If you know someone from around Nyeri in the Mount Kenya area aged 70 and above, ask them to tell you the story of the Kenyan boy who damaged some European intelligence-measuring machines with his brain power.

The legend, which started in the late 1950s, says when the lad had completed his studies at the famous Makerere University, he proceeded to Europe where great men were amazed at his brilliance.

They decided to check his brain with a machine they used to measure the brainiest of their own. They connected the terminals to the Kenyan boy’s head and the machine blew up —the boy’s giant brain had overloaded it. The boy’s name was… er ... Mwai Kibaki.

After working as one of the first Africans to teach at the old East African University of Makerere, the said Kibaki returned to Kenya to serve the Independence government in key Cabinet portfolios under two successive, extremely powerful presidents for about two decades before joining opposition politics. 

Finally, at the end of 2002, he became President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, half a century after the legend of the short-circuited intelligence machines of Europe was born. With the buck stopping at him, was Kibaki going to prove the legend right?

By many accounts, the gentleman has delivered. Ten years ago, Kibaki inherited an economy that was on its knees.

The Kenya shilling was swinging wildly like other currencies in the region; government revenue collection was low; infrastructure was broken down; unemployment was high; Nairobi city was engulfed in lawlessness and the overcrowded matatus that dominated public transport were a law unto themselves.

Without delivering many intellectual lectures — he did enough of that in his days as a university don — nor trying to sound like a philosopher king, Mzee Kibaki has fixed most of the major economic issues of his country during his allocated mandate of 10 years.

But above all, the country is on the verge of a real economic take off, powered by internal dynamics of its peoples’ creativity and resilience.

Over the past 10 years, several milestones have been registered by Kenya, but probably the most remarkable has been the take off of mobile money and mobile banking — actually Kenya’s contribution to the world.

Almost overnight, the entire population of the country became bankable. Taking advantage of the digital era, Kenya’s innovators turned every mobile phone number into a bank account, in effect building a bank branch in every household.

But as you fathom the economic effects of mobile money, it is the development of physical infrastructure during the Kibaki years that doesn’t even require a sophisticated mind to discern.

The foundation has been laid for provide roads, railways and ports to connect not just all parts of the country but to “open up” untapped corners of the region.

The decision facing Kenyans next month is to select a worthy successor to Mwai Kibaki as he takes his well-earned retirement.

Other Africans need to take note that 10 years is enough for a leader to spearhead real economic transformation even under political stress.

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International fellow for development journalism. E-mail: [email protected]