Kenya’s founding father the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta once put retired President Mwai Kibaki between a rock and a hard place.
During the period in which Kibaki was serving as Finance Minister in the Kenyatta regime, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) wanted Kenya to devalue its shilling which by then was exchanging at seven shillings to one US dollar.
The Bretton Wood Institution had put a strong case which had convinced Kibaki that it was indeed necessary to devalue the shilling to reflect economic realities that existed at the time.
So the Minister, backed by strong statistics, presented his case to the Cabinet for approval but the Head of State trashed the idea on the grounds it could have been a conspiracy by the West to try to manage Africans.
“Just because they colonized us, they do not have a right to tell us what to do,” Jomo remarked.
Kibaki did not give up, it was time to employ ‘plan B’, so he thought.
The Treasury boss decided it was now time to use all the economics he had learned at Makerere University and London School of Economics to try to convince his boss.
He sought for a private session with the President and was granted permission.
After taking quite a long time trying to explain why devaluation was so important to Kenya, the President dropped the bombshell:
“Can you repeat all that you have said in Gikuyu language,” Jomo ordered.
According to former Kikuyu MP Joseph Gatuguta, who was present at Jomo’s home in Gatundu in Kiambu at the time, Kibaki was at a loss of words; at one point standing to explain what price elasticity of commodities was, using his waist belt.
Kibaki, as Jomo observed, could not drive his point home and thus the case deserved immediate dismissal.
“Look, if you cannot explain what devaluation is in your mother tongue, I won’t allow it,” the President ruled.
The shilling was devalued years later during the global oil crises in 1973 and 1974.
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