Retired Presiding Bishop of the African Inland Church (AIC) Kenya, Dr. Silas Yego has described the late third President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki as an intelligent person who never uttered any abusive word.
Mourning the demise of the London School of Economics graduate, Bishop Yego said the famous ‘Kumbafu’ remark made by the former Head of State was not meant to insult anybody.
He said the late Kibaki picked the word from the Bible to encourage Kenyans not to entertain mediocrity, but to always strive for the best in all their endeavors.
“The word Kumbafu has been mentioned in the Bible, it means our late President understood the word of God. In any case, he used the word, not with any ill intention but to inspire Kenyans to always pursue excellence,” Bishop Yego said.
The ex-AIC boss recounted how Kibaki restored the role of churches in the sponsorship of schools across the country.
“I remember at one time, the government wanted to take away sponsorship of schools from churches but when we petitioned President Kibaki, he listened to us. Churches are now sponsoring schools,” he noted.
The Bishop further revealed that Kibaki was very remorseful and regretted the killing of innocent Kenyans during the 2007/08 post-election violence.
“At the height of the post-election violence, we went to see him and he told us that if he knew that defending his seat in the 2007 presidential race could lead to bloodshed, he would not have contested,” Bishop Yego said.
He also revealed that Kibaki, a former Finance minister between 1978 and 1988, never entertained corruption and always wanted transparency in service delivery.
“He was never corrupt, he never dished out bribes. I tell you I was lucky when I invited him to my daughter’s wedding, he was able to support me through one of his friends,” he said.
He noted that the church was able to recover one of the plots that had been marked for grabbing by unnamed people in the government.
Kibaki died on Friday, April 21, 2022, aged 90.
He served as Kenya’s third President between December 2002 and April 2013.
