“He Is Not My Leader”: Martha Karua Fires Back at Gachagua’s Mt Kenya Kingpin Claims
People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua again rejected the idea that former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua serves as the Mt Kenya political kingpin.
In an interview with Radio Maisha, Karua dismissed claims that Gachagua, who has become a prominent figure in the opposition and in what some call the Mt Kenya rebellion, now holds the loyalty of central Kenya’s voters.
Karua said that constant political visibility and frequent tours do not automatically translate into true leadership or electoral authority.
“Alichaguliwa wapi? [Where was he elected?] It is not to say that the one who shouts the most owns the property. Even in a matatu, the conductor is more popular than the driver. No election has ever made any single person the kingpin. You may be heard. That does not mean you are the kingpin,” Karua said.
The PLP leader also said that former President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom some people also describe as a regional leader, does not qualify as a kingpin either.
“Uhuru is a former president. It does not mean he is the kingpin,” she said.
When asked whether any leader currently holds the top position in Mt Kenya, Karua insisted that no single person can claim control over the entire voting bloc.
Karua presented herself as a major political figure in her own right and as one of the region’s leading voices.
“There are leaders, and I am one of them.”
She added that even when Gachagua extended an olive branch, he already held influence in Mt Kenya. However, she said he benefited from a region that had already turned against the government.
The former justice minister also argued that Gachagua’s rise reflects timing and shifting alliances more than any genuine, grassroots mandate.
“Remember, before I came to an understanding with Gachagua, he did not have that voice,” she said. “He got it later because he was in UDA, and people had already left UDA. You cannot say that because he walks around a lot, he is the kingpin,” she said.
This marks the second time Karua has publicly rejected Gachagua’s claim to kingpin status, a sign of deepening friction within the opposition.
In a May interview, she dismissed Gachagua’s assertions of dominance in Mt Kenya. She instead described him as “just a party leader like me or Uhuru Kenyatta.”
“Mt. Kenya people had already left the government while he was still deputy president. He found us here,” she said.
Karua and Gachagua have worked together politically in the past, but she also made clear that she does not take orders from either Gachagua or Uhuru Kenyatta, both of whom sit in the United Opposition.
“He is not my leader,” she said of Gachagua. “And I am not under Uhuru. I respect him greatly, but I am not under him. He is a party leader, and I am a party leader. Let that be known by everyone. I respect every leader. But no one should say that I am under him.”
Recently, Jubilee deputy party leader Jeremiah Kioni said Karua appears to be on her way out of the United Opposition, citing confusion within the camp.
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