PROFILE: Martha Karua seeks to make history as first female DP

Early life and education

Martha is the daughter of Jackson Karua and his wife Josephine Wanjiru. She was brought up in the village of Kimunye in the as the second child in a family of eight, four girls and four boys.

She attended Mugumo primary school, Kabare Girls Boarding School, St Michael’s boarding school Keruguya. She then proceeded to Kiburia Girls Secondary School, Ngiriambu Girl’s secondary school, and Karoti Girl’s secondary schools where she passed her East African School Certificate at Karoti Girls High School in Kirinyaga County. She then attended Nairobi Girl’s secondary school for A levels. She studied law at the University of Nairobi from 1977 to 1980. Between 1980 and 1981 she was enrolled at the Kenya School of Law for the statutory postgraduate law course.

Legal career

1981 – 2002

After graduating, from 1981 to 1987 Karua worked as a magistrate in various courts including those at Makadara, Nakuru and Kibera, receiving credit for careful discernment. In 1987, she left to start her own law firm, Martha Karua & Co. Advocates, which she ran until 2002. Cases included the treason trial of Koigi Wamwere and that of the Kenyan Member of Parliament Mirugi Kariuki. At the risk of being blacklisted by the Moi government, she defended several human rights activists.

1990 – 2002

Karua was a member of the opposition political movements that successfully agitated for the re-introduction of multi-party democracy in Kenya in the early 1990s.

Karua joined Kenneth Matiba's Ford-Asili party. She walked out of the party leadership Elections which she regarded as compromised in September 1992 leaving her sole opponent Geoffrrey Karekia Kariithi to be declared winner. She joined the Democratic Party of Kenya (DP) where she won the Party nominations / ticket in November 1992 and proceeded to win the election as Gichugu MP in December 1992 against the incumbent Geoffrrey Karekia Kariithi freeing Gichugu constituents from the Kareithi – Nahashon Njuno rivalry. Karua became the MP for Gichugu constituency and the first woman lawyer to be popularly elected to Parliament. She was elected as the Democratic Party’s legal affairs secretary in 1993.

In 1998, Karua declined the position of Shadow Minister for Culture and Social Services which conflicted with her position of National Secretary for Constitutional Affairs (an elected office) that made her the official spokesperson on legal matters of the party. She opted to resign her position as the National Secretary for legal and constitutional Affairs.

In 2001, when the Constitutional Review Bill was laid before the House, the entire Opposition with the exception of Karua walked out of Parliament. The Bill had been rejected by the Opposition as well as Civil Society but Karua was of the view that as elected representatives, instead of walking out, it would be more prudent to remain in Parliament and put the objections on record. She therefore chose to remain in the Parliament and her objections to the Bill were duly recorded in the Hansard.

Until 6 April 2009 she was the Minister of Justice, National Cohesion & Constitutional Affairs. She also previously served as the Minister of Water Resources Management & Development, and was behind the implementation of the Water Act 2002, which has since then accelerated the pace of water reforms and service provision in Kenya.

 Karua remained Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister in the Cabinet appointed by Kibaki on 8 January 2008, following the controversial December 2007 election. In an interview with BBC's HARDtalk in January 2008, Karua said, regarding the violent crisis that had developed over the election results, that while the government had anticipated that the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) of Raila Odinga might be "planning mayhem if they lost", it was surprised by "the magnitude" of it, calling the violence "ethnic cleansing". Asked to clarify, Karua said that she was stating "categorically" that the ODM planned ethnic cleansing. Odinga subsequently called Karua's accusation "outrageous". Karua headed the government's team in negotiations with the opposition regarding the political dispute that resulted from the election. The political crisis eventually led to the signing of a power-sharing agreement between Kibaki and Odinga. In the grand coalition Cabinet that was announced on 13 April 2008, Karua remained in her post as Minister of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs.

She was endorsed as the national chairperson of the NARC-Kenya political party on 15 November 2008. There was virtually no competitive election during the party's national delegates' convention at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi as all the officials including Ms Karua were being endorsed. After her endorsement she immediately declared she would be gunning for the highest political seat that being President in the Kenya's 2012 elections.

Karua resigned as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs on 6 April 2009, citing frustrations in discharging her duties. A clear example of her frustrations was when President Mwai Kibaki appointed Judges without her knowledge a few days before her resignation. She was the first Minister to resign voluntarily since 2003.

Karua contested the 2013 Kenyan presidential election, under the NARC Kenya party ticketShe came in sixth with 43,881 votes in a contested election outcome.

Martha Karua would make a come-back in Kenya's political scene in the 2017 general election seeking for a Gubernatorial Seat in Kirinyaga County. She lost to the current Governor Anne Waiguru in a heavily contested election after garnering 122, 091 votes against Ms Waiguru's 161,373 votes. Karua contested the election citing election irregularities and filed a petition at the High Court seeking to have Waiguru's election nullified but lost the petition's at the High court, Court of Appeal and ultimately at the Supreme Court. Karua proceeded to file a petition in the East African Court of Justice suing kenya government for failure of its Judicial arm to dispense justice in the petition.

In December 2015 Karua admitted to receiving a kshs two million "donation" to her presidential campaign costs from British American Tobacco. Karua said that she thought that the contribution by Paul Hopkins, a BAT employee, was a personal donation. The money was paid via Mary M'Mukindia who was running Karua's campaign. Karua has the reputation of being untainted by corruption save for this report of donation of alleged tainted money. No culpability has been proven and the British investigations concluded without any charges against Paul Hopkins. Karua has maintained that she cannot be corrupted and invited Kenyan authorities to investigate any alleged wrong doing.

On 20 September 2021, Senior Counsel Martha Karua was unanimously elected as the Interim Mount Kenya Unity Forum Spokesperson by a section of leaders from Central Kenya. “We have chosen Martha Karua to be our official convener and our spokesperson,” Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria.

 Awards and recognition

·         In 1991, Karua was recognized by Human Rights Watch as a human rights monitor

·         In December 1995, she was awarded by the Federation of Kenya Women Lawyers (F.I.D.A) for advancing the cause of women.

·         In 1999 the Kenya Section of the International Commission of Jurists awarded her the 1999 Kenya Jurist of the Year and in the same year same month, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) awarded her the Legal Practitioners Due Diligence Award.

Bills to the parliament

·         The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill -2008

·         Constitution of Kenya Review Bill – 2008

·         The National Ethic and Race Relations Bill – 1^st July 2008

·         Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Bill – 23^rd October 2008

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