How educated was late Mwai Kibaki? The late former President Mwai Kibaki is the brightest president to have occupied State House since Kenya gained her independence in 1963.
Kibaki started his schooling at the village school in Gatuyaini, where he completed two years. He then continued his education at the Karima mission school, close to Othaya town, before moving to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946.
In addition to his academic studies, he learned carpentry and masonry at the school. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang’u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950, gaining the highest grade in his O Level examinations.
In his last year at Mang’u, Kibaki briefly considered enlisting in the army, but this ambition was thwarted when Kenya’s Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, prohibited members of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities from joining the military.
Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied economics, History and political Science. He graduated from there with a First Class Honours Degree in economics. He was the first student in the university’s history to achieve First Class Honours.
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After his graduation, Kibaki remained in Uganda, working for the Shell Company of East Africa. He then earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University, choosing the London School of Economics.
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He studied there for a BSc in public finance, going on to graduate with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961.
In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.