Uhuru's absence from Azimio campaign trail has reduced mudslinging

Martha Karua on the campaign trail in Kiambu, May 2022. [George Njunge, Standard] 

Two significant things involving two leaders affect Kenya’s political wellbeing. First, President Uhuru Kenyatta, a co-founder of Jubilee and Azimio la Umoja, has retreated from direct involvement in Raila Odinga’s Azimio presidential campaign. Second, the Mountain zone appears to be under an Azimio political attack that is generating its own momentum. This is the Martha Karua explosion that seems fresh, bold, and dynamic.

Karua is the leader of NARC-Kenya Party that was founded in 2007 as President Mwai Kibaki’s potential ‘vehicle’ to the 2007 election because Charity Ngilu had virtually locked NARC in her political handbag. With the idea of NARC-Kenya as a Kibaki vehicle flopping, its initial rotating chair-ship eventually found a permanent occupant in Karua. There is uniqueness in Karua that defies common punditry.