The KEPSA family has mourned the 3^rd President of the Republic of Kenya H.E Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki as a visionary leader who championed for an engagement framework between the private sector and the government to spur the development of the nation.

In a statement, KEPSA CEO Ms. Carole Kariuki noted that the country has lost a leader who challenged the private sector to form an umbrella body for the Government to engage with, on the economy and development of the country and one who established structured engagements between KEPSA and the Government including the Presidential Roundtable (PRT).

“During his administration, President Kibaki referred to our current PRT as a presidential private sector working forum. The roundtable would meet twice a year without fail after the ministerial stakeholder forums with the various ministries,” Read the statement.

During the coalition government term, the Parliament Speaker and the former Prime Minister followed in the same footsteps and worked with KEPSA to establish the Speaker’s Roundtable and the Prime Minister’s Roundtable respectively. Since then, the subsequent administrations have followed the same framework.

This new dispensation during H.E Kibaki’s term saw the Kenyan economy grow from a GDP of negative 2 % to a positive of 7 % by 2007. The country’s GDP has since maintained a positive growth, despite global and local challenges.

In President Kibaki’s tenure, the country experienced key infrastructural developments including the establishment of the Vision 2030, the Standard Gauge Railway and the Dongo Kundu projects which were discussed at length in the KEPSA Roundtable forums, including the opening and deepening of the financial sector among other achievements.