Vice Chairman - Martha Karua
Full Name: Hon. Martha Wangari Karua, E.G.H, M.P.
D.O.B. 22nd September 1957 in Gichugu, Kirinyaga district.
Marital Status: Family person.
Party: Narc Kenya, vice chairman.
Political Office:
Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister and M.P. for Gichugu
Elected in 1992, 1997 and 2002.
Positions held: In 2006 appointed deputy leader of government business in Parliament.
She has also served as a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Anti-Corruption, and in the Kenya Chapter of the Africa Parliamentarians’ Network on Anti-Corruption. Appointed minister for Water Resources in 2003
Has also served as the secretary for legal and constitutional affairs for the Democratic Party, 1993-1998.
Education: Called to the bar In April 1982, as an advocate of the High Court.
Graduated in 1980 from the University of Nairobi with a bachelor’s degree in law.
Business/Professional Experience: Ran a successful legal practice-Martha Karua and Co. Advocates from 1987-January 2003. Her political career began in 1992 when she successfully contested the Gichugu parliamentary seat. She has had an uninterrupted tenure to date
She is a founder member of the League of Kenya Women Voters – an organisation that seeks to increase women’s political participation – and served as its chairperson from 1992 to May 2003.
Served as a member of the council of the Law Society of Kenya, and the Kenya Chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).
Worked as a Magistrate, rising to the position of Senior Resident Magistrate.
Other Honours: In 2004, she was awarded the Elder of the Golden Heart by President Mwai Kibaki in recognition of her outstanding performance in the service to the public.
She has been recognised as a human rights monitor by Human Rights Watch, and was named Jurist of the Year in 1999 by the Kenyan section of the International Commission of Jurists, becoming the first woman to receive the award.
She has also been recognized by the Law Society of Kenya for due diligence in legal practice.
