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The aftermath of the these elections had plunged Kenya into uncertainty as post-polls violence threatened to ground the country. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) led by Raila Odinga had refused to accept the results of the Presidential election, which declared Kibaki, running under the Party of National Unity (PNU), as the victor. This protest had fast degenerated into inter-communal clashes resulting in fatalities and a political impasse that stalled social and economic progress. The intervention of neutral international mediators dispatched by the African Union and the United Nations helped hammer out a deal that would end the post-poll crisis.

The 2007 polls served as Kingi’s debut into politics where he contested the Magarini Constituency seat in Kilifi District, now Kilifi County, on an ODM ticket. Kingi achieved the impossible. He defeated the establishment candidate touted as the favourite, Harrison Kombe of the Shirikisho Party of Kenya (SPK).

Kingi’s win as Member of Parliament (MP) for Magarini was essentially the beginning of a markedly successful political career. Even as a political greenhorn, Kingi had already wormed his way into the heart of ODM. The top hierarchy of ODM knew him as an unwavering supporter of the party and of Odinga. His legal acuity, party loyalty and great negotiating tactics proved to be solid political assets. Two additional perks endeared Kingi to ODM in its quest to project inclusivity and promote nationalism: he came from a minority coastal community, the Giriama, and had a record of accomplishment in human rights advocacy and community mobilisation. All these qualities helped tick the right boxes, earning Kingi the slot as Minister for East African Community Affairs.

Kingi’s youthful zeal, academic achievements and credentials to match earned him a critical position in the coalition Cabinet that had been put together as a part of the power-sharing deal in the aftermath of the 2007 General Election.

Kingi found himself among Kenya’s record-breaking and historic Cabinet that consisted of 41 ministers.

Kingi was born in 1974 in Kilifi. In 1980 he was enrolled at Magarini Primary School. The bright young lad performed well in primary school and joined Alliance High School for his secondary education. He left Alliance in 1992 and was admitted to the University of Nairobi (UoN) in 1994, graduating four years later with a law degree.

Upon graduation, followed by a pupillage stint, Kingi went into private practice in Mombasa. While in Mombasa, he took a short contract as district coordinator for the Kilifi District, working for the Constitution of Kenya Reform Commission (CKRC). This experience with the CKRC and his legal background exposed Kingi to effective community mobilisation and public awareness campaign strategies in the entire district. Looking back, it was preparation for what lay ahead.

Kingi’s entry to the Cabinet affirmed Kibaki’s thinking and plans on regional economic integration. He represented party affiliation, regional balancing and minority interests on face value. However, his liberal ideology and good grasp of international legal affairs were needed to appropriately fit the complex dynamics that defined Kibaki’s dual-modelled realist-oriented foreign policy strategy. The first model envisaged the regional economic bloc under the Ministry for East African Community Affairs and the second model was espoused in the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Kingi represented the first model.

The East African Community (EAC) based in Arusha, Tanzania, was founded in 1967. Nationalistic rivalries led to its dissolution in 1977. It was re-established in 1999. Having been there during the original years, Kibaki’s sentimental affiliation to the EAC [see sidebar] did not cloud his resolute intention for the regional grouping. By picking Kingi to the EAC Ministry, Kibaki reiterated his firm vision and desire for fresh insights and passion to drive a strong ‘EastAfricanism’ spirit.

It is on this premise that Kingi was given the task of steering Kenya’s position at the Community headquarters.

Kingi’s appointment was evidence of the level of trust that the President had entrusted in the young budding politician and his place in driving Kenya’s regional and foreign policy interests.

At the time, the EAC was planning to begin the full implementation of the East African Common Markets Protocol within the member States. This was a historic milestone as it allowed free movement of labour, services, goods, capital and residence within the region. It had been a decades-long quest by Kibaki and needed a strong advocate with a regional outlook encompassing a population of 90 million people at the time with a gross domestic product of about US$ 30 billion to execute.

Kingi fit the bill.

He immediately set to work with preparing for the East African Customs Union whose protocol had been signed on 2 March 2004 in Arusha and which was coming into effect in January 2010. The Customs Union represented the first stage in the regional integration process. It aimed to boost trade through the harmonisation of customs and trade protocols and procedures among the partner states.

Kingi’s second task was rooting for the second pillar of the regional integration, which was the common market. According to the EAC Treaty, the common market was coming into force in 2010 as the second milestone following the customs union, which was the first pillar.

The new Minister quickly had to learn the practical details involved and navigate the minefield of sometimes reticent or downright obstinate ‘national sovereignties’ as he spearheaded these regional integration initiatives. He soon found that it was a mixed blend and a tough task. Some partner States were hampered by the slow wheels of bureaucracy. Others displayed administrative efficiency, speed to integrate and open-door policies. While the efficient States impressed the Minister, the apparent inaction of other member States rankled. The plain-speaking Minister dispensed with diplomatic formalities and protocols and castigated the inaction of those delaying integration. Kingi ruffled the sensitive regional feathers.

Just a year into the job the Minister raised a storm when in March 2009 he called for equity and regional ownership of the EAC through the decentralisation of some of the Community’s organs such as the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and the East African Court of Justice (EACJ).

“What we need to know is; what does the EAC headquarters mean? If it means the secretariat, then the treaty does not have to be amended. But if it means all the EAC organs in Arusha, we might certainly have to move to amending it and that will give us equity and ownership with the larger community.” Kingi said at the time. “Being alive to the trend the world over in regional blocs and where their organs are placed is what we should do. There is no single bloc that has all its organs under one roof. We are suggesting that the EAC organs be decentralised to enhance ownership of the community.”

This did not sit well with Dar es Salaam and rang alarm bells across the region. Distressed by Kingi’s forthrightness, Kenya’s Vice President Musyoka assured Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete that Kenya was still bound by the agreement setting up the EAC which provides for Arusha as its headquarters.

Regional political commentator Charles Onyango Obbo captured this episode aptly when he wrote in his column in The East African:

“Men like Kenya’s East African Community Minister, Amason Jeffah Kingi have a habit of ruffling feathers, but our region would be worse off without them.” Onyango Obbo wrote. “Kingi seemed to have horrified some colleagues in government when he took the hammer to Tanzania’s allegedly lukewarm attitude toward regional integration. He suggested that since Tanzania was a reluctant member of the EAC, most institutions of the Community should be hosted in the other, more willing partner states.”

Kingi remained unapologetic and stood his ground. He had made his point. Unfazed he continued to push for the realisation of the common market.

On 20 November 2009, which marked the 10th anniversary of the revived EAC, the five partner States signed the Common Market Protocol.

On 30 June 2010 at the National Assembly Kingi issued a Ministerial Statement on the EAC Common Market Protocol making a strong case for its ratification. The Minister used the opportunity to outline the ‘Four Freedoms’ enshrined in the Protocol: free movement of goods, labour, services and capital. The benefits of these freedoms would “boost trade and investments and make the region more productive and prosperous”.

Kingi’s passionate plea for the common market found ardent supporters in Parliament. Legislators led by Danson Mungatana, Bonny Khalwale and Eugene Wamalwa spoke approvingly of the Protocol. This granted Kingi an opportunity to make a strong case for the monetary union and political federation. “Work has already begun to prepare the East Africans to embrace a political integration. This started way back immediately the Treaty was signed in 1999, where a committee of experts was mandated to go around East African to ask East Africans two questions.

One of the questions was whether East Africans are for a political federation. The second question was whether East Africans would wish to attain the political federation through a fast-tracking mechanism.” Kingi disclosed to the house. “I can confirm to this House that the score that was obtained from the three original countries was well beyond 60 per cent on the question as to whether East Africans want a political federation. On the question as to whether the political federation should be fast-tracked, Uganda and Kenya scored well above 50 per cent. It is only Tanzania that scored below 50 per cent.”

While the survey indicated a groundswell of public approval, the political speed was slow in catching up. Sovereignty fears and lack of public awareness campaigns and education on the EAC are among the core reasons that Kingi cited as stalling integration processes.

The toughest hurdle that Kingi had to contend with regarding the EAC Customs Union and Common Market was the ceding of national sovereignty by member States.

However, even with these difficulties, Kingi celebrated the major successes achieved and remained committed to achieving the policy goals outlined by President Kibaki regarding the EAC. His open criticism of partner States even when it was clear that Kenya was the largest beneficiary of integration, seems to have cut short his stay at the EAC ministry.

In August 2010, President Kibaki reshuffled the coalition Cabinet. With the alliance’s subtleties at play and bringing in consultation with key partner Prime Minister Odinga, Kingi moved to the Ministry of Fisheries Development to take over from Paul Otuoma who was moved to Youth and Sports. Helen Sambili replaced Kingi at the EAC docket.

For the longest time in Kenya, sectoral priorities placed fisheries as a mere department within the agriculture and sometimes the livestock ministries. This time around, Kibaki chose to re-engineer this critical department. The President elevated it to a full Ministry and dispatched the independent minded Kingi to oversee the wide-ranging transformation primed for the fisheries docket. Abu Chiaba, who was Lamu East MP, served as Kingi’s Assistant Minister at the Fisheries Development Ministry. The earmarked changes included fast-tracking the Fisheries Bill, drawing up a blueprint to harness the country’s Blue Economy potential and rollout of aquaculture.

Apparently, while in this Ministry Kingi did not achieve much success. His quest to increase coastal fisheries exports to match the tonnage from internal waters was unsuccessful.

With the dawn of a new Constitution, Kingi’s political star continued to shine as he vied for Governor in the 2013 General Election and won. He became Kilifi County’s first Governor and was subsequently re-elected in 2017.

On January 15, 2008, at the height of the post-election violence that erupted after the disputed 2007 election, the then 33-year-old MP stirred up drama in Parliament when he swore by “President Raila Amolo Odinga”, contrary to the prescribed oath-taking manner where officials swore by the elected President and the country.

Mr Namwamba inserted the name of his party leader in line with the mood among ODM members who believed Mr Odinga had won. The party had claimed victory in the elections even though President Mwai Kibaki had already been sworn in.

Mr Namwamba’s shocking stunt was all the more melodramatic because he was the first MP to be sworn in owing to his position on the alphabetical order of lawmakers and his antics had the potential to throw the solemn ceremony into a disarray.

He later took the oath in the prescribed manner after Speaker Kenneth Marende called him to order following protestations from Party of National Unity (PNU) MPs led Martha Karua and Kiraitu Murungi.

The first-term Budalang’i MP, a lawyer, was one of the most eloquent defenders of Mr Odinga’s, making him an unlikely bedfellow in Mwai Kibaki’s Cabinet.

Yet politics is the art of the possible. After a National Accord that brought together President Kibaki and Mr Odinga in a restive coalition that made the latter the Prime Minister with the power to appoint half of the Cabinet, several politicians who had been sworn nemeses were forced to work together from April 2008 when the Grand Coalition Government was announced.

Even then, Mr Namwamba was to remain on the back benches until September 2012, when he was appointed minister for Youth Affairs and Sports in a reshuffle, a year to the end of the Grand Coalition government.

By then Mr Odinga was facing a season of discontent on his side of the Coalition and was shuffling his ministers, kicking out those he considered disloyal. Mr Namwamba replaced Dr Paul Otuoma of neighbouring Funyula in Busia county who was moved to the ministry of Local Government in one such jostling.

Politics aside, the appointment of Mr Namwamba, then only 37 but looking even more youthful, exuberant and enthusiastic, was a befitting one for his docket and he immediately went about working, visiting stadia and making one proclamation after another.

In an interview for this book, Mr Namwamba singled out the long-in-coming Sports Act that sought to harness sports for development, promote drug-free sports and recreation, as well as establish sports facilities and set up a National Sports Fund as one of his proudest achievements.

Others are the streamlining of the National Youth Service (NYS), expansion of the National Youth Enterprise Fund, launching of the National Youth Council and the streamlining of the network of youth polytechnics that have provided the springboard for the current Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) programme that is key in the country’s industrial take-off and employment creation.

But how did Mr Kibaki take to the fact that Mr Namwamba had refused to swear by him? How easy was it moving away from the earlier tensions and working together with erstwhile sworn political enemies?

He recalled that even after the recalcitrant drama he pulled in Parliament four years earlier in support of Mr Odinga — his political mentor — he enjoyed his time in the Kibaki Cabinet, terming it a moment of both “personal growth and maturation in service to the country”.

“Maturity entails moving on and serving higher ends like national interests. We were very comfortable together and worked superbly well,” Mr Namwamba explained, adding that he remembered how President Kibaki congratulated him on the enactment of the Sports Act, and personally encouraged him as the ministry rolled out the programme to improve sports facilities across the country.

“My proudest moment came on January 10, 2013 when I stood in Parliament to lead the debate and ultimately witness the passing of the Sports Act, which I had prioritised upon appointment. That piece of legislation has provided the platform for revolutionising our sports sector,” he said.

He also campaigned, albeit unsuccessfully, for Kenya to be granted the right to host the 2018 Africa Cup of Nations in 2017.

He said that President Kibaki allowed his ministers considerable latitude to manage the affairs of their ministries but was always available to listen and advise as he had vast knowledge of issues in almost every ministry.

According to Mr Namwamba, the third President did not shy away from putting one’s thoughts and ideas to test, or even disagreeing outright with a minister in a Cabinet meeting. “You brought forth some obtuse thought, and you could be told off matter-of-factly!” he recalled.

Having been appointed at the youthful age of 37, Mr Namwamba said he matured and gained invaluable experience working under the “steady, experienced and highly knowledgeable President Kibaki”.

The interview with Mr Namwamba, now a Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chief Administrative Secretary (a rough equivalent of an assistant minister) in the Kenyatta administration, opened a window into the character of the third President.

He described President Kibaki as “absolutely urbane, erudite and broad-minded” and added that they bonded in many ways despite the age difference.

“Once, while having lunch with him at State House, I picked his mind on the youth enterprise fund as an avenue for powering our young entrepreneurs, and I was completely amazed by the depth of his grasp of the dynamics of economic empowerment for our youth,” he said.

Another opportunity for the two leaders to interact came at the 2012 NYS graduation parade in Gilgil when the President turned to him and complimented him and the ministry for the transformation of the NYS, “specifically picking out the new paramilitary uniform we had recently designed and which the NYS uses to date.”

Later, in December 2012, President Kibaki conferred on him the Order of the Elder of the Golden Heart (EGH), First Class, the highest civilian national honour, which he says was based on his performance, quite a change of fortune for a man who had begun his parliamentary career on the wrong foot.

“Overall, I would say the sports and youth sectors thrived considerably under the Kibaki presidency, and I credit this to his interest and the free rein he accorded us to run the ministry,” said Mr Namwamba, who was deputised by then Mukurweini MP Kabando wa Kabando and his Kathiani counterpart Wavinya Ndeti (both of whom were also youthful). The Permanent Secretary was career administrator James Waweru.

Born in December 1975, Mr Namwamba was raised in Uganda and later in Kenya. He attended Port Victoria Mixed Primary School before joining Kolanya Boys High School in Teso North, both in his native Busia.

From 1993 to 1997, Mr Namwamba was an undergraduate student at the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Law. He later studied for his Diploma in Law at the Kenya School of Law, while at the same time doing pupilage at the Public Law Institute (PLI) under the guidance of Dr Oki Ooko Ombaka. He holds a Master of Laws degree (LLM) in International Law from American University’s Washington College of Law.

It was not by accident that Mr Namwamba burst onto the national political scene, because he started practising the art way back in 1996 when he was elected a student leader at the University of Nairobi while in his third year at the School of Law. The Student Organisation of Nairobi University (SONU) had always served as a springboard for future politicians in Kenya. He turned into an eloquent lawyer with charming English mannerisms complete with an impeccable fashion sense.

He was inspired by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s book, Not Yet Uhuru, which he said he had read while in Class Seven. The book moved him to enroll in the youth ranks of Ford Kenya — Jaramogi’s party — when he was in high school.

It was no surprise, therefore, that Mr Namwamba would later embrace Jaramogi’s son Raila Odinga as his political hero. Mr Namwamba’s national political journey started in 2002 when he joined Mr Odinga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and worked as a volunteer for the NARC coalition’s euphoric 2002 election that swept Mr Kibaki to power.

While on a Fulbright scholarship from 2004 to 2006 at Washington College of Law, Mr Namwamba remained active in LDP activities, including in the Diaspora during his postgraduate studies in the United States.

It was while in the US that he wrote a weekly column for the Sunday Standard in which he often heaped praise on Mr Odinga, saying he was the Nelson Mandela of Kenya (owing to the Kenyan leader’s prison stint).

Earlier, in 2002, he had founded the Chambers of Justice, a public interest trust he would lead as Chief Counsel until 2007, alongside his own law firm, Ababu Namwamba Attorneys-at-Law.

In 2007, Mr Namwamba joined ODM and won the Budalang’i parliamentary seat.

He easily recaptured the seat in 2013 after spearheading the movement known as ODM-Reloaded and CORD-Effect that excited the party rank and file.

At that time, he argued that Mr Odinga had only one bullet remaining in the chamber (having twice vied for the presidency unsuccessfully) and it had to hit the target that time around. For this he was given the title of ‘General’ for being a strong Odinga enthusiast.

After the 2013 elections he put up a spirited, but unsuccessful attempt to take the ODM secretary-general’s position after incumbent Anyang Nyong’o indicated he would not be defending it.

From the onset, it was clear that the old guard in the party were not sold on a Namwamba leadership, preferring to support Coast politician Agnes Zani. Analysts believe that ODM mandarins at that time were not comfortable with Mr Namwamba holding the key post because they felt that he was too close to Deputy President William Ruto, who was in Jubilee, and they thought he was leaking party secrets to the government.

The party elections in February 2014 were disrupted by a gang dubbed “Men in Black”, because of the colour of their suits. Mr Namwamba had waged a well-oiled campaign that raised eyebrows.

After a short blame game as to who was responsible for disrupting the election at the Moi International Sports Centre, Mr Namwamba was handed the ODM secretary-general’s position, albeit with whittled-down powers, a position he held until July 2016, when he left, citing internal sabotage and frustration that had made it impossible for him to effectively execute the mandate of his office.

Thus, despite his earlier dramatic display of loyalty to Mr Odinga, he noisily left the party altogether, citing frustration, betrayal and lack of respect from top party leaders.

“When Prof Nyong’o was secretary-general, there was no position of secretary of political affairs, there was no director of elections or director of communications. Why were these positions created when I became the secretary-general? The answer is obvious,” Mr Namwamba said.

After leaving ODM, Mr Namwamba in September 2016 joined the Labour Party of Kenya (LPK) that was then headed by Dr Julia Ojiambo. He became the LPK leader in March 2017 and immediately announced that his party would support Uhuru Kenyatta in the August 2017 elections. He lost to Raphael Wanjala of ODM in his bid to retain his Budalang’i seat in the 2017 elections.

But Mr Namwamba’s support for President Kenyatta was rewarded when in January 2018, he was appointed the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Away from his exploits in politics, Mr Namwamba is also a successful lawyer. In 2004, he shot to national fame when he won a landmark case representing a Kenyan-born Pakistani who had been wrongfully accused of terrorism.

Mr Namwamba had already made a name for himself in 2003 when he secured a historic ruling in a constitutional case that affirmed the right of children living with HIV/AIDS to attend public schools unfettered.

He had filed the case for Chambers of Justice and Nyumbani Children’s Home after two schools in Ngong’ and Karen barred Children from Nyumbani because of their HIV status. Following that victory, Mr Namwamba won the 2004 Global Justice Award, which he received in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Mr Namwamba was again thrust into the limelight in 2004/05 during an inquiry into the mysterious death of Dr Robert Ouko, a former Foreign Affairs minister. Mr Namwamba was representing Swiss national Marianne Briner-Mattern, whose company BAK was being investigated on whether its interest in the Kisumu Molasses plant had any links to the death.

An early bloomer, Mr Namwamba was always inquisitive from a tender age. As a little boy, he read Arabian Nights, the collection of folk of tales, and Greek mythology which no doubt went a long way in building his awesome linguistic capacity.

In an earlier interview, he revealed that the story of Daedalus and Icarus had fascinated him, a confession that some of his critics have used against him. They say that rather than learning from Icarus’ ill-fated reckless flight to the sun, the politician has sometimes thrown caution to the wind in his pursuit of power.

They cite his audacious attempt to take over ODM and the miscalculation that led to his departure from the party and his subsequent defeat in the 2017 elections.

A man who loves the finer things in life, Mr Namwamba has often come into the crosshairs of Kenyans on social media who troll him for his escapades in faraway holiday destinations. Yet he gives as much as he takes.

“Just got to love KOT (Kenyans on Twitter), don’t you! Enjoyed this “Ababu-Terrah clad” brouhaha amidst the bustle of preparing to return home from representing my boss, my President in Pretoria. On dress code thingie, I travel easy, and dress smart for officials. Denim is dope. Thaz my style buddies!” he wrote on Twitter.

He had been criticised for turning out in an all-denim outfit while on official tour in South Africa.

The consummate reader of such classics as Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom believes that his political journey has just begun, and that the country has not seen the last of him.

Whatever the case may be, it is clear that in appointing Mr Namwamba, an erstwhile fierce critic, to the Cabinet, President Kibaki had hoisted the ambitious and colourful politician to a position that he has not held since, though, at 45, the world is still his to conquer.

Kibaki named Charity Kaluki Ngilu the Minister for Health, Martha Wangari Karua as Minister for Water Resources Management and Development, and Linah Jebii Kilimo as Minister of State in the Office of the Vice President. Also appointed were environmentalist Wangari Maathai as Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife, Beth Mugo as Assistant Minister for Tourism and Information, and Betty Tett, the Assistant Minister for Local Government.

Karua quickly became known as ‘Iron Lady’ due to her unflinching and unwavering defence of Kibaki’s administration, and when the going got really tough, she was referred to as “the only man in Kibaki’s Cabinet”.

In naming Karua and other women to his Cabinet, the new President sought to expand the space for participation of women in leadership and governance at national level. Secondly, he knew Karua well, having collaborated with her politically since the early days of his breakaway from the Kenya African National Union (KANU) to form the Democratic Party (DP). A notable voice in the 1990s agitation for political pluralism, Karua had been elected to Parliament in the 1992 General Election on a DP ticket. She was also the party’s legal affairs secretary between 1992 and 1997. Later, she became part of the team that formed NARC, the coalition that would sweep KANU out of power in 2002.

As Minister for Water Resources Management and Development, a position she held between 2003 and 2005, Karua is credited with the implementation of the Water Act 2002. It was reforms like this one that triggered the revival of many irrigation projects across the country.

Equally significant was her role in bringing Egypt to the negotiation table for talks on the waters of the River Nile, kick-starting the informal diplomatic process that eventually became the Nile Basin Initiative. Her efforts paid off in 2010, when seven upstream states signed a new agreement on the use of the Nile waters. To register their disagreement with the downstream countries, the seven states signed the agreement without Sudan and Egypt.

The bone of contention was the 56-year-old treaty that was negotiated between the downstream countries and the British colonialists in the 1950s. The treaty granted Egypt exclusive rights over the Nile. For instance, Egypt had the power to veto any projects initiated by upstream states that could divert the Nile waters.

Karua’s interest in the Nile waters was premised on the irony of Kenya experiencing water distress despite being one of the upstream states that fed the Nile. Kenya has four rivers that empty their waters into Lake Victoria, the source of the White Nile, which comprises the headwaters and primary tributary of the river.

Karua was uncomfortable that this fact notwithstanding, Kenya could neither build dams to power its regional economies nor build water reservoirs to help control floods in such places as Budalang’i Constituency in Busia District.

In 2005, Karua was named Minister for Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Cohesion, replacing Kiraitu Murungi. In her new portfolio, she oversaw key legislations that put Kenya on the path to strengthening electoral and national reconciliation processes, and a constitutional review. It was during this time that Kenya put in place a clear framework and timeline that in the long run yielded the Constitution of Kenya 2010.

In the peace talks that followed the 2007-2008 post-election violence, Karua represented Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) team alongside Moses Wetang’ula, Sam Ongeri and Mutula Kilonzo. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) side, which was PNU’s main opponent in the elections, was led by party leader Raila Odinga and represented by Musalia Mudavadi, William Ruto, James Orengo and Sally Kosgei.

The negotiations, which came to be known as the Serena Talks, created space for Karua to secure a place in Kenya’s history books. In his memoir, My Life, My Purpose, former Tanzania President Benjamin Mkapa remembers Karua and Ruto as the strongest hardliners during the Kibaki-Raila peace negotiations. According to Mkapa’s account, locking Karua and Ruto out of the mediation team helped to secure a power-sharing deal between Kibaki and Raila.

In the end, when the two sides reached a power-sharing agreement through a coalition government, Karua retained her Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Cohesion portfolio.

On 15 November 2008, Karua was unanimously endorsed as the chairperson of NARC-Kenya. Soon afterwards, she declared that she would gun for the presidency in the next General Election.

In a move that took many by surprise, Karua resigned from her Cabinet position on 6 April 2009, citing frustrations in discharging her duties. At the time of her resignation, President Kibaki was in Zambia attending a Heads of State and Government summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African countries (COMESA). About a month before this, he had read the riot act to members of his Cabinet thought to be rocking the ship from within. In his stern message, the President asked any such minister to either quit or risk getting the sack. Odinga, who had become Prime Minister in the coalition government, and Kibaki were reportedly reading from the same page on this matter – collective responsibility and unity of purpose were important in the implementation of the coalition government’s manifesto.

Political analysts saw Karua as one of the ministers targeted by Kibaki’s message. At the time, she had taken vocal and independent stances on a number of issues. She had, for example, criticised Chief Justice Evan Gicheru whom she accused of blocking reforms in the Judiciary. It was against this backdrop that the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) wrote a letter to Kibaki asking him to form a tribunal to initiate Gicheru’s removal; this was construed as an act of ill-will. There was a strong feeling within the Cabinet then that LSK was acting at Karua’s behest. In his response to the LSK letter, Kibaki expressed confidence in Gicheru and declined the request to have him removed.

A week prior to her resignation, five judges had been sworn in reportedly without her knowledge. This did not sit well with Karua since legal matters were domiciled in the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Cohesion.

When she announced her resignation, Karua said she could not remain in office any longer because she felt her hands “were tied”. She declined to elaborate and summed up her brief speech by seeking the understanding of her constituents, members of her party, family and friends.

A parade of top-level government and party leaders reportedly tried to convince her to rethink her decision, among them Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and Cabinet colleague Beth Mugo, the Minister for Public Health. Even her own party, NARC-Kenya, was said to have convened an early morning meeting in a bid to have her rescind her decision. But no amount of persuasion could make her change her mind. She was replaced by Mutula Kilonzo.

Karua’s resignation could not have come at a worse time for the coalition partners, who were grappling with rising political animosity. At the time, Odinga’s ODM and Kibaki’s PNU were trading accusations over reforms – ODM accused PNU of sabotaging reforms while PNU, in response, said ODM was only obsessed with amassing power.

Many political analysts viewed Karua’s decision to leave the government as a misstep that would cost her dearly. Her support in her native Gichugu and the wider Kirinyaga District was to a large extent premised on her high position beside the President, who was immensely popular in the area. Breaking ranks with him dissipated that support. What is without doubt is that PNU lost a formidable foot soldier in its battles with ODM.

Come 2013, Karua made good her promise to run for the presidency on a NARC-Kenya ticket. The 2010 Constitution barred presidential contenders from running for parliamentary seats, so Karua gave up her Gichugu seat and braved the possibility of sliding into political oblivion in the event that she lost the election. She ended up sixth with just 43,881 votes.

In 2017, Karua’s attempt to make a political comeback as governor of Kirinyaga County fell flat on its face when she lost to Anne Waiguru. She contested the results in court but lost the petition.

During a television talk show in 2019, Karua reminisced about her time in government, recalling the spirited and valiant fight she put up for Kibaki following the disputed 2007 presidential election results. She argued that by mounting a historical defence for Kibaki’s election victory, she was defending her vote, and equated her defence of Kibaki with Orengo’s defence of Odinga during the Serena Talks.

Courtesy of her ability to speak her mind freely – which some see as audacity – Karua made many political enemies across the PNU-ODM divide, including Odinga’s deputy, Uhuru Kenyatta, and Cabinet colleagues Kiraitu Murungi and George Saitoti, who came out and publicly criticised her.

The feud between Karua and Kenyatta is believed to have stemmed from Kibaki’s appointment of the latter as Deputy Prime Minister – there are those who felt that her retention as the Minister for Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Cohesion in the coalition government was not commensurate with the energy and time she had invested in defending Kibaki’s victory in the 2007 election.

In other quarters, she has been accused of changing her revolutionary tune once she was appointed to the Cabinet. In an article titled Succession Void in Mt. Kenya published in The Star newspaper of 2 September 2020, the writer painted her as a one-time thorn in the flesh of President Daniel arap Moi’s administration who changed tune once she was ensconced in the NARC government.

Karua was born on 22 September 1957 in Kirinyaga District of Central Province. She is the second of eight children and was raised in Kimunye Village in Gichugu Constituency. She attended Kabare Girls Boarding School before joining Kiburia Girls Secondary School. She moved to Ngiriambu Girls Secondary School before eventually settling at Karoti Girls Secondary School where she wrote her East African School Certificate examinations. Karua then went to Nairobi Girls for her A’ levels after which she joined the University of Nairobi for her law degree between 1977 and 1980.

From 1980 to 1981 she was at the Kenya School of Law for her statutory post-graduate law course and made her career debut in the Judiciary as a District Magistrate. At the time of her exit in 1987, she had risen to the level of Senior Resident Magistrate.

Through her law firm, Karua & Co. Advocates, she took up many pro bono cases that involved human rights activists. Notable among these cases was the treason trial of Koigi wa Wamwere. In addition, she contributed immensely to the development and growth of family law, more so with respect to family property.

In the 1990s, Karua threw her lot in with Opposition political movements in their agitation for the re-introduction of multi-party democracy in Kenya. In the run-up to the 1992 General Election, she joined Kenneth Matiba’s FORD-Asili party but lost in the primaries to wealthy and influential former Head of Public Service, Geoffrey Kariithi. She was in luck though, as DP offered her a ticket and she went on to clinch the Gichugu parliamentary seat.

Over the years Karua has won several awards in recognition of her work in Parliament and the High Court of Kenya, especially on matters to do with protecting and advancing women’s rights. She has also been a constant and audible voice in the call for expansion of the democratic space.

Appointed to the critical Agriculture docket when the farming sector was at its lowest ebb – and in the dispensation of a President who gave his ministers a free hand to apply themselves – Kirwa soon gave farmers a reason to go back to the soil. Agriculture was the backbone of the country’s economy and gave about 80 per cent of Kenya’s population their livelihood, so this was a major achievement for Kirwa, who was joining the Cabinet for the first time.

But it was not his first stint in the ministry, having been Assistant Minister under President Daniel arap Moi from 1998 to 2002. He was also prepared professionally, with a background in agricultural engineering.

Also of significance was that Kirwa was one of the few MPs from the Kalenjin community to be elected on a National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) party ticket in the 2002 General Election that saw Moi and the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party ousted after decades in power. He had also proved himself as a principled person who did not tolerate injustice or poor governance.

Under Kibaki, Kenya had adopted a strategy to revitalise agriculture, which accounted for 26 per cent of the gross domestic product and contributed to 80 per cent of employment and 57 per cent of the national income – both directly and indirectly. This critical ministry has often gone to those who enjoy the complete trust of the President of the day, and Kirwa put this trust to good use, reviving faith in farming that had been lost in the 1980s and 1990s.

He took office when maize farmers had little market, which saw them dispose of their produce at throwaway prices. To reverse the trend, he banned maize imports and it wasn’t long before the farmers were expanding acreage under the staple crop as they serviced loans from the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC), which previously were the preserve of a handful of KANU elite. The loans were now available to farmers within a very short time of application.

All the parastatals under the Ministry of Agriculture at the time were revamped on Kirwa’s watch. One of these was the Kenya Seed Company, a public entity that had been established to produce certified maize seeds but which had fallen into private hands in the dying days of the KANU regime.

The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services was also strengthened to ensure that all imported seeds met quality standards, as was the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI), since renamed Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), which was also funded by the exchequer to execute its mandate.

For this, the ministry was often rated the best in performance evaluation, something Kirwa remains proud of to this day. Indeed, Ezra Njau, a breeder at KALRO, credited the former Minister with seed development and revamping the ailing agricultural institutions.

“We managed to produce seeds against certain pests and fungi, which boosted production. Some long-term research, started in his time, such as that aimed at combating stem rust (a virulent wheat disease) is still ongoing,” Njau said, attributing Kirwa’s success to his working with experts.

And according to Lorna Tetu, a large-scale wheat and barley farmer in Narok County as well as a civic leader, Kirwa was responsible for fair appointments to the ministry’s parastatal boards, which she said were previously the preserve of certain ethnic communities.

“He ensured that the boards reflected the face of Kenya. We reaped benefits from tilling our land. When he left, we were left at the mercy of importers,” she said.

Tetu also said AFC loans for farmers whose crops were damaged by the vagaries of weather were either rescheduled or the interests were waived at the Minister’s behest.

“We still remember the good days of the Kibaki administration when agriculture was a worthy undertaking. Kirwa cultivated a close working relationship with Kibaki that bettered the lives of farmers, who work under difficult conditions to produce food for the country,” Tetu said.

So expansive was Kirwa’s docket that it was one of only three ministries to be allocated two assistant ministers. The other two were Education, Science and Technology headed by George Saitoti, who was also Vice President in the Moi era, and Public Service under Geoffrey Parpai. Kirwa was deputised by Wycliffe Osundwa and Joseph Munyao. The Permanent Secretary in the ministry was Godfrey Mate.

Ever since he entered Parliament in 1990, when he contested the Cherangany Constituency by-election and won, Kirwa, despite being in KANU, was never comfortable with Moi’s style of leadership and was a constant thorn in the former President’s side. Representing a cosmopolitan constituency populated by the Kalenjin, Luhya and Kikuyu communities, the soft-spoken, sober-minded politician was comfortable making friends with politicians opposed to the Moi regime. Moi once angrily nicknamed him ‘Makokha’ for his close association with the Bukusu sub-tribe of the Luhya, which opposed KANU.

In the late 1990s, the former teacher joined hands with youthful KANU members such as Cyrus Jirongo, John Sambu and William Ruto to foment rebellion within the party. The “Four Sisters” as they were referred to were itching to grab a piece of the KANU behemoth that was dominated by conservative old guards such as Nicholas Biwott, George Saitoti and Joseph Kamotho. Jirongo, then the MP for Lugari in present-day Kakamega County, was Kirwa’s schoolmate at Mang’u High School and had been instrumental in the re-election of KANU as the ruling party in 1992 through the Youth for KANU ‘92 movement whose money-dishing tactics felled the shilling and drove up inflation.

By 2000, Kirwa had decamped from KANU to the Opposition, becoming an important cog in the wheel that was the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK). He worked closely with Kibaki behind the scenes to shape NAK into a formidable coalition that brought together Kibaki’s Democratic Party (DP), Ford-Kenya led by Kijana Wamalwa and Charity Ngilu’s National Party of Kenya. They would be joined by KANU rebels and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to form NARC. Kirwa, Chris Murungaru and former MP for Mwala, Mutua Katuku, were the driving force behind NAK while the principals – Kibaki, Wamalwa and Ngilu – were the public face.

Despite his recognised success in the agriculture sector, it was not all smooth sailing for Kirwa. Soon after taking over, the Minister faced a major challenge when about 3.3 million people faced starvation because of drought and poor harvests. In addition, more than 150,000 camels, 16 million goats and six million cows were at risk of death as harsh weather conditions ravaged many parts of Kenya’s arid and semi-arid (ASAL) areas.

Kirwa announced that the government would disburse money to the National Cereals and Produce Board to purchase two million bags of maize locally and in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to boost the country’s strategic reserves. But at the time, the country did not have sufficient finances and Kibaki had appealed for USD 76 million to fund emergency relief operations to help those affected by crop failure due to inadequate rainfall.

In May 2007, Kirwa had a rough time in Parliament when he was asked to explain the flouting of the 2005 Notice No. 44 that required potatoes packaged for wholesale should be put in 110-kilogramme bags. Kirwa explained, amid disbelief on the floor of the House, that his ministry had no specific financial allocation for the implementation of Notice No. 44.

But his biggest nightmare was yet to come. Ahead of the 2007 General Election, cheap sugar imports, which he had earlier managed to stop, were dumped in the country and markets were saturated, dealing a big blow to local sugarcane farmers.

Although Kenya was a committed member of COMESA, which allowed certain quotas of imports to make up for shortfalls, sugarcane farmers in the western belt complained that the imports were being used to line the pockets of certain powerful people at a time when Kibaki was about to seek a second term in office.

Kirwa was born in September 1959 and studied at Kapsabet and Mang’u high schools before joining the Kenya Technical Teachers’ College for a diploma in agricultural engineering. He later joined the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology for a degree in agricultural engineering. From 1986 to 1988, he was a teacher and headmaster at Tilol Secondary School in present-day Uasin Gishu County.

The former Minister also holds a Master of Science in Applied Management and Leadership from the Management University of Africa, and a Master of Arts in International Studies from the University of Nairobi. Known for his fluency in Kiswahili because of his long stay in Tanzania, where a majority of his clan still resides, he is currently studying for a PhD in International Studies at the University of Nairobi.

His entry into Parliament in 1990 came through a by-election when John Kirwa Rotich, who had won the seat in 1988, had his election nullified in court after the long-time holder of the seat, Masinde Muliro, lodged an election petition.

In Parliament, Kirwa had a knack for speaking his mind on matters affecting his constituency, which he represented for nearly two decades. He championed the rights of his people, whose main economic mainstay was agriculture, to access better markets for their produce. He also opposed the dumping of cheap imported grains, which depressed prices especially during harvest season.

In 1997, Kirwa sensationally claimed that army personnel from the Pokot community were leaving the service with arms to take part in activities aimed at destabilising the North Rift region, especially Kitale, an Opposition zone. Cattle rustling, he charged, could have been the entry point of the destabilisation plans that would have seen people being displaced ahead of the General Election that was held in December that year.

It was after the 1997 elections that Kirwa teamed up with Jirongo, Ruto, Wamalwa, Fred Amayo, and then Kwanza MP George Kapten, to form a fall-back party, the United Democratic Movement, were they to be kicked out of KANU. While the group had been dismissed as inconsequential hotheads, it appears that Moi took seriously their potential to divide the ruling party. In September 2000, government operatives attempted to disrupt a fundraising meeting in Bomet presided over by Kirwa and his soul mates Sambu, Jirongo and Kipkalya Kones.

Kirwa retained his Cherangany seat in three polls despite his stance, but as the 2002 elections approached he went headlong into Opposition politics, culminating in the euphoric 2002 NARC victory in which he won the seat on a FORD-Kenya/NARC ticket. He was vanquished in 2007 by Joshua Kutuny, who vied on an Orange Democratic Movement party ticket. Still, those who know him say he lasted as long as he did because he eschewed the practice of using his position to enrich himself.

Even after his loss in 2007, Kibaki appointed him the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Special Envoy to Somalia Peace and National Reconciliation where he served between 2008 and 2012, demonstrating the President’s confidence in his first Minister for Agriculture.

In 2013, he contested the Trans Nzoia Senate seat on a New FORD-Kenya ticket and lost to FORD-Kenya’s Henry ole Ndiema. In January 2017, Kirwa moved to Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress and became the party’s deputy leader. In that year’s election, he emerged third in his second bid for the Trans Nzoia Senate seat that was won by Jubilee’s Michael Mbito.

In the race for the parliamentary seat, Mohamud vied on a Kenya African National Union (KANU) party ticket and beat opponents from six Opposition parties – FORD-Asili, Safina, Kenya Social Congress, Social Democratic Party, Democratic Party and National Development Party.

Mohamud became the sixth MP for Wajir East, with KANU winning three out of the four parliamentary seats in the entire Wajir District (present-day Wajir County). Wajir North was won by Abdillahi Ibrahim Ali and Wajir South by Mohamed Abdi Affey. In Wajir West, the seat was taken by Safina’s Adan Keynan.

Following the win, President Daniel arap Moi appointed Mohamud as an Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He would later move to the Ministry of Transport and Communications in the same capacity.

In the 2002 General Election, when KANU was swept out of power by the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) and Mwai Kibaki became President, Mohamud was among several leaders from pastoralist communities who managed to retain their seats. KANU, however, won only 64 seats in Parliament compared to NARC’s 125.

In the ensuing period, during which NARC experienced wrangles between members of the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) and the Liberal Democratic Party, President Kibaki formed a Government of National Unity, which included MPs from Ford-People and KANU. In the expanded structure, Mohamud was appointed Minister for Regional Development Authorities, becoming the first chief of the newly-created ministry. His Assistant Minister was veteran Kisumu politician Peter Odoyo, the current Chief Administrative Secretary in the Department of Defence.

The Ministry of Regional Development Authorities was established under Presidential Circular No. 3/2003 on the organisation of government, with a mandate to provide policy guidance, enhance capacity building and support regional development authorities. By that time there were six regional development authorities that had operated under different Acts of Parliament since the 1970s. They were Kerio Valley Development Authority, Ewaso Nyiro North Development Authority, Ewaso Nyiro South Development Authority, Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority, Coast Development Authority and Lake Basin Development Authority.

The regional development authorities were established in the 1970s on the basis of river basins, catchments and coastal resources in the country, with the aim that they could help rationalise equitable and balanced sustainable regional and national development in the country. However, they had remained ineffective for decades, and it was now Mohamud’s job to make a change.

This was no easy task as he was handed a new ministry with no funding and no policies in place. Still, he helped to develop a policy and pushed the Cabinet to approve more funding for regional development authorities.

He also initiated efforts to revive the multi-billion shilling Tana Delta Rice scheme and, in March 2007, launched the KES 3 billion Kimira-Oluch small-holder irrigation scheme in Rachuonyo and Homa Bay districts – 22 years after the idea was first mooted. The scheme was expected to improve farming in the area and create thousands of jobs. To date, however, it is yet to be fully completed.

He also led negotiations that saw the commercialisation of Wajir Airport, which for decades had served as a military base, and spearheaded massive reforms at the Ewaso Nyiro Authority to revitalise the institution’s management structure and delivery of services in northern Kenya.

Mohamud has also been credited with securing a KES 700 million grant for the expansion of Wajir District Hospital, negotiating for the construction of the Garissa-Modogashe road and sourcing funds amounting to KES 500 million for water projects in arid and semi-arid regions.

“I have worked for all of Wajir throughout my life,” he said in a 2007 interview.

His tenure as a Cabinet Minister will be remembered for the successful launch of various projects. Unfortunately, some of these are yet to be completed, or failed to kick off altogether.

Towards the tail end of his term as Minister, he conceded to the less-than-expected performance of his docket and attributed it to lack of a ministerial policy.

“To discharge our functions, it has been very difficult in the sense that there is currently no regional development policy to provide a framework and direction for effective supervision of the authorities,” the Minister said in March 2007 during a national stakeholders’ workshop in Nairobi on the drafting of the Regional Development Policy.

He added that the ministry had been relying on policies from other sectors to draw up strategies, and in most cases they had not been very effective.

In November 2007, Mohamud was involved in a dispute with Francis Muthaura, who at the time was Head of the Civil Service, over the appointment of parastatal chiefs.

In a stunning departure from the norm, the Minister called a press conference during which he accused Muthaura of usurping his powers, breaking the law concerning the establishment of State corporations and contravening a circular he (Muthaura) wrote on the procedures to be followed in appointing heads of public organs.

Mohamud said the appointments were made despite the three parastatals that fell under his ministry having conducted interviews and forwarded the names of potential appointees to him. The unilateral decision, purportedly on the instructions of the Head of State, Mohamud said, had undermined him and affected the operations of the institutions.

Interestingly, Mohamud did not defend his parliamentary seat in the 2007 General Election, preferring to serve as the Party of National Unity (PNU) elections coordinator in northern Kenya. The PNU was a coalition of political parties under which Kibaki successfully ran for a second presidential term.

The Wajir East seat was eventually won by Mohamed Elmi, who is currently the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

After leaving Cabinet, Mohamud served as Kenya’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. In 2013, following the 2010 promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya that established a devolved system of government, he made an unsuccessful run for the governorship of Wajir County. He would win on his second attempt in 2017, running on a Jubilee Party ticket after a negotiated democracy among clans where the Fai Sultanate, a respected clan system among the Somalis, picked him to vie for the seat.

Mohamud comes from the vote-rich Fai clan of the Degodia who inhabit Wajir East and Tarbaj constituencies.

Mohamud has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in diplomacy and international relations from Kampala International University. His long career in public service straddles education, public administration and diplomacy.

Murungi’s biggest selling point as Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs was most certainly his illustrious legal career and specialisation in constitutional law. In addition, he was a man of the people who had endeared himself to the masses through his legal practice and initiation of a number of pro-people development projects.

A key pillar of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) campaign platform was delivering a new Constitution within 100 days of coming into office. This meant that whoever became Kibaki’s law minister already had his or her work cut out. Further, the President was inheriting a Judiciary reeling under the weight of corruption – the phrase “why hire a lawyer when you can buy a judge?” had become widely used in reference to how low the Judiciary’s reputation had sunk.

To complete the sorry state of affairs, the Kenya Police was routinely perched at the top of the Kenya Corruption Index and the Kenya Prisons system was notorious for dehumanising its staff and inmates. In its most fundamental sense, the contract between the State and its citizens guarantees fair, just and expedient treatment before the law in exchange for obeying that law. But when NARC assumed the reins of government in 2003, that contract was in tatters and many people had resorted to self-help means in pursuit of their rights. This was an untenable situation that the President had to quickly arrest to avert a slide into total anarchy.

And so in his wisdom, Kibaki turned to Murungi to help him deliver the NARC promise on justice for all. Few could fault the choice of one of Meru District’s most prominent sons; certainly for many, he had earned his stripes. He had been a star member of the famous group of activists and politicians known as the Young Turks who had driven the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party to loosen its hold on Kenya’s politics through the repealing of Section 2A of the old Constitution that had for years bound Kenya as a one-party State.

Murungi had also long been involved in various grassroots development initiatives in the country before entering Parliament in 1992. He used his stint as a legislator to build on this work. In 1994, he founded the Centre for Governance and Development and in 1995 he founded the Coffee and Tea Parliamentary Association, which played a key role in introducing major reforms in those sectors for the benefit of farmers.

As South Imenti MP, he formed the South Imenti Development Association, the South Imenti People’s Bank, South Imenti Women Development Association, South Imenti Youth Development Programme and the South Imenti Education Fund. These were grassroots initiatives committed to empowering the people and turning around the economic fortunes of the constituents.

The critical role Murungi would play in Kibaki’s campaign for the 2005 proposed Constitution and 2007 re-election went to show how right the President had been to appoint him to his Cabinet. And like others in the new government, he hit the ground running. In no time he had spearheaded sector-wide reforms through the Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector programme.

Murungi was instrumental in carrying out radical surgery in the Judiciary. There was no escaping the public clamour for this. The high-profile process involved identifying and purging corrupt judges and magistrates; by the time it ended, more than 80 magistrates and 23 judges had been struck off the bench on account of corruption-related accusations. Next, he oversaw the re-establishment of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority.

But the elephant in the room remained the Constitution. It was Kenya’s perennial problem, the one at the centre of every political and administrative conflict. After 100 years of colonial rule and nearly 40 years of a stifling one-party regime, the people had had enough. The country’s entire political architecture had to be redrawn and renegotiated. As the man tasked with keeping NARC’s promise, Murungi convened the Bomas (of Kenya) Constitutional Conference, where the tortuous journey to Kenya’s 2010 Constitution began.

Murungi was born on 1 January 1952 in Kionyo Village in the then Abogeta Division of Meru District. His parents, Daniel M’Mwarania and Anjelika Kiajia, raised him in a colonial concentration camp, an experience that doubtless shaped his political philosophy in his later years. He attended Kairiene and Kionyo primary schools before joining Chuka High School where he bagged the 1971 Best Student award.

Murungi transitioned to Alliance High School for his A’ levels in 1973 and joined the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Law, graduating in 1977 with an upper class honours degree. He was top of his class and won the Best Law Student Prize and the Law Society of Kenya Prize for the overall best law student in the class of 1978.

Between 1978 and 1980, Murungi taught at the Kenya School of Law. In 1979 he took the Commonwealth Legal Drafting Course and between 1980 and 1982, he studied for a Master of Laws at the University of Nairobi. He attained his second Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1991. He was in Harvard thanks to his exile for opposing KANU.

With constitutional law, human rights law and democracy forming his professional foundation, he co-founded Kamau Kuria, Kiraitu & Ringera Advocates in Nairobi in 1980. In the course of the decade he represented a number of KANU’s political prisoners, among them Wanyiri Kihoro and Raila Odinga. It was the litigation of Kihoro’s case that, aside from leading to Kuria’s detention, pushed both Murungi and Kuria into exile in various Western countries. Kihoro immortalised the memories of his case in his book, Never Say Die: The Chronicle of a Political Prisoner.

When he returned from exile, Murungi joined the struggle for the restoration of political pluralism in 1990 as one of Kenya’s ‘Young Turks’, a team of young professionals, mostly lawyers, political scientists and university lecturers, who in the late 1980s and early 1990s pushed for Kenya’s ‘second liberation.’

Notable members of this group included Anyang’ Nyong’o, Odinga, Mukhisa Kituyi, James Orengo, Paul Muite, Gitobu Imanyara, Kijana Wamalwa and Murungi himself. In December 1991, President Daniel arap Moi yielded to pressure and repealed Section 2A of the Constitution, thereby making Kenya a multi-party democracy. With this development, Murungi joined the newly-formed Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD).

In the 1992 multi-party elections, he was elected MP for South Imenti on a FORD-Kenya ticket. In the political realignments that were occasioned by FORD-Kenya chairman Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s demise in 1994, he decamped to Kibaki’s Democratic Party (DP). In the 1997 General Election, he retained his parliamentary seat on a DP ticket. As an Opposition MP between 1992 and 2002, he served as the shadow Attorney General and a member of the Anti-Corruption Parliamentary Select Committee.

In 1997, Murungi was the chairman of the Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group (IPPG) Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Administrative reforms. The IPPG liberated Kenya from decades of draconian and oppressive colonial laws such as the Chiefs Authority Act, sedition and detention without trial.

Unfortunately, tensions arose between the victorious NARC partners – the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) – immediately after the elections. The fallout between the parties’ principals, Kibaki and Odinga, turned the new Constitution promise into an extreme obstacle that stalked Kibaki’s administration well into its second term.

The Kibaki-Raila political feud played out at the Bomas National Constitutional Conference. Delegates assumed postures that resonated with the interests of either faction. While the LDP faction of NARC supported the draft compiled by the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, during plenary meetings their NAK counterparts were unhappy with many of the provisions, especially those that drastically reduced the powers of the Executive. They contested the creation of the Office of the Prime Minister, abolition of provincial administration, devolution of power to the regions and establishment of an Upper House of Parliament.

After debating for months, the 629 delegates failed to reach a consensus. They then decided to subject the draft document to a popular vote. The MPs allied to Odinga carried the day and this resulted in a protest walk-out by the Kibaki’s allies, led by the then Vice President Moody Awori. Appalled by the turn of events, Murungi warned that the government would withdraw its support for the Constitution review process altogether.

A Consensus Building Committee chaired by Bishop Philip Sulumeti was formed to look at the chapters on the Executive and devolution of power. The committee recommended a powerful President who was Head of State and Government, Head of the Cabinet, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the National Security Council, but a non-executive and weaker Prime Minister.

When the committee’s proposals were subjected to a vote, they were rejected by 75 per cent of the delegates. The majority voted to transfer powers to the Prime Minister. In 2010, Kenya eventually voted in favour of a new Constitution and subsequently promulgated it. The role Murungi played in laying ground for this monumental aspect of Kibaki’s legacy cannot be understated.

But there was yet another headache he had to contend with – the question of what Kibaki’s government would do with all those who had previously been involved in economic and political crimes. During campaigns, NARC had assured the electorate that there would be no sacred cows in their war against economic crimes. This resonated well with Kenyans’ perceptions of a new beginning and many waited to see how NARC would wriggle itself out of the pre-election promise.

But a few months into Kibaki’s first term, and contrary to expectations, Murungi declared that the NARC government did not intend to prosecute Moi due to the respect accorded to the position of the former President. He however clarified that the NARC government would continue pointing out the mistakes Moi’s administration made in the course of his 24-year rule.

To appease those who were disappointed by NARC’s decision, Murungi had an alternative plan. He informed the nation that the government would establish a South Africa-like Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) whose mandate would be to act as a platform for national healing from the atrocities committed by KANU.

Murungi instituted an 18-member task force, chaired by Prof. Makau Mutua, to interrogate Kenyans’ approval of the establishment of the TJRC. In its report, the task force said 90 per cent of Kenyans who submitted their views wanted Kibaki’s administration to establish an effective TJRC. The task force recommended that the TJRC look into all the historical abuses and crimes that had been committed in Kenya since independence.

Upon receipt of the task force report, Murungi assured the nation of the government’s commitment to implementing the recommendations. He agreed that Kenyans deserved to know where the nation had gone wrong, what atrocities were committed, who committed them and why they were committed. The TJRC would help the NARC government uncover what had been ailing the country since independence. In the end, the commission produced a report that is yet to be debated by the public.

On 15 November 2006, Kibaki appointed Murungi Minister for Energy. He radically transformed the energy sector, pioneering the Rural Electrification Programme that connected most urban centres, secondary schools, health centres and other public facilities to the national grid. During his tenure, electricity connectivity in rural areas grew from 6 per cent to 30 per cent and the number of customers countrywide grew from 800,000 to over two million.

The Rural Electrification Programme was domiciled at the Rural Electrification Authority. Hailed at inception as a highly ambitious project, it aimed at connecting a million new customers to the national grid within five years. Speaking at the launch of the programme, the Minister conceded that it was indeed ambitious and noted that it had previously taken Kenya a century (1887-1997) to have a million people connected to the national grid. He, however, affirmed the government’s commitment to the cause and assured resources through public-private partnerships. Today, the Rural Electrification Programme is a success story for which Kibaki and Murungi have a special place in history.

It was also during Murungi’s time at the helm of the Energy docket that Kenya accelerated fossil fuel exploration, leading to the discovery of coal, oil and gas for the first time in Kenya. But his tenure was not devoid of headaches. There were occasions, for example, when unprecedented fuel shortages rocked the country. Such was the case in 2011; the situation got so dire that Kibaki had to wade into the crisis and rally his Cabinet to assure the nation that the government was still on top of things.

The fuel shortage caused traffic snarl-ups as queues outside petrol stations spilt onto the roads. Meanwhile, profiteers in the local petrol industry took advantage of the crisis and horded fuel. Besides, they blatantly refused to sell more than KES 500 worth of fuel to any one motorist.

At the time, Murungi conceded that the energy sector was in a mess and convened a stakeholders’ meeting to chart a way out, as many people attributed the problems bedevilling the sector to strict government-imposed oil industry regulations and profiteering by oil companies.

The Ministry of Energy had introduced regulations prohibiting the importation of oil outside the ministry-coordinated Open Tender Supply system (OTS). Under this arrangement, all the oil imported into the country, including any that was headed for neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda, had to come into the country by one ship, imported by one player and shared by the rest according to market share.

Since private importation had been prohibited, all players had to patiently wait for supplies from the next OTS tender, even when their customers were in need of more supplies. Access to the only pipeline was regulated by a committee under the oversight of the ministry. At the time, truck loading facilities were available to only five players in Nairobi. This made the transfer of oil products from Kenya Pipeline depots to petrol stations painfully difficult and slow. These were some of the factors that caused fuel shortages during Murungi’s time at the ministry, where he served up to the end of Kibaki’s second term.

Thanks to his near-miraculous career in elective politics, the former Minister is hailed on the Mount Kenya political scene as the ‘King of Meru’, a title he inherited from Jackson Angaine who, like him, had dominated Meru politics. As a hero of the upper eastern region, Murungi had been Kibaki’s confidant since their DP days. He therefore enjoyed unrestricted access to the seat of power and the President’s ear.

At the end of Kibaki’s two-term presidency, the lives of Kibaki’s men took various turns. Some went into retirement with him. Others lost elections and consequently sank into political oblivion. Then there are others who reinvented themselves and transitioned into Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime. Murungi is among this last group.