Opposition leader Mwai Kibaki won the Dec. 2002 presidential election, defeating Mois protégé, Uhuru Kenyatta (term limits prevented Moi, in power for 24 years, from running again). Kibaki promised to put an end to the countrys rampant corruption. In his first few months, Kibaki did initiate a number of reforms—ordering a crackdown on corrupt judges and police and instituting free primary school education—and international donors opened their coffers again.

But by 2004, disappointment in Kibaki set in with the lack of further progress, and a long-awaited new constitution, meant to limit the presidents power, still had not been delivered. Kibakis anticorruption minister, John Githongo, resigned in Feb. 2005, frustrated that he was prevented from investigating a number of scandals. In July 2005, Parliament finally approved a draft of a constitution, but in Dec. 2005 voters rejected it because it expanded the presidents powers.

A drought ravaged Kenya, and by Jan. 2006, 2.5 million Kenyans faced starvation.