Mwai Kibaki was sworn in as Kenya's president after a controversial re-election on Dec. 27, 2007. His disputed victory sparked violence in the East African nation and former British colony of 36 million people. Backers of opposition leader Raila Odinga charged that the vote-counting was rigged.

Kibaki first came into power in December 2002, when he and his opposition alliance, the National Rainbow Coalition, won 63 percent of the vote and a parliamentary majority. He replaced Daniel arap Moi, who had been president for 24 years and was constitutionally barred from remaining in power.

Kibaki began his political career in 1963, becoming a legislator for the ruling Kenya African National Union party, and served as finance minister under Kenya's first president, then as vice president under Moi between 1978 and 1988. In 1991, he left the ruling party and founded the opposition Democratic Party. Kibaki lost two presidential elections in the '90s.

Born Nov. 15, 1931, Kibaki is a Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic group, while his rival Odinga is from the smaller Luo tribe, which says it has been marginalized.

Under the power-sharing deal announced Feb. 28, 2008, Kibaki would remain president, with cabinet posts split between rival parties, and Odinga would become executive prime minister, a newly created cabinet post.

-- Compiled by Tom LeGro for the Online NewsHour