NAIROBI: Martha Karua, among the first to declare a run for the Kenyan presidency in 2027, told AFP the country is in “total disarray” due to corruption, police killings and economic decline.
Karua served in government in the 2000s and, as a lawyer, has lately represented jailed opposition figures in neighboring Tanzania and Uganda.
She hopes to harness the “anger and frustration” against Kenya’s President William Ruto, which spilt onto the streets last year in mass protests against tax rises and corruption.
“We are in total disarray. It’s as if our constitution has been suspended,” she told AFP in an interview in Nairobi.
“We have abductions, arbitrary arrests... extrajudicial killings... And the police and authorities fail to take responsibility.”
Rights groups say at least 60 people were killed during the protests in June and July, and at least 89 abducted since then, with 29 still missing.
Police deny involvement, but there has been limited progress in investigating the incidents.
“Ruto was a great mistake right from the start. Those of us who have worked with him and know him, knew that he would be a disaster,” said Karua.
A spokesman for the presidency said abductions and killings were strictly a police matter.
Karua ran against Ruto in the 2022 election as the vice presidential candidate on a ticket with veteran leader Raila Odinga.
She is now part of a broad grouping of opposition figures manoeuvring for the next vote in 2027.
Her first priority would be to “plug the leakages” and bring Kenya’s debt under control, she said.
Massive borrowing has left Kenya with some $85 billion in debt, forcing it to pay more in interest payments than it does on health and education.
“Fighting corruption is the only lifeline we have,” Karua told AFP.
“(Otherwise) whatever we collect, whatever we borrow, will still be lost and we will never be able to pull Kenyans out of their misery.”
Karua was justice minister in the mid-2000s under late president Mwai Kibaki.
She said that government had led a successful push against corruption, though admitted that it “did come back toward the end.”
Karua resigned from that government in 2009, accusing some of her colleagues of opposing reforms.
Now, Karua finds herself aligned with several opposition figures that have shady reputations.
When asked, she did not deny it, but said: “The task of dislodging a government that does not play by the rules is a mammoth task. We need all hands.”
She added it was up to the public to choose “the most competent and suitable” to lead the opposition into the election.
Karua worries about unrest and rigging in 2027, however. Previous elections have been marred by extreme violence.
Ruto himself was charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity over violence that erupted after the 2007 vote.
The case was eventually dropped for lack of evidence, with the court citing witness intimidation and political meddling.
Karua accused Ruto of hiring gangs of “thugs” for a recent rally in Nairobi — to “sort out anybody who appears to either boo or jeer” — which led to huge numbers of muggings and violent attacks on passers-by.
“I know it will get worse. They will use public coffers at the expense of vital services like health, education and security,” she said.
The presidency spokesman said Ruto “never hires or pays people to attend his public meetings.”
“Martha Karua and her team created a similar lie in the run up to the last election,” the spokesman said. “They lost it because they believed in their own lies. They are headed for a similar and more resounding defeat.”
But Karua claimed the president will make the upcoming election “nasty.”
“The only way we can overcome Ruto’s manipulation of the electoral system is to have a flood of votes, overwhelming numbers which no amount of manipulation can work on,” she said.

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin will host a lavish World War II Victory Day parade in Moscow on Friday, an event the Kremlin hopes will rally patriotism at home and project strength abroad as its troops fight in Ukraine.
More than 20 foreign dignitaries, including China’s Xi Jinping and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, are scheduled to attend the annual parade this year, the fourth since Moscow launched a full-scale military assault on its neighbor in 2022.
Officials promise that commemorations this year — the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany — will be the “biggest” ever, with Putin ordering a “humanitarian” truce with Ukraine over the holiday.
Ukraine, which has dismissed the truce as a farce, has called the events in Russia a “parade of cynicism” and warned that it cannot guarantee the safety of world leaders attending.
The festival will be marked with a massive parade of military equipment and soldiers through Red Square, culminating in an address by Putin.
Since sending troops into Ukraine, Putin has frequently drawn parallels between Russia’s modern-day army and the Soviet soldiers who fought Nazi Germany.
At a dinner in honor of visiting foreign leaders, Putin proposed a toast to “victory.”
Russia began its assault on Ukraine in February 2022, hoping to take the country in days, but has since become embroiled in a huge, bloody conflict that has killed tens of thousands.
Security has been tight in Moscow, where organizers have banned attendees from bringing vape pens, electric scooters or “any animals” to the Victory Parade.
Authorities have also jammed mobile Internet connections in the capital, citing the threat of Ukrainian attacks.
Putin unilaterally ordered a three-day truce for the duration of the holiday, starting Thursday, but Ukraine has accused Russia of breaking it hundreds of times.
Ukrainian authorities reported strikes in the southern city of Kherson and the central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, with two people wounded.
Kyiv argues the parade has “nothing to do with the victory over Nazism” and that those marching on Red Square were “quite likely” implicit in crimes against Ukrainians.
The two most important guests this year are China’s Xi Jinping and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Despite warnings from Brussels, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will also attend — the only leader from the European Union taking part.
Aleksandar Vucic, president of Serbia, a country with historically strong ties to Moscow, will also join.
The day before the parade, Xi and Putin met in the Kremlin, where the two held talks for more than three hours.
After their meeting, Putin addressed the Chinese leader as his “dear friend,” while the two issued messages of defiance toward the West.
World War II is officially remembered in Russia as the “Great Patriotic War,” beginning with Germany’s surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and ending with Germany’s capitulation in 1945.
The period between 1939 and 1941, when the Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, is glossed over in official history books.
The war had a devastating impact on the Soviet Union, resulting in more than 20 million civilian and military deaths.
Throughout his quarter-century in power, Putin has tapped into this national trauma, making May 9 Russia’s most important public holiday and championing his army as defenders against fascism.
Authorities banned criticism of the military weeks after the Ukraine offensive began, and have since charged thousands in the biggest domestic crackdown in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
School textbooks introduced since the offensive refer to Ukraine as an “ultra-nationalist state,” likening it to the Nazi occupation government that ruled the country between 1941 and 1944.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has called Putin’s claims that Russia needs to “de-Nazify” Ukraine “incomprehensible.”
In a symbolic show of support for Kyiv to coincide with the parade, Ukraine’s Western backers are expected on Friday to sign off on the creation of a special tribunal to try Russia’s top leadership over its military offensive at a meeting in Lviv.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s so-called shadow fleet ahead of a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) in Norway on Friday, with support for Ukraine set to be on the agenda.