Her gaze is as unflinching as her speech is resolute, and the confident gait she sports perfectly complements her unsmiling face.
In commitment and cause, she is ferociously consistent as clockwork. There are hardly any surprises from her where political beliefs and philosophy are concerned.
Martha Wangari Karua, the leader of the People’s Liberation Party, is not your run-of-the-mill Kenyan politician—loud, empty, corrupt and oddly popular.
Born in a highly patriarchal society which pays mere lip service to its women, Karua braved it all to become a Senior Counsel, member of Parliament, Cabinet minister, party leader, presidential candidate and a presidential running mate.
Except for the male hegemony in her community, Karua would have been the natural successor to President Mwai Kibaki after the 2008 debacle.
Despite putting her name on the line in a highly emotive electoral moment, all in defence of Kibaki, she was unceremoniously sidestepped for Uhuru Kenyatta in the Kibaki succession matrix.
Many people who do not understand the game have unfairly mischaracterised her role in the 2007 election fiasco.
Yet Karua, as a presidential vote agent, was simply bidding for her side. Her only mistake was to successfully execute her role, quite unlike other competing agents. In the end, it was the electoral commission which declared the winner, not Martha Karua.
It is also instructive to note that Raila Odinga, the man whom the clueless Kenyans accuse Karua of stealing votes from, eventually picked her as a running mate in an equally decisive presidential race.
Raila knew the kind of mettle Karua is made of. He took the risk of dumping a longtime ally, former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
As it stands now, Karua is Raila’s only known anointed successor. She is the last informed, conscious and considered choice Raila made before he departed. If Kenyans want to honour Raila’s legacy, they do not have to look far away.
But there is another good reason to honour Karua which very few people know about. A lot of people assume that the 2010 constitution lent itself to the moment.
What they do not know is that the quality of the people who were leading the process of the new constitution mattered, perhaps much more than the moment itself.
Karua was the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister for the better part of the pre-katiba days.
Most of the policy and political preparatory work for the constitution, including the identification and appointment of the Committee of Experts, fell on her able lap.
And even when she resigned from the Cabinet in April 2009, Karua did not resign from her duties as a national leader.
As the grand coalition leaders and their acolytes were soaked in the largesse of their own oversized government, Karua deployed her moral and political might in parliament.
I have it on the firm authority of the key political players of the time that without her influence, focus, foresight and courage, the constitutional process would have been sacrificed at the altar of Kibaki succession politics.
Both Kibaki and Raila - Kalonzo as well - wanted their close buddies to run the process and accrue political capital off it.
It was Karua’s political genius and backroom prodding that saw a younger, fresher crop of politicians step forward to seize control of the process from the elder, entrenched and irredeemable old folks.
This is how political greenhorns Abdikadir Mohamed and Ababu Namwamba, her juniors in the legal profession, were thrust forth to lead a process and save a country from its own leaders.
In Naivasha, where the document was negotiated at a political level, the Hansard shows that Karua, alongside MPs William Ruto and Millie Odhiambo, contributed the most towards refining the document.
In a big way, and without much noise, Karua shepherded the constitutional process leading to a successful referendum that birthed a new Kenya.
Despite not holding any elective position since 2013, Karua has mentored hordes of politicians across the political divide, and also across the region.
A few weeks ago, Karua turned 69 and a few days later, she lost her father. Karua has been kinder to Kenya than Kenyans have been kind to her. It may just be the time to give her the highest honour we have given to far less deserving people.
Musau, an Advocate of the High Court, is a Senior Project Manager with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. The views expressed here are his own.
