Former Justice Minister Martha Karua sat two rows away from President Kibaki, but the warm handshake, open display of familiarity and recognition of each other’s presence were missing.

They were at a burial but even the solemnity of the occasion could not hide the layers of cold war that has played out between them ever since Karua resigned from Cabinet.

But one thing was not lost to the mourners — Karua’s determination to succeed Kibaki in 2012 and the President is not so keen on her. He is closer to three leaders against whom Karua was one of his dependable shields — Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta. Her name was not on the official programme, and the President was welcomed to speak by her replacement in the Cabinet, Njeru Githae.

Kibaki and Karua

When the master of ceremonies asked Karua to merely ‘wave’ her hand, as a sign of greeting to mourners, she neither flinched nor raised it.

Through a friend she would later respond: "I am not a school child to be told to wave the hand from where I am seated."

She claimed her name had been left out of the speakers’ list because, "Kibaki is behaving like Moi. He suppresses you when you disagree with his opinion and ideology."

History was being rewritten on the sidelines of the burial of a former member of the disbanded Electoral Commission, Habel Nyamu.

The venue was the same one Karua walked out from retired President Moi’s public function in 1997.

The rally was organised by then Kirinyaga Kanu chairman, the late Philip Ndegwa, at Kerugoya Stadium, but it dawned on Karua she and Mr Matere Keriri (then Ndia MP) were left out of the speakers’ list.

Asked by reporters to comment on why she was not allowed to speak, she said. "I will not comment. You saw for yourself". Karua did not accompany Kibaki and other mourners to Nyamu’s home in Mururi village.

At the burial of Nyamu who died last week, the picture of Kibaki and Karua was that of two former friends — too close yet too far.

It was another chapter of the widening gap between them and so much unlike the television footage of the first three months of his controversial second term’s triumph when she starred as his most vicious defender.

Karua kept her distance from the President. Neither appeared keen to either break the ice or walk halfway to meet the other.

In political lingo, they were a study in how badly alliances crumble and transform friends into total strangers walking around with concealed political daggers.

Karua would later, as she left, tell those who walked up to her, as a form of another stab at Kibaki, that, "It is illegal to throw out Internally Displaced Persons before you solve their problem."

The MC was James Mathenge and his duty was not to call Karua to the microphone, but to wave the hand as acknowledgement of her presence. The funeral service was at the ACK, St Thomas Cathedral, in the town.

"Honourable Karua, please raise your hand if you are here," implored Mr Mathenge who stood a few metres away from the President.

Instead, Karua was heard mumbling, but she declined to raise her hands or wave, even as some mourners tried to point out where she sat.

Kibaki sat through all this, seemingly unmoved.

When village elders and Nyamu’s local friends were allowed to give their condolences, Karua was denied a chance to speak.

In the good old days, Karua would have been calling the shots as the President’s host.

This was the first time Kibaki was visiting Kirinyaga since the 2007 General Election in which Karua was one of her tireless campaigners.

She quit last year in a huff, after claiming the President no longer had her ear, and was being misled by a small group of people high up in Government.

Efforts by Government insiders to persuade her to wait until she had met the President before resigning fell on deaf ears – a typical nature of Karua’s resolute mind.

On Wednesday, it was Karua’s political student, Metropolitan Minister Njeru Githae, who stole the limelight as he introduced the President.

When Karua resigned, Githae, a member of Karua’s Narc-Kenya party, was an Assistant Minister who was later promoted. Mr Mutula Kilonzo replaced her.

Karua has also clashed publicly with local civil servants, accusing them of supporting Mungiki. Earlier, as Githae and Central PC Kiplimo Rugut received the President at the stadium, Karua was absent.

When Kibaki rose to speak he asked Kenyans to emulate Nyamu, who he said served the country tirelessly.

"We’ll look up to you to be successful by fulfilling what he would have wanted to fulfill," Kibaki told Nyamu’s children and grandchildren.

He said he and Nyamu were good friends, and asked his widow, Florence, to call him up when in need of help.

Karua could only probably get comfort from former Anglican Retired Anglican Archbishop David Gitari’s remark that local politicians had failed to address the Mungiki issue.

 

 

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