Gatundu North Member of Parliament (MP) Elija Njoroge, popularly known as Karuria detailed his rise from a pianist at Jesus Winner Ministry in Nairobi to a parliamentarian.
While addressing congregants at the church when he accompanied Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for a thanksgiving service on Sunday, March 5, Karuria relived his meteoric rise from grass to grace.
He indicated that he was a pianist at the church in 2013 when former President Uhuru Kenyatta and this then-Deputy William Ruto went to the church seeking for the pastor's blessings ahead of the elections then.
"I am the first pianist from Jesus Winner to become an MP by the grace of God," Kururia started.
In response to what he termed as many people asking how he rose to power as an independent MP, the flamboyant first-time lawmaker indicated that no competitor would have floored him in the elections considering that he was the first pianist at the church.
"They would not have floored me because I was the first pianist in Jesus Winner's crusade in Rongai and Uhuru Park," he continued.
"Uhuru Kenyatta was prayed for to become the president of Kenya while kneeling on this altar. Do you remember 2013? I was the one playing the piano," Karuria revealed.
Karuria first made a stab at a political position in 2017 when he successfully won the Biashara Ward Member of County Assembly (MCA) seat in Kiambu county.
Five years later, he switched to Gatundu North where he successfully vied for the MP seat on an Independent ticket flooring veterans in the race.
He got 30,799 votes with his closest rivals including Jubilee party's Wanjiku Kibe who came in second with 12,282 votes and United Democratic Alliance (UDA)'s Francis Kigo who had 11,716 votes.
Kibe was the incumbent while Kigo hoped to ride on the UDA wave in the Mt Kenya region to win the seat.
To win the seat, Karuria ran a well-oiled campaign on land and on air that enabled him to reach remote areas of the vast constituency to convince voters to support him.
He took the campaigns to another level by landing aboard a helicopter attracting huge crowds in sleepy villages of the constituency that was hived off from the larger Gatundu.
