In less than a month, Amizio la Umoja deputy presidential candidate Martha Karua has proven her value on the ticket outshining her Kenya Kwanza counterpart Rigathi Gachagua.
In one iconic moment that will go down in Kenya’s history as the most definitive in her political career, Karua dared hecklers to tell their masters to send their children instead of paying poor youth 100 shillings to do childish things.
“Kuja unipokonye microphone,” Karua dared them. (come and grab this microphone from me.)
Her supporters received the statement as a mic-drop moment and cheered wildly, effectively shutting up the hecklers.
Kuja unipokonye microphone (come grab the microphone from my hands)- Martha Karua to hecklers
Karua is the first woman nominated to be a running mate to a top-tier presidential candidate in Kenya’s history. Her campaign style is consultative and persuasive, something most Kenyans have never seen. She speaks in plain language and does not use insults or coarse language.
She has managed to change the narrative and made corruption the central issue in the 2022 campaign, arguing that failure to stop corruption would always undermine the economy and affect job creation and deny Kenyans opportunities.
She is a historical figure, a self-made principled politician, and civil rights advocate who has brought the much-needed boost to Azimio and revived former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s chances in the Mt. Kenya region.
Gachugua, on the other hand, has not had it easy. His rollout was controversial, with news emerging that most Kenya Kwanza delegates holed at the deputy president’s residence to choose a running mate, voted for Kindiki Kithure, former senate deputy speaker, but Deputy President William Ruto decided to go with Gachagua anyway.
It did not help that Gachua appeared at the event wearing an oversize suit, instantly making him a target of mocking tweets.
The hard landing for Gachugua, stemming from the discontent within Kenya Kwanza ranks, has not helped his image on the trail. He’s been a case of foot-in-mouth in almost every campaign outing, making news for the wrong reasons.
In a video that has gone viral, Gachagua appeared to suggest Safaricom, Kenya’s telecom giant responsible for facilitating MPESA transactions, Kenya’s economic life-blood, should be broken down and give the cash from the sale to small business enterprises. Kenyan media houses have determined that Gachagua’s statement was taken out of context.
Another video of Gachugua also went viral when he appeared to suggest the new president should follow the former president Daniel Arap Moi’s example of occasionally inviting people to the State House to feast. The video end with Gachagua asking his audience if that’s what they want, and they respond affirmatively. The context of the video remains unclear, but the spread is helping to form a negative perception of the Kenyan Kwanza running mate candidate.
When NARC-Kenya leader Martha Karua joined former Prime Minister in Azimio, it was clear she’d bring a much-needed boost and credibility to the coalition.
But few could anticipate how effective she’d become on the campaign trail. Unlike other Azimio leaders, Karua hit the campaign trail and took over the role of Azimio’s chief advocate in the Mt. Kenya region.
It was a rough landing. The crowd heckled and mocked her on multiple occasions, but she did not give up. In one appearance in the company of Odinga, Karua showed battled a crowd heckling them and chanting Ruto! Ruto! managed to take control, inspiring the muted Azimio supporters who started chanting the coalition slogan “Inawezekana.”
She was gathering momentum, and the crowd loved her level-headed straight talk, explaining why she had chosen to support Odinga.
At every stop, she told the crowd her reasons for supporting Odinga came from the fact that throughout his life, Odinga had fought for the little guy and not given up even when he lost in the polls.
By the time Odinga chose her as his running mate, she had stood out as the best candidate to join the ticket, receiving an overwhelming endorsement from Azimio women and winning multiple online polls for the favorite candidate to become deputy president.
Her selection to be running mate electrified the nation; with singing and dancing erupting at the announcement, she was Odinga’s choice for a running mate.
She has wholly overshadowed her Kenya Kwanza opponent Rigathi Gachagua, whose selection was announced in a muted event at the Deputy President’s official residence in Nairobi.
With President Uhuru Kenyatta taking the back seat and avoiding the campaign trail, Karua has single-handedly led Azimio into storming the Mt. Kenya region, an area considered the Deputy President William Ruto’s stronghold.
Once considered a tough sell in the region, Mt. Kenya is now showing signs it will give Odinga, the 5-time presidential candidate, a significant percentage of the vote-rich area.
While Odinga made a significant move toward gender parity in Kenya, his opponent appears stuck in the past where women never played a leading role.
Ruto dismissed Karua’s appointment in a rally, saying Odinga chose her out of confusion, imitating Kenya Kwanza mama mboga plan.
“Wakati walisikia tunapanga mipango ya mama mboga, na wale wote kuanzia chini tukienda juu, yule mtu wa kitandawili akakimbia kumchukua mama mmoja na kumfanya running mate wake, kwa sababu ya kuchanganyikiwa,” Ruto said. (“When they heard we were planning to lift mama mbogas and all those struggling to eke a living, Raila went ahead and chose a woman running mate out of confusion.”)
Kenyans are responding positively to Karua. His official Twitter followership has ballooned to 1.3 million, while Gachagua has not even broken 25,000 followers.