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REVEALED: The gift Kibaki turned down

December 16th, 2015 2 min read

By NAIROBI NEWS REPORTER

Retired President Mwai Kibaki turned down a gift of a petrol station offered to him as part of retirement goodies by the National Oil Corporation, Nairobi News has learnt.

Temesi Mukani, the Corporate Affairs Manager at National Oil Corporation of Kenya, said the former Head of State refused to take up the offer of the petrol station that was to be located in Nyeri. He did not say why Mr Kibaki refused the offer.

This information has emerged after Nairobi News reported that thugs broke into a National Oil pump station and stole more than Sh200,000 stolen from the station which was assumed to be owned by the former head of state.

“I write to clarify that contrary to a media report associating the National Oil King’ong’o Service Station in Nyeri County to the former President H.E Mwai Kibaki, the station is fully owned and currently operated by National Oil,” Mr Mukani said.

In 2013, the National Oil Corporation offered to build a petrol station for the retiring president at a place of his choice.

National Oil managing director Sumayya Athmani then said the petrol station, a sign of appreciation for the huge expansion of the parastatal during Kibaki’s tenure, would be built in the next three months.

A jovial and smiling President Kibaki accepted the gifts as he joked in Kiswahili “nitazichukua (I will keep them).”

OTHER GIFTS

It is not clear if Mr Kibaki accepted other goodies. The Ministry of Fisheries had offered to construct four fish ponds for him while the National Youth Service was to sink a borehole for the outgoing President in his Mweiga home in Nyeri County.

The University of Nairobi was to establish a library at President Kibaki’s home and give him a copy of each of the books it has published. Mr Kibaki was further awarded two high-tech massage chairs.

He was also given two digital television sets by the Ministry of Information and Communications and a number of books. Then Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said one of the TVs will be in Kibaki’s bedroom while would be for the living room.

The retiring head of state was also presented with an aquarium at a colourful luncheon hosted by top public servants in his honour at State House Nairobi.

In addition, Mr Kibaki was given two dairy cows and four bulls. Kisii University gave him a soapstone carving of a giraffe, which the Vice-Chancellor said showed he would continue towering over Kenyans even in retirement.

President Kibaki also received assorted carvings from various other institutions while the Judiciary gave him golf clubs.