page_title: Mwai Kibaki
section_title: Economic legacy: turnaround
hierarchical_section_title: Mwai Kibaki / Presidency / Economic legacy: turnaround
caption_attribution_description: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete during the 8th EAC summit in Arusha.
context_page_description: Mwai Kibaki, C.G.H. is a Kenyan politician who was the third President of Kenya, serving from December 2002 until April 2013.
  He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Health under Moi.
  Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
context_section_description: The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
  President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as President to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
  Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
  Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
  The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
  President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
  The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
caption: President Mwai Kibaki with, from left to right, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete during the 8th EAC summit in Arusha
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