FACTBOX: Key facts about Kenyan President Kibaki

(Reuters) - Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki is seeking re-election for a second five-year term on Thursday in a tight race with opposition front-runner Raila Odinga.

Following are key facts about Kibaki:

* The 76-year-old was born on November 15, 1931, in Othaya near Mount Kenya. The highlands are filled with tea and coffee farms on Kenya's most fertile soils, in the heartland of his Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest. The son of a tobacco trader, his name in Kikuyu means big tobacco leaf.

* Kibaki has cultivated an image of staying above the fray of Kenyan politics. He never criticizes his opponents by name -- but always makes sure no one doubts who his barbs were meant for. He has a reputation for a sharp wit when giving off-the-cuff Swahili speeches in his rolling baritone.

* An adroit political player over the decades, Kibaki became a legislator for the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) party at independence in 1963. Within two years he was appointed commerce minister and then finance minister from 1970-1983. He served 10 years as President Daniel arap Moi's vice-president, from the latter's election in 1978.

* Gradually falling out of favor with Moi, Kibaki defected from KANU in 1991 and launched the Democratic Party to contest Kenya's first multi-party election in 1992. He lost that and a 1997 poll. But in 2002 his National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) won power. Kibaki was sworn in on a wheelchair after he was injured in a car crash.

* During his term, Kibaki's NARC coalition split, with one of its members, Raila Odinga, now his main election opponent. Kenyans are generally happy with Kibaki's economic performance, and were delighted at his introduction of free primary and secondary education. But critics say he has done little to combat graft and tribalism, and reneged on some pledges such as re-writing the constitution within 100 days.

* Kibaki has formed a new alliance, the Party of National Unity (PNU), as his re-election vehicle. Having lost the lead in polls, he has hit the road to drum up support.

* Married with four children, Kibaki was educated at Uganda's Makerere University and the London School of Economics, where he was the first African to graduate with a first-class degree. He returned to Makerere in 1958 as an economics lecturer.

* Among Kenya's richest men, he has vast land holdings and interests in hotels, insurance and farming. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and socializing at Nairobi's exclusive clubs.

(Writing by Bryson Hull, Andrew Cawthorne and Wangui Kanina)