George Saitoti
George Musengi Saitoti, E.G.H. was a Kenyan politician, businessman and American- and British-trained economist, mathematician and development policy thinker.
As a mathematician, Saitoti served as head of the Mathematics Department at the University of Nairobi, pioneered the founding of the African Mathematical Union and served as its vice-president from 1976 to 1979.
As an economist, Saitoti served as the Executive Chairman of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1990–91, and as President of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States in 1999–2000, at the crucial phase of re-negotiating the new development partnership agreement to replace the expired Lomé Convention between the ACP bloc and the European Union. His book The Challenges of Economic and Institutional Reforms in Africa influenced practical policy directions on an array of areas during the turbulent 1980s and 1990s.
Saitoti joined politics as a nominated Member of Parliament and Minister for Finance in 1983, rising to become Kenya's longest-serving Vice-President, a proficient Minister for education, Internal Security and Provincial Administration and Foreign Affairs. Few recognise him as a "reformist", but his recommendations as the Chair of the KANU Review Committee, popularly known as the "Saitoti Committee" in 1990–91, opened KANU to internal changes and set the stage for the repeal of Section 2A and Kenya's return to pluralist democracy. Saitoti left KANU and joined the opposition, becoming a kingpin figure in the negotiations that led to the "NARC Revolution" in 2002. As Minister for Internal Security and Provincial Administration, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs and key member of the National Security Advisory Committee, he later worked closely with the national Ministry of Defence to see through the Operation Linda Nchi against the Al-Shabaab insurgent group. In addition, rival factions had for decades invoked the infamous Goldenberg fraud to knock Saitoti out of politics, but the legal courts cleared him of the scandal in July 2006. Saitoti's dual heritage as a Maasai with Kikuyu family members predisposed him to a pan-Kenyan vision, but also denied him a strong ethnic base unlike his competitors. Saitoti was running as a candidate to succeed President Mwai Kibaki when he died in a helicopter crash in 2012.
Early life and education
George Saitoti attended Ololua Primary School, Kajiado where he acquired his basic education in the 1950s. Between 1960 and 1963, he secured a place at Mang'u High School in Thika where he attained his high school education. He joined the ranks of Mang'u High School's highly decorated alumni including Kenya's third President, Mwai Kibaki, former Vice-President Moody Awori, Catholic Archbishop Ndingi Mwana-a-Nzeki, the late Environment Minister John Michuki, the late Trade Unionist and former Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Tom Mboya, and late Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga.Saitoti was one of the recipients of the Kennedy Airlift scholarships in 1963 at the age of 18. This was a scholarship program started by Tom Mboya and William X. Scheinmann and supported by the John F. Kennedy foundation and the African American Students Association to address the educational needs of newly independent Kenya. Through this program, hundreds of East Africans studied in the United States of America and Canada. Saitoti studied at Brandeis University between 1963 and 1967 where he was a mathematician. During his time there, he was on the Wien Scholarship, specialising in Mathematics and Economics. His colleagues at the time remember that he enjoyed spending time in Cholmondeleys and excelled at high jump, ranking as one of the best in New England. In 1988, Saitoti received the first Brandeis Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honour the university bestows upon its graduates.
Saitoti later moved to the United Kingdom where he acquired a Master of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Sussex, Brighton. He enrolled for his doctoral studies at the University of Warwick where he acquired his PhD in mathematics in 1972; writing his dissertation under the supervision of professor Luke Hodgkin in the area of algebraic topology under the topic: ''Mod-2 K-Theory of the Second Iterated Loop Space on a Sphere.''
Academic career
Upon his graduation, Saitoti returned to Kenya in 1972, commencing a career as a Mathematics lecturer at the University of Nairobi. One of his contributions was the institutionalisation of Mathematics as a discipline in Africa. During the first Pan-African Conference of Mathematicians held in Rabat, Morocco, in 1976, Saitoti was involved in the creation of the African Mathematical Union. He was elected the AMU's vice-president, a post which he held on up to 1979. By 1983, Saitoti's academic career was on the rise as associate professor and Head of the Mathematics Department.Outside the academy, Saitoti received several public appointments. On 3 November 1972, the Minister of Labour appointed him as the chairman of the Agricultural Wages Council. On 4 September 1979, the Minister for Tourism and Wildlife, John Ogutu, also appointed him as a committee member of the Natural Sciences Advisory Research Committee chaired by professor S. O. Wandiga. In September 1983, he was appointed chairperson of the board of directors for the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology. He also served in other public capacities as chairman of Mumias Sugar Company and the Kenya Commercial Bank.
Development thinker
Top decision-makers in government had recognised Saitoti as a policy thinker and technocrat, of whom the KANU desperately needed to fix its institutions, politics and the economy. His seminal book, The Challenges of Economic and Institutional Reforms in Africa was widely praised by leading officials as providing practical policy proposals to deal with the various challenges facing Kenya and Africa.The book drew from Saitoti's experience as a seasoned scholar, consultant and experienced policy-maker/thinker, presenting a rigorous and multidisciplinary analysis of strategies for poverty alleviation, sustainable development, poverty reduction, combating HIV/AIDS and peace diplomacy. Saitoti also emphasised the importance of institutional reforms and sound public policies to sustainable economic growth in Africa.
Political career
Long before joining mainstream politics, Saitoti had a stint in the legislative duties. From 1974 to 1977, he represented Kenya in the defunct East African Community as a member of the East African Legislative Assembly.Dual ancestry and politics of diversity
In October 1983, President Daniel arap Moi nominated Saitoti as a member of parliament and subsequently appointed him to the Cabinet as Minister for Finance. He held the position until 1989. During the 1988 general elections, Saitoti entered competitive politics and won the Kajiado North parliamentary seat that was previously held by Philip Odupoy. Prior to the tenure of Adupoy and Saitoti, the Kajiado North multi-ethnic constituency was held by the popular politician, John Keen, another half-Maasai who champion a nationalist vision and worked over the years to ensure the advancement of his mother's people.For more than 25 years, professor George Saitoti has represented Kajiado North since 1988, recapturing the seat in consecutive elections in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007. Building on John Keen's legacy of a cosmopolitan constituency, Saitoti transformed Kajiado North into Kenya's most ethnically integrated multi-ethnic legislative area that also provided a safe haven to Kenyans, forcibly displaced by the 1991–2008 cycles of ethnic violence in neighbouring areas.
The area is also ranked among the top ten wealthiest, economically dynamic and fastest growing regions in Kenya. According to figures released by the Government of Kenya in 2009, Kajiado North has had an average poverty index of 10.66 per cent for the last three years, making it one of the richest constituencies in Kenya.
Kenya's sixth Vice-President
After the 1988 General Election, President Moi appointed Saitoti as Kenya's sixth vice-president. Saitoti became Kenya's longest sitting vice-president serving for 13 years under President Daniel arap Moi between May 1989 and January 1998 and again between April 1999 and August 2002. At the same time, he served as Minister for Finance.In 1990–1991, Saitoti was the Executive Chairman of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In 1999–2000, Saitoti also served as president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, becoming instrumental in helping negotiate a new development partnership agreement to succeed the previous Lomè Convention that expired in February 2000 between the ACP and the European Union.
The hallmarks of Saitoti tenure as vice-president were efficiency, sobriety and loyalty as President Moi's most trusted lieutenant. Even when President Moi dithered in naming a new deputy after the 1997 elections, Saitoti was still his favoured choice 14 months down the line. The same traits of efficiency, patience and loyalty would make him one of President Mwai Kibaki's trusted Ministers.
Reforming KANU'S one-party system
When Saitoti was appointed vice-president on 1 May 1989, KANU was back-pedaling on re-democratizing the country. At the same time, the party was fragmented over the succession divide between a sit-tight "KANU-A" and a more pro-change "KANU-B" led by Saitoti. The new vice-president was, therefore, compelled to walk the tightrope between being the face of change in the ruling party and remaining loyal to his principal who, after re-election as president in 1988, had amended the constitution to increase his power to dismiss judges and widened police powers.On New Year's Day 1990, the vocal cleric Rev. Timothy Njoya called on all Africans to demand a multiparty system of government. Following the Saba Saba riots on 7 July 1990, President Moi announced the formation of the KANU Review Committee under the chairmanship of Prof George Saitoti, popularly known as the Saitoti Committee.