Loved for her work, loathed for her politics: The double life of Kiambu woman rep
Kiambu Woman Representative Anne Wamuratha addresses journalists at Parliament buildings on March 21, 2023.
What you need to know:
- Kiambu Woman Representative Anne Wanjiku Muratha has earned praise for empowering businesses, supporting vulnerable groups, and driving development.
- However, her political future is uncertain, with critics arguing that confrontations and unpopular votes—especially on the Finance Bill 2024 and Rigathi Gachagua’s impeachment—may erode her support ahead of 2027.
Anne Wanjiku Muratha has a problem that would puzzle most politicians. Her constituents say she works hard, empowers businesses, and genuinely cares about the vulnerable. They also say she might lose her seat in 2027—not because she has failed them, but because she cannot stop making political enemies.
"Anne as my woman rep is a bi-faceted component: a poor politician but a good soul," says Joseph Njenga, a director at Embakasi Ranching Company Limited. "Most of her problems emanate from being a poor politician, but on the ground, the woman is working wonders."
It is a verdict echoed across Kiambu County, where the first-term legislator has become a case study in the treacherous gap between service delivery and political survival.
A dream meets reality
When Anne decided in 2022 to contest the Kiambu woman representative seat, she carried what she describes as a beautiful dream for the prosperity of both genders.
"Until toxic politics came in and made me aware that democracy and development are accessed the hard way," she tells the Nation.
She believes Kiambu and the Mt Kenya region have become a "whole package of toxic politics that immerses the development agenda into the deep waters of rhetoric”.
Her plea to constituents is direct: "We have a five-year term to serve. The next election is two years away. We should not miss the development train as we loiter around politicking."
Through the National Government Affirmative Action Fund, Anne says she has focused on empowering the marginalised—economically and socially. She lists her interventions: equipment for young hairdressers, sanitary towels for girls, bedding for the elderly, and bursaries for pupils from humble backgrounds.
"When I give equipment to young hairdressers, give out sanitary towels, give the old bedding for warmth, pay bursaries to the humble-background pupils—my intention is to chase the development dream," she says.
She also funds rehabilitation programmes for those struggling with alcohol and drug addiction. "An intoxicated society is a sick one that must be made sober at whatever cost."
The votes that changed everything
Anne's troubles with voters can be traced to two decisions: her vote in favour of the Finance Bill 2024, and her vote in October 2024, to impeach then Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. In a region where the former deputy president commands fierce loyalty, these choices made her a target.
“In came the Gen Z trouble that was sending us nasty messages on our phones,” she recalls. “They followed us to our social media platforms to unleash negative comments that amount to cyberbullying.”
Her situation worsened after a televised confrontation with Nyandarua Senator John Methu on Inooro TV. Anne is President William Ruto’s loyalist; Methu is a Gachagua disciple. The two factions do not see eye to eye. As the debate grew heated, Anne dismissed Methu as “a liar who even recently lied to the whole world that his father was dead—made even the President attend a fake funeral.”
The Senator fired back, calling her remarks “one of those unfortunate tirades that only serve to prove insensitivity to even matters of bereavement—the reason why she follows a government that abducts and murders children”.
Online, the backlash was swift and brutal. Anne was christened ithe wa Methu (Methu's father)—the logic being that if she was so certain his father was not dead, she must be the father herself. The facts of the matter: Methu had announced on Christmas 2023 that his father had died. “Death is painful and cruel. The pain of losing a parent is immeasurable. My dad rested this morning,” he had written.
President Ruto attended the burial on January 2, 2024, in Nyandarua County.
The mockery has followed Anne since. When she accompanied President Ruto during his week-long visit to the Mt Kenya region in April, she got a hostile reception from constituents.
The women on her defence
Yet speak to those who have benefitted from her programmes, and a different picture emerges. Sheilla Mbogo from Thika town says it would be unfortunate if Anne lost in 2027.
“It will be on account of politics, but not because she is not a performer. Anne is humane, considerate, and always there to help—only that she is politically irrational, especially when she speaks ill of Gachagua in a region where he calls the shots.”
Lilian Mutie, who operates a boutique in Kiambu town, is more emphatic. “Tell Anne that God is on her side. We love her and would wish to see her re-elected. I am proof that she works, for I am among about 200 businesspeople who have benefitted from capital boost from her.”
But Lilian's support comes with counsel: “For her to be accepted politically, she must cease those confrontations she gets herself into. Stop attacking Gachagua, for you won't win it. Concentrate on service delivery and consolidate the goodwill you have with the electorate.
Njenga of Embakasi Ranching agrees. Anne, he says, “has empowered village groups with tents, has mobilised capital to benefit business start-ups while boosting existing ones”. The work is visible. The politics keep getting in the way.
From Sh4,000 salary to the ballot
Anne's journey to the seat she now fights to keep began in circumstances far removed from the corridors of power. Born on January 14, 1971, on Kabati estate, Nakuru County, she is the third born in a family of six: three brothers and three sisters. Her parents were Esrom Njuguna and Dorcas Nyokabi.
She attended Naivasha DEB Primary School before proceeding to DN Handa Secondary School in the same town. Her childhood dream was to become a lawyer, but her Form Four results, as she puts it, “trashed the calling”. Tragedy struck when she lost her father while in Form Two. She scraped through secondary school, she says, through sheer luck.
“I was employed as a receptionist at the Ufungamano House in Nairobi for a monthly salary of Sh4,000, out of which I paid Sh500 rent,” she recalls.
By the time she left secondary school, she had mastered playing the guitar and decided to try her hand at gospel music. In 1995, she recorded her first song. It never penetrated the market. On April 5, 1997, at 26, she married Bishop Francis Mugo of the Anglican Church of Kenya in the Mt Kenya Diocese. He financed her enrolment at the Kenya Institute of Professional Counselling.
Her breakthrough came unexpectedly in 2015. At a dowry ceremony in Thika, she delivered a speech that someone recorded and posted online. “I had urged mothers-in-law to respect their sons' wives,” she recalls. “I told them to always be cognisant of the fact that they are strangers in those families, married to their husbands, just like those married to their sons. The only difference between mothers-in-law and the women married to their sons is age and the date they got married.”
“I reminded mothers-in-law that if there came a law demanding that all strangers in a family leave, they would leave alongside their daughters-in-law, as the men and the children are the only ones who can call those homesteads their original homes.”
The video went viral. At 44, Anne opened social media accounts for the first time, hoping to promote her creative work. Churches began inviting her to speak. Vernacular radio stations came calling. Eventually, Inooro FM recruited her for several family shows. “It is this FM visibility that catapulted me into daring to dream about politics,” she says.
Against the odds
When the 2022 results were announced and Anne was declared the woman representative-elect, she was stunned. “Knowing all too well that I could not afford to employ the 2,300 agents required, and my campaign funds were limited, I only got a reason to praise the hallowed name of God for his mercies,” she says. “The favour Kiambu people showed me is my driving force every day as I seek to reciprocate that love by serving them to the best standards possible.”
She acknowledges she is still learning. “As a first-time elected leader, I am learning the ropes and I keep getting better—hoping in God that the poverty that shames and humiliates society shall one day get defeated.”
What drives her, she says, is memory of the life she nearly had. “From losing my father when I was in Form Two, scraping through secondary school through sheer luck, getting employed as a receptionist earning Sh4,000 in Kiambu—it has been a journey. A wondrous story. It would have sounded the weirdest of dreams if you had told me that I would be this woman you see now.”
Her greatest regret is that her parents did not live to witness her rise.
The road to 2027
Anne says she will defend her seat in 2027. How she will navigate the political landmines remains unclear, even to her. “The God who has been my true North Star will reveal to me how to go about it,” she says.
Her advice to fellow leaders is to offer hope. “Let us give people hope that we will turn around this country and ease the cost of living. Let us stop dwelling too much on the past and cease hostilities against those we defeated. We must unite as family, villages, regions, and the country for us to tackle our challenges as a team.”
Whether Kiambu will heed that call—and whether Anne can heed the advice her own supporters are giving her—will determine if the woman who rose from a Sh4,000 salary to the National Assembly gets to stay there.
