Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Martha Karua
born 1957
The first woman lawyer elected to Kenya's parliament
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Kenya Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
The first woman lawyer to win a Kenyan parliamentary seat, later justice minister, and in 2022 the first woman on a major presidential ticket.
Martha Wangari Karua practised as a magistrate and then in private practice, defending opposition politicians and detainees through the single-party years, before winning Gichugu in 1992 at the first multiparty election — the first woman lawyer elected to Kenya's parliament.
She held the seat for twenty years and became Minister for Water and then Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. She was the government's lead negotiator in the talks mediated by Kofi Annan that ended the violence after the 2007 election, in which more than a thousand people died — a role that put her in the room at the most dangerous moment in Kenya's recent history.
She resigned from the cabinet in 2009, saying she could not deliver judicial reform in a government that would not let her make judicial appointments, which is a rarer kind of resignation than it sounds. She has been called the Iron Lady in Kenya, mostly by people who meant it as a complaint.
In 2022 she was named Raila Odinga's running mate — the first woman on the ticket of a major Kenyan presidential campaign — and they lost narrowly. She has continued in law and in opposition politics, and has argued consistently that Kenya's problem is impunity rather than any shortage of good constitutional text.
She held the seat for twenty years and became Minister for Water and then Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. She was the government's lead negotiator in the talks mediated by Kofi Annan that ended the violence after the 2007 election, in which more than a thousand people died — a role that put her in the room at the most dangerous moment in Kenya's recent history.
She resigned from the cabinet in 2009, saying she could not deliver judicial reform in a government that would not let her make judicial appointments, which is a rarer kind of resignation than it sounds. She has been called the Iron Lady in Kenya, mostly by people who meant it as a complaint.
In 2022 she was named Raila Odinga's running mate — the first woman on the ticket of a major Kenyan presidential campaign — and they lost narrowly. She has continued in law and in opposition politics, and has argued consistently that Kenya's problem is impunity rather than any shortage of good constitutional text.
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