Martha Karua, leader of the People’s Liberation Party (PLP), has revealed how former President Daniel Moi’s attempts to destabilise the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) influenced her decision to enter politics in the late 1980s.
Speaking on Saturday, July 12, in Washington DC, Karua recounted how the late president inspired her to transition from activism within the legal profession to the murky world of politics in order to agitate for better leadership and governance.
Karua noted that the current political instability under President William Ruto’s regime, characterised by a clamour for total control, mirrored what was observed during Moi’s tenure and had originally served as the catalyst for her entry into politics.
“I was called into politics during times like these, during the Moi era,” Karua said.
She gave examples of how Moi, through his powerful Kenya African National Union (KANU) party, had infiltrated various public institutions, and had outlined plans to also control LSK, which was budding with young lawyers keen on making a lasting impression on the legal practice.
“I had just ended my contract as a magistrate, and I decided to go into private practice as a lawyer in 1987. The KANU regime was trying to encroach on the Law Society. As a young lawyer, together with other young lawyers, we started a movement of resisting being taken over by KANU,” she narrated.
Karua detailed how Moi had successfully managed to control the Maendeleo ya Wanawake group, later naming it KANU-Maendeleo ya Wanawake. She also gave the example of how Moi managed to stifle the influential Central Organisation of Trade Unions- Kenya (COTU-K).
“It (KANU) had taken over Maendeleo ya Wanawake, the name had changed to KANU-Maendeleo ya Wanawake. COTU had been swallowed, and Mtukufu (Moi) expressed publicly that the next institution he would be taking would be the LSK because it was vocal,” Karua recounted.
According to Karua, the defining moment came when President Moi appointed the LSK President at the time to a government position, an act that shifted her attention toward politics.
“So, as young lawyers, when our chairman of the day agreed to a government appointment, we felt that he was leaning too close to the regime,” the fiery lawyer said.
However, Karua noted that despite deciding to venture into politics, she continued to merge it with her legal practice, citing the natural correlation between the two as the reason she is still seen in courtrooms practising law.
“I became active, organising and leading, to push back. And then I realised that you cannot practise your profession or business in a vacuum. It is within a socio-political and economic context, and I therefore linked the environment I worked in to the politics of the day,” she said.
“And that is how, from activism within the Law Society, I went into the wider questions of governance in the country. The rest is history, and here I am, still practising the two professions, and they intersect very well,” Karua explained.
At the same time, Karua, now nearly three decades into her political career, officially declared her intention to run for president in the upcoming 2027 General Election. However, she maintained that if not picked as the flagbearer, she would support the candidate chosen by the opposition leadership, but ruled out being a running mate.
Karua stated that the country was bigger than any individual and emphasised that the focus should be on bringing reforms across the entire government, not just the Presidency.
