John Michuki

John Njoroge Michuki (1 December 1932 – 21 February 2012) was a Kenyan politician and businessman.

He was born at Muguru, village, Iyego Location, Kangema Division in Murang’a District.

He was educated in Kenya and abroad.

Michuki 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 Minister for Environment and National Resources at the time of his death.

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.

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.

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.

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.

While here, Michuki enrolled at Kiangunyi Primary School where he sat for and passed his Kenya African Primary Education (KAPE) 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.

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.

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.

Upon graduating from Worcester in 1961, Michuki returned to Kenya becoming the first African District Commissioner (Kenya)|District Commissioner(DC) 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 (1963–1969).

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 (IDA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC).

In 1970, President Jomo Kenyatta appointed Michuki as the Executive Chairman of the Kenya Commercial Bank where he served until 1979.

In 1971, he was awarded the Fellow of International Bankers Association (1971 – Washington) for his exemplary stewardship of the Ministry of Finance and later the Kenya Commercial Bank.

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.

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 (KANU) 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’ (queue voting) election in 1988.

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.