The Italian Consolata fathers had arrived in Nyeri in 1902 wanting to grow vines and olives on a 400 acres farm. When that venture failed they turned to education and arrived at Karima Mission in 1904 and started building schools, churches and dispensaries. Kibaki left home to join one of the newly established schools, the 50 cent-a-term Gatuyaini village school. This was when the World War II had started.

The Consolata Fathers were competing for children with the Kikuyu Independent School Association (KISA) which had started in 1934 and was opening its own schools in Central Kenya region.  Here apart from the elementary education he learned catechism classes. After completing his first and second grade he shifted to Holy Ghost Catholic Missionaries Karima Mission School (now Karima Primary).

It was this early association with the catholic that molded his character. After three years, he left Karima for Mathari Boarding School currently Nyeri High School in 1944 to 1946. The Boarding school afforded Mwai better amenities and platform to learn new vocational skills such as masonry and carpentry. Much of these skills came in handy in availing the school manpower to repair furniture and school building maintenance.

He also had a farm within the school just like the rest of the students where he grew some food crops. He was business-minded with the holidays presenting an opportune moment for him to make extra money by operating as a bus conductor for the defunct Othaya African Buses that plied the Nyeri-Nairobi route.

In 1947, he joined Holy Ghost College (now Mang’u High school) for his secondary education. Mang’u was a prestigious secondary school started by Fr Michael Joseph Witts in Kabaa which is now situated along the Thika Superhighway. He was one of the brightest students with a maximum of six points at his “O” level examinations (Cambridge School Certificate examinations) by passing six subjects with Grade 1 distinction in 1950.

He, however, considered becoming a soldier after much influence from First and Second World War veterans in his village. His ambitions were however thwarted by a colonial decree that barred the conscripting of the Kikuyu, Embu, and Meru communities into the army.

In 1951, Kibaki joined Makerere University College, Uganda where he studied Economics, History and Political Science between the years 1951 and 1954.  Makerere University had been established in 1922 as the Native Technical College on Makerere Hill near Kampala. The initial aim was to provide technical training to East African students but the two-year general course diploma did not impress many students who felt that Makerere was not a real university and opted to go abroad for real degrees.

In 1944 the Asquith Commission recommended that Makerere should have a special relationships with the University of London. In 1949 Makerere became the University College of East Africa and awarded the first University of London Degrees in 1953. Kibaki was one of the first students who graduated with a University of London degree from Makerere.
Besides his studies at Makerere, Mwai Kibaki also took a keen interest in Student Politics and was ones elected the Chairman of the Kenya Students Association and the Vice Chairman of Makerere Students Guild (154-1955).

 In 1955 Kibaki graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Economics. Some of his lecturers thought that he should go to Oxford for the so-called Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (PPE).  But he chose to accept a scholarship at the London School of Economics for a BSC in Public Finance. As he awaited the scholarship, Kibaki worked briefly as an assistant sales manager in the Uganda division of Shell Company of East Africa.

Kibaki graduated from LSE with a distinction in 1958, becoming the first African to graduate from the school with a first class honours degree.

It was here that he was introduced to Keynesian principles, a theory that had emerged 20 years earlier after Milton Keynes transformed economics with his provocative ideas.

Keynes suggested- and Kibaki was a keen follower – that Governments should keep the price of money cheap, provide predictable and affordable loans to spur growth and that taxation should be reduced to allow job creation with an expanded tax base.  It also called Governments to employ the jobless to improve national infrastructure.

On graduation from the LSE with a distinction, Kibaki returned to his alma mater, Makerere University, as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Economics from 1958 to 1960.

“Makerere is where my academic and intellectual foundation was laid.  Many of my leadership skills were developed and nurtured here,” Kibaki would say 52 years after he left the Institution and as he received a Doctor of Laws (Honoris causa) from Makerere in January 2012.  Student politics at Makerere was the training ground for a later career in politics and public life. Kibaki was the chairman of the Kenya Students Association, was a notable voice in the debate over future of the country and strongly advocated for decolonization.