Kibaki promises change in Kenya

Opposition leader Mwai Kibaki, winner of Kenya's presidential elections over the weekend, has pledged change after 39 years of dominance by a ruling party that launched his political career.

Kibaki has promised to sweep away the corruption that the opposition says blighted outgoing President Daniel arap Moi's 24-year rule. But sceptics question whether the 71-year-old will really be able to deliver a fresh start.

Kenyans desperate for a respite from rising poverty, crime and corruption gave Kibaki a convincing vote of confidence at Friday's elections in a win reported on Sunday by the Electoral Commission of Kenya based on provisional results.

Critics say Kibaki will find it difficult to deliver meaningful change, pointing out that he only managed to assemble his opposition alliance, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), by accepting many recent defectors from the ruling party KANU into its ranks.

Kibaki's triumph is a case of third time lucky, following his defeats at elections in 1992 and 1997 when the opposition fielded a wider range of candidates and split the vote. Moi beat Kibaki in the previous polls, but is now constitutionally bound to retire.

Sceptics wonder whether NARC - many of whose members have little in common but a desire to oust the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) - will face major internal wrangles if it forms the next government.

The coalition says it is driven by a desire to change Kenya by stamping out corruption, pouring money into public services, and giving the people a greater say in how the country is run.

A car crash in early December left Kibaki with a broken arm, a dislocated ankle and a neck injury that forced him to take a back seat in campaigning in the run-up to the polls.

Pitting him against KANU's Uhuru Kenyatta, the 41-year-old son of Kenya's first President Jomo Kenyatta, NARC played up Kibaki as "tried and tested" during its campaign.

In contrast to Kenyatta, a political novice, Kibaki's career has spanned four decades and began in KANU's ranks before the advent of multi-partyism in 1991.

Opponents say Kibaki is a late convert to democracy. He once likened campaigners seeking to end the one-party system in the 1980s to daydreamers trying to fell a tree with a razor blade.

Elected as a KANU MP in 1963, Kibaki moved steadily through the ranks, holding ministries including commerce and finance, and spent 10 years as Moi's vice president from 1978 to 1988.

But gradually falling out of favour with Moi, Kibaki was demoted to health minister and found himself increasingly isolated within the party.

On Christmas Day 1991 he defected from KANU. He launched his Democratic Party a few days later in time to contest Kenya's first multi-party elections in 1992.

Educated at Uganda's Makerere University and the London School of Economics, Kibaki is known as an articulate and intelligent politician, with a penchant for witticisms in Swahili, English and Kikuyu, the language of his tribe.

He also has a reputation for indecisiveness - the persistent Kibaki joke is that the man has never seen a fence he did not want to sit on.

Kibaki is married with four children, and has interests in hotels, insurance and farming. He is thought to be one of Kenya's richest politicians and can regularly be found playing golf or drinking at one of Nairobi's exclusive clubs.