Kenya

Under the rules of the constitution, Moi was barred from entering the presidential election process also held in December 2002. The KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the former president, took 31.2 per cent of the vote, but was beaten convincingly into second place by Mwai Kibaki of the NARC, who gained 62.3 per cent. A former vice-president of Kikuyu origin, Kibaki was sworn in on December 30, pledging to end corruption in Kenya. In response, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to continue with loans to the country.

In January 2003 the government set up an anti-corruption commission. Anti-corruption police investigating a banking scandal questioned former president Moi in June that year. In August Vice-President Michael Kijana Wamalwa, who had been an important mediator in disputes within the ruling NARC, died in London. The following month, the NDP called on President Kibaki to honour a pre-election pledge to create a post of executive prime minister and appoint NDP leader Raila Odinga to it. Continuing in-fighting within the ruling coalition led President Kibaki to take drastic action in December 2003, when he declared the constituent parties of the coalition to be dissolved (the coalition kept all its seats in the National Assembly, however).

In November 2003 the IMF resumed lending to Kenya in recognition of the country’s efforts in fighting corruption. Former president Moi was granted immunity from prosecution for corruption in December that year.

In February 2004 an investigation into the murder in 1990 of a former foreign minister Robert Ouko started; former president Moi and Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott were expected to be questioned.

President Kibaki announced a national disaster in the summer of 2004 after crop failures and a drought contributed to a food crisis. The country escaped lightly, however, from the devastating tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean region in December 2004, with a single reported death from drowning.

Voters rejected the president’s plans for changes to the constitution in a referendum held in November 2005; many observers regarded it as personal criticism of the president rather than rejecting specific proposals in the draft constitution. Kibaki sacked his divided Cabinet shortly afterwards but rejected calls to hold new elections.

Following parliamentary and presidential elections in December 2007 President Kibaki was sworn in for a second term despite international observers claiming the election unfair. Opposition leader Raila Odinga rejected the result claiming that the election had been stolen and calling for an international inquiry. Meanwhile, ethnic violence swept the country with fighting between Kikuyu supporters of Kibaki and other minority groups who favoured the opposition. By early 2008 hundreds of people had been killed with an estimated 250,000 people being displaced having fled their homes to avoid the fighting. At the end of February, after negotiations brokered by the former secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, Kibaki reached a power-sharing agreement with Odinga. According to the agreement, Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement would enter a coalition government, with Odinga taking the newly created post of prime minister.