I will always detest Martha Karua. My reason - she is the sole cause of the 2007/2008 post election chaos.
Martha Karua was the powerful Justice and Constitutional affairs minister in Kibaki's government when she singlehandedly led the initial plans to rig the 2007 elections. She is the person who, despite benefiting from the 1997 IPPG deal by the tyrannical Moi, misled Kibaki to go against such a noble idea and thus personally (with the help of Kibaki's cronies) picked ECK commissioners who she knew would help them rig the elections.
Above that, she was the loudest voice against minimum reforms which should have been implemented to enable the country have a free and fair election. Even with funds having been available to implement an electronic tallying system that would have prevented rigging, she, with the commissioners she had appointed in ECK, rejected this despite having ample time to do so.
Her current image as a reformer is simply an affront to the Kibaki cronies who dumped her after they were done with her.
All the good things she achieved when Moi was a tyrant were erased once she joined the Kibaki foray and participated in the corruption and rigging. She is just like them. There are better female reformers in this country.
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If I am tasked to carry the burden of proof for what I have mentioned, I regret that I may not be able to. Then I guess it’s only for those who ‘choose to remember’, who may then critique my objectivity when I give an opinion as to who was the main cause of the PEV.
My opinion stems from events that took place long before December 2007 and interrogates the possibility of the election having been rigged long before it took place. For those who ‘choose to remember’, the following took place at some point in the history of Kenya;
First, Martha Karua was at some point a staunch defender of Kibaki (I respected her stand as she had every right to do so) and a powerful Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Commentators even branded her the tag ‘the only man in Kibaki’s cabinet.’
Secondly, while in opposition, in 1997, in DP together with Kibaki, they fought so hard, together with other likeminded reformers and succeeded to have Moi implement the 1997 IPPG agreement. They were allowed, under the IPPG agreement, to elect commissioners into the Electoral Commission of Kenya. This way, every party felt they had a stake in the electoral process and hoped that their picks in the commission would safeguard them from electoral malpractices against their parties.
Thirdly, in the lead up to the 2007 elections, other political parties felt the constitution should be amended to reflect the IPPG deal. Martha Karua was then Justice and constitutional affairs minister. I can’t produce the video proof but if you ever followed the events then, Martha Karua led the government’s opposition of the IPPG and minimum reforms. Let me ask you all, honestly, cant you remember all this? At least if you were in Kenya, you should.
My opinion is the election was rigged long before December 2007. The idea to go against the 1997 IPPG deal raises all the questions as to why, after having benefited from it, did Kibaki (with Karua’s advice) choose to go against it. If no clear answers are provided, then who dares to say I am wrong?
It has taken me two years to arrive to this conclusion. In that time, I reflected on probably what would have happened had Kibaki followed the 1997 IPPG? What if all the other parties were allowed to elect commissioners to the ECK? Then maybe, we would not have experienced the PEV. And so, on the same basis, I choose to lay the blame on Martha Karua (together with others not in this note) that due to her omissions or commissions, she is to blame for the PEV and she should thus drop her reformist tag.
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