Karua’s take on President’s tenure and what she would do differently in Kirinyaga

Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua during an interview with The Standard in Nairobi on February 5, 2022.  [Elvis Ogina,Standard]

What do you think of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure?

President Kenyatta has done well when it comes to infrastructure. Never mind at what cost. But he has done poorly in terms of governance.

Rampant theft to the extent where the President admits that we are losing Sh2 billion daily and he does not tell us or demonstrate serious effort in dealing with that. In this, I am talking about the presidency, both the President and his deputy because you cannot talk about one and leave the other.

The visible disagreement between Uhuru and William Ruto is another low. I feel they have disrespected us by laying out their differences in the open so that what is now prominent is their differences and not their leadership.

When you go as a pair to run for office, whether governor or the presidency, respect for the people demands that you serve diligently and if you find that your relationship is completely unworkable, consider the option of resigning and another government takes over. But if you don’t want to go then you must find a minimum way you can work together to serve.

You were an advocate for civic and human rights in the early 1990s. Do you feel that there has been progress?

I am proud of the milestones. But I am also unhappy with the setbacks. We achieved political pluralism and for the first 10 years we did not achieve a change of government. In 2002, we achieved a change of government and the Mwai Kibaki government was a breath of fresh air. The economy was rebooted and human rights improved. They were later to deteriorate in the run up to the 2007 election and the height of deterioration was the post-election violence.

To date, the human rights record has not gone back to where it was between 2003 and 2006, we are still lagging behind. Those are things that I mourn and feel that we can do. We can redouble our efforts and get a government that will respect the rights of everyone.

What should be done to turn this around?

The leadership of the security agencies and the Ministry of Interior should speak the right language because it is from them that the rank and file pick the cue. The cue is not just what you speak, it is the body language. If we get a government that respects everyone’s rights, the human rights record will improve.

The government also plays a very big part in it. If you get a leadership that respects the people that leadership will look after the resources and apply them on the needs of the people first.

As voters, we will be helping ourselves by electing leaders of integrity right from the county level and we must emphasize that the county is the closest unit of government to you as an individual because the county is the one that is managing your health services, infrastructure, agriculture,

You vied for Kirinyaga governor in 2017...

And won that election. Everyone knows that. 

If you were governor, what would you have done different?

The governance will be different. The current state of leadership in Kirinyaga is bad.

A governor’s job is to look after resources and work for the people. A governor’s job is to ensure resources of the county are harnessed and not scattered, efficiently used and not abused. I believe there is serious abuse of resources and that is why services are not good.

So, a governor must be accessible, available to be consulted by the people and to supervise services within the county so that you ensure health services are running not only in the county referral hospital but in dispensaries.

I believe UHC is possible at the county. A lot of families have been impoverished because they cannot afford healthcare. By the time they raise funds their kin is worse or has perished.

I would also make sure the basic infrastructure is available. These are properly graded roads and bridges.

There are issues that were closer to the people such as water for areas such as Mwea, coffee, tea and horticulture.

We are in the tenth year of devolution, why have services not improved and in some cases deteriorated? It is a total failure of leadership.

Devolution was brought not to breed a class of millionaires and billionaires among governors and those in authority, it was brought to bring the money and its application closer to the people so that services that we used to ask for in government can be done real-time.

The people of Makueni are getting better health service despite having voted not voted for Jubilee but the people of Kirinyaga are not because even though they elected a president they like, he cannot work at the county level.

It is the governor who will apply the resources for you, so begin with your governor and your MCA and then elect the president and the resources will come to the county irrespective of who is president. Even if you did not elect them, one signature from the president sends money to 47 counties and that must be emphasized.

Do not feel that you have done it just by electing the president; you have done it if you elect good county leadership and good national leadership.