John Michuki
John Njoroge Mìchūki was a Kenyan politician. He was born at Muguru village in Fort Hall District. He was educated in Kenya and abroad. Michūki emerged as one of the prominent and long-serving civil servants and politicians as well as a businessman in Kenya. Michuki served Kenya in various capacities, including Permanent Secretary in the Finance Ministry, Chairman of the Kenya Commercial Bank, Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. He was serving his 4th five-year term as a Member of Parliament for Kangema Constituency. Michuki had a reputation as a "ruthless" and efficient manager, and was widely acknowledged as among the best performing ministers in President Kibaki's Government. He was serving as the at the time of his death.
Early life
Michuki was born in December 1932 at Muguru village, Iyego Location, Kangema Division in modern-day Murang’a County. He was born to a large polygamous family of Chief Michuki wa Kagwi who had 47 wives. Michuki was the first-born son of Mariana Wanjiku, the 45th wife of Chief Michuki Kagwi.Despite his chiefly parentage, Michuki did not enjoy the privileges of life in his early upbringing. This was largely because his father died on 4 January 1940 when young Michuki was just seven years old. He suffered the fate of large polygamous families, where sons of older wives tend to disinherit those of younger wives. As such, Michuki's mother secured only 3 acres from the large Michuki estate.
In many respects, Michuki's early life was similar to that of many post-colonial African elite who rose to prominence aided by a combination of the social capital and ties of extended family, networks of friends, sheer ingenuity and hard work.
Although he was a self-made man, Michuki attributed his success to his disciplinarian father and a visionary and loving mother Mariana Wanjiku who, despite being illiterate, was keen on giving him education.
Education
Michuki's mother enrolled him at Muguru primary School in 1941, a year after his father's demise.In 1943 young Michuki dropped out of school a result of financial problems to cater for his fees. He travelled to Nairobi where he worked briefly in tailoring-related works where he fixed buttons and made button holes for the uniforms of the Pioneer Corp Unit, during the Second World War. By the time the war ended, Michuki had relocated to Nyeri where he worked in the same job near the old police station, earning 1 Kenya shilling per day. While in Nairobi, he also cooked for the close and distant relatives quarantined by the colonial government as a result suffering from a smallpox epidemic.
While here, Michuki enrolled at Kiangunyi Primary School where he sat for and passed his Kenya African Primary Education in 1945.
In 1947 Michuki was admitted to Nyeri High School for his Secondary education, proceeding to Mang'u High School for his Advance Level education. It was while a student at Mang'u High School that Michuki met his lifelong friend, Mwai Kibaki, under whom he later served a senior civil servant and as a cabinet Minister when the latter became the President of the Republic of Kenya in 2002. In 1961, Michuki secured a government scholarship to study at Worcester College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, United Kingdom where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics, Finance and Public Administration.
Civil Service career
Michuki began his long career as civil servant in 1957 when he was recruited as a clerk within the Provincial Administration immediately after graduating from Mang’u High School. Upon graduating from Worcester in 1961, Michuki returned to Kenya becoming the first African District Commissioner |District Commissioner in Nyeri District.When Kenya re-gained independence in 1963, Michuki joined Kenneth Matiba and Duncan Ndegwa in the youthful team of senior civil servants in Jomo Kenyatta's first Independent Government.
His achievements enabled him to quickly rise up the ranks from an Under Secretary in the Treasury in 1963 to Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Treasury in 1964 and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance in 1965.
During his tenure as permanent Secretary, Michuki represented the Kenya Government on the boards of numerous influential international bodies, including being an Alternate Governor for Kenya on the World Bank, the International Development Association and International Finance Corporation. In 1971, he was awarded the Fellow of International Bankers Association for his exemplary stewardship of the Ministry of Finance and later the Kenya Commercial Bank.
In 1970, President Jomo Kenyatta appointed Michuki as the Executive Chairman of the Kenya Commercial Bank where he served until 1979.
When President Daniel arap Moi succeeded President Jomo Kenyatta as president upon the latter's death in 1978, Michuki became one of the Kikuyu civil servants who left public service to embark on business and political careers.
Political career
Michuki tried his hand in politics when he vied for the Kangema parliamentary seat during the 1979 general election, the first in the Moi era. He, however, lost to the incumbent, Joseph Kamotho.Michuki made an impressive political come-back in the aftermath of the abortive Coup d’état by elements of the Kenya Air Force that nearly toppled Daniel Moi from power on 1 August 1982 and the political shake-up that followed the "Njonjo Commission of Inquiry" which set the stage for the dramatic fall of the then powerful former Attorney-General and Minister for Constitution Affairs, Charles Njonjo, and many of his allies in 1983. Michuki captured the chairmanship of the then powerful single party, the Kenya African National Union in 1983, and dislodged Kamotho from the Kangema seat in the 1983 snap election.
President Daniel arap Moi appointed him Assistant Minister for Finance. However, Michuki lost his parliamentary seat and the cabinet post after the controversial ‘Mlolongo’ election in 1988.
In the ensuing protest politics after the 1988 massively flawed elections, Michuki covertly supported an emerging group rallied around his Murang’a counterparts, Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia, advocating for Kenya's return to multi-party politics.
This campaign culminated in the historic Saba Saba uprising that eventually mounted pressure on Moi to repeal of article 2A, that legalized KANU's one-party dictatorship, and Kenya's return to political pluralism in 1991.
Multi-party Politics
In 1991, Michuki aligned himself to the politics of the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy that emerged from the Saba saba protest politics. Although his friend, Mwai Kibaki, also left the government and formed the more conservative Democratic Party of Kenya in December 1991, Michuki maintained his loyalty to the more populist FORD.Michuki was again forced to choose his political path when the original FORD split into two rival factions: the right-leaning Ford-Asili under Kenneth Matiba and its rival Ford-Kenya led by the left-leaning Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. Michuki threw his support behind Matiba and FORD-Asili.
During the seminal 1992 multiparty elections, Michuki recaptured the Kangema seat on the Ford-Asili ticket. But when Ford-Asili further splintered ahead of the 1997 elections, Michuki decamped to Ford-People and retained his Kangema seat on the party's ticket.
Kibaki Era
Michuki was at the center of the coalition-making politics ahead of the historic 2002 elections. He first joined a group of parliamentarians led by the then leader of Opposition, Mwai Kibaki, which formed the National Alliance Party of Kenya, as a merger of smaller opposition parties that endorsed Kibaki as flag-bearer.In October 2002, NAK coalesced with the breakaway faction of KANU, the Liberal Democratic Party to form the National Rainbow Coalition in 2002, which dislodged Moi and KANU after four decades in power.
Michuki became a central figure and a key Kibaki ally in the NARC politics, retaining his Kangema parliamentary seat. President Kibaki subsequently appointed him Minister of Transport and Communications in the NARC government.
Michuki Rules
Michuki's legacy as the Minister for Transport and Communications was the famous "Michuki Rules" aimed at restoring order in public transport, especially the chaotic Matatu sector.
The rules which came into effect in February 2004 required all public taxis and buses to install speed governors, passenger safety belts, operate in clearly defined routes, to carry a specified number of passengers and their drivers and conductors to be disciplined and to have a clean security record.
In recognition of his efforts to reform public transport, Michuki won the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights' Waziri award.
The defeat of the government sponsored constitution in the 2005 referendum culminated to the cabinet reshuffle which saw Michuki appointed as the Minister of influential ministry Internal Security and Provincial Administration.
Michuki was appointed as Minister for Roads and Public Works in the Cabinet named by President Kibaki on 8 January 2008 following the controversial December 2007 presidential election. He would however serve this ministry for a short while as when the Grand Coalition government was formed after a power-sharing agreement between president Kibaki and the leader of the opposition Raila Odinga.
Minister of Environment
Michuki was appointed as Minister for the Environment and Mineral Resources in the Grand Coalition Cabinet named on 13 April 2008. He was also appointed by president Kibaki as an Acting Minister of Finance on 11 July 2008 to stand in for Amos Kimunya.
Amos Kimunya stepped aside pending investigation on corruption allegation in the Ministry when he censored by parliament over the sale of Grand Regency Hotel and the Safaricom IPO.
As Minister for Environment and Mineral Resources, has initiated diverse programmes and projects among them being the Nairobi River's Rehabilitation and Restoration Programme, the reclamation of the Kenya's five water towers.
He was honoured with a UNEP Award for his clean-up of the Nairobi River and the city.
Michuki is the force behind the enactment of a new mining act to regulate environmental degradation and mining.
He also took key leadership role in addressing Africa's position towards the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and served as the co-chair of International Environmental Governance. Michuki led the Kenya delegation to the Durban Environmental Conference in South Africa on 28 November – 9 December 2011 where he stated Kenya's determination to reduce the menace of global warming and called on the world's wealthy nations to assist the poor ones to mitigate the devastation of climate change. This turned out to be the Minister's last official assignment, having missed the 12th Special Session of the United Nations Environmental Programme Governing Council Global Ministerial Forum held in Nairobi on 20 February 2012.