Karua: Why I rejected Jubilee Cabinet slot and intrigues of 2008 coalition talks

Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua, who believes ODM’s Raila Odinga should not have fallen out with President Mwai Kibaki after the 2002 elections victory, takes no prisoners. When she fell out with the handlers of President Kibaki, she stormed out of the Cabinet.

This week, she tells of how her conscience could not allow her to hang on for the sake of power when she felt she was being under-utilised, a rare trait in a country politicians say they’d rather die than resign. And when President Uhuru Kenyatta offered her a Cabinet position after the 2017 elections that saw Ms Anne Waiguru win the Kirinyaga governor’s seat, she flatly rejected it — arguing that she had been rigged out.

“It would be wrong to be rigged and accept a consolation prize. I would have been guilty of normalising rigging,” she told the Sunday Nation.

Some of those who campaigned for her and perhaps were keen to benefit from the position were livid when they learnt of her decision. The Flower party leader expresses her fears on why the road to 2022 polls could be bumpy unless the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission institutes several changes that she prescribes in this interview.

To her, her role in the 2008 Serena talks that birthed the coalition government in which ODM chief served as prime minister was not that of a hardliner like she has been variously referred to. Being the lead negotiator for the PNU side, she was only following President Kibaki’s instructions, she says.

For the first time, she also reveals Mr Kibaki and his handlers opposed the anchoring of the Peace Accord in the Constitution.

What ails Kenya and how do we cure it?

The problem with Kenya today is all about governance, and governance is about leadership. To be able to achieve the objectives in a government’s manifesto, there has to be good governance. There has to be accountability. We have to ensure that resources, both financial and otherwise, could be human, and are used for the intended purposes.

If we do not do that, then the objectives cannot be met. We have a double problem in this country. That people go to work, not to serve the country but to see how much they can get out of their official roles for self-aggrandisement rather than service to the people.

In my view, what I want to interrogate in any candidate looking for a position and especially those looking for the presidency is how they are going to tackle the elephant in the room, corruption. Not just a mere statement that I will fight corruption. A programme and a plan of action on how to combat corruption, which has been a problem not only before the multi-party era but also after. If it was not for that, we would be very far.

We have good laws in place to tackle corruption but it seems not working. Is it about a gap in enforcement? And what kind of a leader would best slay the dragon?

I think it is a question of commitment and how can we measure commitment in a leader. If Martha Karua is saying I will ensure that you have a better provision of health services, I Would want them to check. Last time Martha Karua had responsibility as Minister for Water. Did she do things that indicate to us that she has the willpower or the commitment to fulfil those pledges? You can measure me against that.

I want to give a shout to the elite, I single them out not because the masses do not have the intelligence or capability of discerning the issues, but they are so stressed with the bread and butter issues in their everyday struggles and they may not get that movement. There is nobody else to do it, just you and I. These are the issues we should be discussing. Handouts cannot be the solution to such complex matters.

What are the dangers of cash handouts in politics?

A candidate however wealthy, however generous with their wealth will not fund the country or a county’s health system or economy but it is only our taxes that will. We do not measure people by their perceived generosity but rather how capable of managing our resources in an effective and accountable manner.

But it appears that’s what voters want, a candidate who will give them money. Don’t you think such candidates are merely acquiescing to such demands?

At the end of it, they may ask you for a handout. But we must each contribute. If I may use the late Professor Wangari Maathai’s words, let everybody do their little bit like that hummingbird. You have people who are close to you, your family, friends, chamas, your spheres of influence, begin with that.

Still on the issue of handouts, comparing now and back in 1992 when you first vied for the Gichugu seat, do you think you would still go convince the people as you did without spending a fortune the way we see things happening now?

The situation has really changed. I actually feel for the youth who are coming forward, because I vied as a youth. I did not have much money. But even today, it is not lost, if we utilised the time between now and February before the campaign fever picks up, people still can listen even when you have no money. Let us not depend on cronyism, let us depend on a good leader.

What do you suggest needs to happen then before the next elections?

One of the most unfortunate things is that the 2010 Constitution was meant to comprehensively address our electoral system and our governance system but that has not happened yet. Having come from the 2007 unfortunate violence, we had hoped that the 2010 Constitution would deliver us, forever, from such an occurrence. We should be having a serious conversation.

My take is, the IEBC should not lock itself in the Anniversary Towers and plan elections without other stakeholders. And if the elections begin with corruption at the procurement, it will continue with the corruption in the management of the elections. What if there was a management team at the national, county, ward, polling stations level working with the IEBC to ensure they manage the process properly.

How would this work?

It (the team) will be representatives of the political parties but also civil societies who are neutral. What if we say even though there is automatic transmission, we also allow the agents instead of taking copies, to take WhatsApp shots of election results at the polling station, it insulates them. It not only gives you a copy but insulates them against manipulation when they are electronically transmitted because the elephant in the room is that IEBC has only six copies.

Four are for their use, two copies are multiplicity for candidates who get their copies. It means that normally almost no one, except maybe one favoured person, will get a copy like last elections in my place where only Jubilee was getting. It means that a copy can be destroyed and a new one with fake results given. We cannot afford another rigged election. The perception, just mere perception of a bungled election will have a very destabilising effect and we do not want to go there.

Which position will you be going for in the elections?

I had already indicated that I will go for Kirinyaga Governor and I am already on the ground doing it. But I also lead another national party known as the Narc-Kenya. I am telling Kenyans the dangers of returning to the single-party era. It took such a long time, it took tears, sweat and blood for the country to return to plural politics.

There have been cases of parties folding to create a bigger one as Jubilee did in 2017, killing 12 other parties in the process. What’s your take?

We must be very wary of people who want to return us to those days. Recent history shows us that when parties are whipped, coerced, or through whatever means forced to join one forum, there is trouble ahead. At this stage of our democracy, rushing to one party is rushing to oppression.

Is Narc-Kenya fielding a presidential candidate?

At the moment we do not have one.

You lead the Mount Kenya Caucus and there are suggestions that you could pair up with Raila or some other presidential aspirant as a possible running mate. Are there any formal or informal talks about such?

As a political party, we are open to conversation with others. That issue has not yet come to me; it has not been put on the table so it is not an issue I can speculate on. But I am grateful to those who have confidence in me, and confidence in my ability and leadership.

If they backed your ticket for president, would you take it up?

That again is speculation, I have always said I have unfinished business with the presidency and I did vie for the presidency and I genuinely, inside of me believe that I have something I can offer Kenyans and that is something I am offering the people of Kirinyaga.

What are some of the things that shocked you when you ran for president in 2013?

The level of disparities in our country needs to be bridged.

What was working with President Kibaki like?

It was generally a joy up to the time I left. One, President Kibaki gave you work to do and gave you a free hand to do it. Of course, he would be there to assist when needed. But when there was interference, which I could not understand and was disenabling, I left.

Did he try to persuade you to reconsider your resignation?

No, we did not meet. There were people to bring messages but we did not meet. After I resigned, we did not meet at all.

What was so hard to solve that prompted you to leave in this part of the world that people rarely leave power unless they are kicked out?

Up to today, many people still do not understand why I left. I resigned from my appointed job because I felt I was not being of use, but when I had a free hand and I could be effective.

When you say you resigned because you were not of much use to the government, who…

There was obstruction, I do not want to go into details. I will just say that my hands were tied. You cannot give a jembe to work then tie my hands at my back. That’s all.

After the 2007 elections and subsequently the formation of the coalition government, your name featured prominently as poised for the Deputy Prime Minister slot with some suggesting you were more deserving than Uhuru. Did you feel shortchanged by Kibaki?

It was up to the president to appoint; you cannot make a claim on it. It is not your right. I served diligently for one year in the Kibaki government, in his second term. I worked diligently which indicates to you I was totally committed to serving the country in whatever position I had. When you serve the country in whatever position, you have to do it with all your heart. That is who I am. That is why I can vie for president one day and governor the other.

You are said to be one of the ‘7-M Mafia’, which wielded so much power and influence in the Kibaki regime, do you agree with that characterisation?

That is a fabrication. I was not part of the kitchen Cabinet and that is the long and short of it. Even those days, going back to the newspapers, my M (for Martha) was never there. That time before we came into government, if you remember in 1998, Kibaki had given me a shadow Cabinet slot as minister for Culture and Social Services, which I publicly declined.

I became estranged within the party by those around him because they took my decline as arrogance. Even as we were coming into government, I was still somewhat estranged. I was never part of the kitchen Cabinet. And I left the government without ever being part of it and perhaps that saved me from a lot of trouble. People wondered how I was never mentioned anywhere in any of the scandals, it is because I was never part of those things. I just did my job.

On the matter of MoU, Raila fell out with Kibaki immediately after the 2002 polls. What was happening?

I really cannot explain. That can only be explained by the president. But I know it is something that concerned me even before the government was formed. You try to telephone here and there, we have come into Parliament, we are in such a celebratory and euphoric mood, and you do not expect disagreements.

I saw it in the papers, I tried ringing here and there but didn’t get much. Unfortunately, we started the government with those murmurs and doubly the president had that stroke, which meant that time for sitting and solving that took a long, and it took him a while.

It means all those incidents played a role, considering if you start with disagreements, there is a way you can be able to be called together and solve it. Things deteriorated because now it was other players running the show and not the indisposed president. I know there were those murmurs, but because I was not a party to their MoU and what they had made, we felt it ought to have been worked on.

President Kenyatta promised a government appointment to poll loser between you and Anne Waiguru in Kirinyaga gubernatorial poll during the campaigns. Did he keep his word, and if so, why did you decline it?

The president did ask me to be part of his government. That I will disclose. And I declined. I told him frankly that these people had rigged me and I was going to court and I did not wish to join the government. It would be wrong to be rigged and accept a consolation prize. I would have been guilty of normalising rigging.

It is better to be out and battle it. I also felt that I would not fit in the government because you could already see the composition. I had already been in government before and I could see that it would be difficult for me to fit.

How has the current government performed in your view?

Very badly on issues of governance, whether human rights, issues of curbing graft and one very sticky issue the president cannot escape from the ‘Covid billionaires’. It is scandalous, during a pandemic and nobody is acting on it. This actually encourages more and more of such scandals.

In certain areas, it has performed very badly, on infrastructure, we can see it being developed like the expressway, and it is very beautiful and reminds me of other countries. It is a plus, but a negative as well, at what cost? Is that the real cost, or is there a hidden cost?

The cost of infrastructure in this country has gone up, I would say a thousandfold. Our infrastructure is more expensive than those in the developed world. It tells you of the level of corruption. On disobeying court orders, where is the rule of law? You cannot say you adhere to human rights and the most outstanding issue to human rights is the abductions.

Even though the police deny it they are the ones, if they are not then they have the business of telling us who is. If they cannot tell us, we will be justified to conclude it is them. Why are we having the issue of Miguna day in and out? How can you expel your own born national? That disturbs me even now.

How do we achieve the gender rule?

It is easy to fix it without even amending the Constitution. Right now, there are proposals and I hope they will see the light of day. To get political parties, when selecting candidates to run, not nomination, to fulfil the two-thirds gender rule. If that is made mandatory for every county that is Narc-Kenya, if it is Kirinyaga, it must give its list showing adherence to the gender rule etc. If it is the same everywhere else in the country, we would not need to top up. Women have the same opportunity of being elected if given a chance.

You have the moniker of the iron lady, how did it come about?

I do not know how. The Press can actually tell me. But I can tell it is the denialism that there can be excellence in women. If you think of strength, if you think of a strong woman, then it is artificial because a strong man has never been called an iron man. I denote strength, so I become an Iron lady, but a strong man, that is normal. I think if we really remembered our own mothers and the women in our neighbourhoods and the role women play, even just in child-rearing, you would see that women have always been strong.

Even if they may not go to the top of the mountain to declare their strength, there is nothing like the strength of a woman. We need to deconstruct the narrative in the media, in society. The patriarchal narrative and stop the narrative of the denialism of a strong woman, period. For me, no title bothers me, it won’t stop me from going about my business. In my language, we say, no name has ever stopped the development of a child. So, I move on.

Were you a hardliner in the negotiations that brought about the peace accord in 2008 and with it the coalition government?

What do you mean by hardliner? It was not my government. In negotiations, those who go to negotiate are the delegates of the owners of the negotiation. I went to negotiate on behalf of PNU as a delegate on behalf of the President, Mwai Kibaki then. We were the incumbent then because we were negotiating with the opposition to accommodate them and my mandate emanated from the president with briefings every morning.