Is Martha Karua a civil society project?

Between Raila Odinga and Martha Karua, who is the Azimio presidential candidate? For the last one week, since she was named Baba’s running mate, one would be forgiven to think she is the real McCoy. Once confirmed, she hit the ground running, training her guns to the Mt Kenya region, a region her backers hope she will deliver to Azimio coalition.

The buzz created after the female card was unleashed was a master stroke that has re-ignited interest in the flagging Azimio coalition presidential campaign, whose political message seemed undefined, three months to the elections. What the architects of her candidature hope to achieve is spontaneously inject a fresh narrative into the presidential campaigns and create a new impetus that will hopefully climax on August 9.

The razzmatazz generated around her confirmation is expected basically to do three things: woo the womenfolk to Baba’s camp, sway the undecided vote and make it belief that its future lies with banking with Azimio. Most fundamentally of all, flatten the hitherto impregnable mountain for Raila’s re-entry. None of these three assignments are going to be a walk in the park, even as she is possessed of strength of character and determined as she is. This is because of her political past, the nature of the political landscape and factors beyond her reach and capabilities.

In 2013, Karua ran for the presidency in the new constitutional dispensation, after resigning from the government of national unity (GNU) in 2008, whose president was Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga as Prime Minister. It was the best chance for the women of this country to rally around one of their own and show their love by voting for her en masse. In the end, Karua received less votes countrywide than the registered voters of her former Gichugu constituency in Kirinyaga County.

If 10 years ago, women would not vote for her, when she was the real deal, why would they vote for her now, that she is running as a second fiddle?

The question therefore everyone must be asking themselves is this: If 10 years ago, women would not vote for her, when she was the real deal, why would they vote for her now, that she is running as a second fiddle? A feeble question, but one that must be asked. In any case, anyone acquainted with her political career is aware of how the big boys have bossed and tossed her around in the past, subtly reminding her, this is a boys’ club trend carefully.

Photo credit: Martha Karua SC @MarthaKarua

What makes her think that this time they will treat her any better? That the boys still don’t view her as tokenism to well-heeled patriarchy? Where are the guarantees?

A corollary question to this is; what is the political message being passed to Kenyans? That for a woman to become president, she has to get an okay from men? Now packaged and sold as a person who could be a heartbeat away from the presidency, she is supposed to work miracles and persuade the women who couldn’t vote for her as the top-gun, that the best time is now.

“Now that Raila has picked a woman from the Mt Kenya region, will you vote for Baba?” I asked some mugikuyu women. “Never” they answered in unison. “We made our decision where we are going a long time ago. Raila and his friend Uhuru are not wanted in Mt Kenya, anybody associated with them is equally not wanted – whether a woman or otherwise.”

Raila and his friend Uhuru are not wanted in Mt Kenya, anybody associated with them is equally not wanted – whether a woman or otherwise

I didn’t want to assume that Karua’s supporters must necessarily be women; so, I asked a well-known evangelical pastor in Kikuyu town what was his take after Azimio unveiled Karua. “I made up my mind a long time ago that for me and my household, we shall vote for Ruto. And we won’t change because a woman deputy has been introduced. Martha Karua is the flavour of the month; the hype will cool down and then we’ll go back to what we know – that Uhuru Kenyatta betrayed his deputy and we’re a people who keep their promise.” 

Photo credit: Martha Karua SC @MarthaKarua

“I’ve heard it said that Karua commands more respect than votes, especially in the Mt Kenya region, that is not true, she commands neither,” a former central Kenya politician told me. “Mt Kenya’s biggest beef with Karua is that she quit Kibaki’s government in a huff, showing disrespect to a leader they all adored. It is worse with the Kirinyaga people where she comes from. The Kirinyaga people had unsurpassed love for Kibaki more than his own Nyeri people did. When she left his government, the also said bye-bye to her.”

That’s why they didn’t vote for her in 2013 as a presidential candidate, that’s why she was defeated by a neophyte in 2017, for the governor seat, said the politician. “With her kind of track record in local and national politics, why would she struggle to win a governor’s seat in her own county? 

Mt Kenya’s biggest beef with Karua is that she quit Kibaki’s government in a huff, showing disrespect to a leader they all adored

But Karua is also considered to have another chip of her shoulder: Her running in 2013 was taken very badly by the Mt Kenya people. Just like Peter Kenneth’s candidature, her running was interpreted as being gleeful to Uhuru Kenyatta’s tribulations. The campaign theme for 2013 elections for GEMA was the International Criminal Court (ICC), that is, getting Uhuru, a son of the soil, off the hook of a foreign court trial.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta(C), Deputy president William Ruto (L) and former minister, Henry Kosgey(R) at the Afraha stadium in Nakuru on April 16, 2016 following the collapse of cases against them at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC). Photo:
AFP / TONY KARUMBA

Because of their insistence to run, both Karua and Kenneth were “blacklisted” by GEMA voters. “Have you seen them make any political headway since 2013,” posed my politician friend. They have been suffering for their insolence.”

Yet, away from her political foibles, the politician reminded me that the Kikuyu people are an unapologetically patriarchal society. “Women can be voted in as everything else, but not as a muthamaki. That’s just who we are, maybe things might change in the coming years, but not now. Think about it, we rejected Wangari Mathaai, a woman who had an international repute, an affable, sociable human being, later a Nobel laureate, but we Kikuyus told her tutiathaguo ni aka, we can never be ruled by womenfolk.

The Kikuyu people are an unapologetically patriarchal society. Women can be voted in as everything else, but not as a muthamaki

It was not lost, nonetheless, to keen observers that the people who seemed to have celebrated most about Karua’s selection were the civil society/NGO buffs and their offshoots, the professional women caucuses. 

“Karua’s ticket is good for donor politics,” said a civil society member. “The genius of picking Martha Karua, a woman, plays right into the hands of bilateral and multilateral agencies who are excited and profess equal opportunities and gender politics. The donors will be enticed by the possibility of a woman president in the near future, so, it’ll be a good investment supporting such a government. The net result: the donors will release funds to a new government starved of cash.”

After adopting her as one of their own and after subsequently softening her hawkish politics, the civil society honchos have now packaged her as the panacea to the country’s democracy and governance ills. 

The genius of picking Martha Karua, a woman, plays right into the hands of bilateral and multilateral agencies who are excited and profess equal opportunities and gender politics

The crusading civil society not-to-long ago had trumpeted their disenchantment with Karua as a hawkish, partisan politician, who was part of the core team that swore Kibaki for his controversial second term at the fall of darkness. 

Hon. Mwai Kibaki, President of Kenya. Photo credit. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. Flickr/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Through Karua, the civil society and the non-state actors to use a cliché, may relive the 2003–2012 good old days, when they partnered with the government. During Kibaki’s first term and Kibaki/Raila GNU in the second, civil society and non-state actors strutted the corridors of government offices carrying the labels of advisors, experts, consultants and policy wokes. It’s been a 10-year dry spell and they cannot fathom another 10 years out of the fray, not advising government.

When the duo of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto took over State House reigns, in 2013, they booted out the non-state actors out of government offices. Consequently, the relations between civil society and State House soured, making it hard for it to continue working with and for the government. 

Hence, to the civil society, a Ruto regime would be even more ruthless. It is fearful that he would potentially not brook any advice from it. The other fear it has is, he may clamp down on their operations, curtailing their donor funding sources and create an atmosphere of unnecessary antagonism and uncertainty.

As Karua takes to the rostrum, campaigning for a ticket that might as well salvage the political and economic fortunes of a country straddled with insurmountable national debt and politics that have literally gone to the dogs, many Kenyans are praying that she will indeed surmount the handles arraigned against her and mount a successful campaign and in reality, not mount a soapbox instead. 

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