco

leaf " .

Kibaki became a legislator for the ruling Kenya African National

Union (Kanu) party at independence in 1963.

Within two years he was appointed commerce minister and then finance

minister, from 1970-1983. He served for 10 years as President

arap Moi's vice-president, from the latter's election in 1978.

Gradually falling out of favour with Moi, Kibaki defected from Kanu

in 1991 and launched the Democratic Party to contest the first

multiparty election in 1992.

He lost that and a 1997 poll. Finally, in 2002, his National Rainbow

Coalition (Narc) won power.

He has been president of the country since then.

During his term, Kibaki's Narc coalition split, with one of its

members, Raila Odinga, becoming his main election opponent.

He introduced free primary and secondary education. Critics say he

has done little to combat graft and tribalism and has reneged on

pledges such as re-writing the constitution within 100 days.

Kibaki formed a new alliance, the Party of National Unity (PNU), as

his 2007 re-election vehicle and was declared winner.

Married with four children, Kibaki was educated at Uganda's Makerere

University and the London School of Economics, where he was the first

African to graduate with a first-class degree.

He returned to Makerere in 1958 as an economics lecturer.

Among Kenya's richest men, he has vast land holdings and interests in

hotels, insurance and farming. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and

socialising at Nairobi's exclusive clubs. - Reuters

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Raila Odinga

Here are key facts about Raila Odinga, who insists he is Kenya's new

president and has accused President Mwai Kibaki of vote rigging:

Born on January 2, 1945, in Maseno, west Kenya, Odinga comes from the

Luo tribe, one of the country's biggest.

His father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a nationalist hero who was

Kenya's first vice-president after independence from Britain in 1963,

went into opposition against President Jomo Kenyatta and his

successor President arap Moi.

Odinga is seen as a firebrand, especially after he was involved in an

attempted coup against Moi in 1982. Now he projects a more moderate,

business-friendly face.

Educated in communist East Germany, Odinga named his first son Fidel

Castro. Representing Nairobi's teeming Kibera slum, Odinga sees

himself as a champion of the poor. But he has done well out of his

large business empire.

He spent nine years in jail six of them in solitary under Moi for

protesting against one-party rule. He was charged with treason over a

coup attempt and fled to Norway.

He helped Kibaki win power in 2002 and served for three years in the

cabinet before being sacked for campaigning against him in a

constitutional referendum in 2005. - Reuters

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

Fact files of: Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga

January 03, 2008 Ed

Mwai Kibaki

Here are key facts about President Mwai Kibaki who has claimed

election victory in Kenya:

Kibaki was born on November 15, 1931, in Othaya, near Mount Kenya, in

the heartland of his Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest.

The son of a tobacco trader, his name in Kikuyu means " big tobacco

leaf " .

Kibaki became a legislator for the ruling Kenya African National

Union (Kanu) party at independence in 1963.

Within two years he was appointed commerce minister and then finance

minister, from 1970-1983. He served for 10 years as President

arap Moi's vice-president, from the latter's election in 1978.

Gradually falling out of favour with Moi, Kibaki defected from Kanu

in 1991 and launched the Democratic Party to contest the first

multiparty election in 1992.

He lost that and a 1997 poll. Finally, in 2002, his National Rainbow

Coalition (Narc) won power.

He has been president of the country since then.

During his term, Kibaki's Narc coalition split, with one of its

members, Raila Odinga, becoming his main election opponent.

He introduced free primary and secondary education. Critics say he

has done little to combat graft and tribalism and has reneged on

pledges such as re-writing the constitution within 100 days.

Kibaki formed a new alliance, the Party of National Unity (PNU), as

his 2007 re-election vehicle and was declared winner.

Married with four children, Kibaki was educated at Uganda's Makerere

University and the London School of Economics, where he was the first

African to graduate with a first-class degree.

He returned to Makerere in 1958 as an economics lecturer.

Among Kenya's richest men, he has vast land holdings and interests in

hotels, insurance and farming. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and

socialising at Nairobi's exclusive clubs. - Reuters

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

Raila Odinga

Here are key facts about Raila Odinga, who insists he is Kenya's new

president and has accused President Mwai Kibaki of vote rigging:

Born on January 2, 1945, in Maseno, west Kenya, Odinga comes from the

Luo tribe, one of the country's biggest.

His father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a nationalist hero who was

Kenya's first vice-president after independence from Britain in 1963,

went into opposition against President Jomo Kenyatta and his

successor President arap Moi.

Odinga is seen as a firebrand, especially after he was involved in an

attempted coup against Moi in 1982. Now he projects a more moderate,

business-friendly face.

Educated in communist East Germany, Odinga named his first son Fidel

Castro. Representing Nairobi's teeming Kibera slum, Odinga sees

himself as a champion of the poor. But he has done well out of his

large business empire.

He spent nine years in jail six of them in solitary under Moi for

protesting against one-party rule. He was charged with treason over a

coup attempt and fled to Norway.

He helped Kibaki win power in 2002 and served for three years in the

cabinet before being sacked for campaigning against him in a

constitutional referendum in 2005. - Reuters

--- End forwarded message ---