In this third and final instalment of the book Illusions of De mocracy: A Political Memoir by former minister, lawmaker and governor Kiraitu Murungi, he recounts how political miscalculations, shifting alliances and a powerful UDA wave cost him the 2022 Meru governor’s race. He describes former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya’s backing of independent candidate Kawira Mwangaza, whose populist campaign was too strong for her opponents. Plus her turbulent tenure and impeachment
Deputy President (William) Ruto took a very bold step. He united all the disillusioned Jubilee MPs and party officials and formed a new party, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA). It was said to be an all-inclusive progressive party, just like Jubilee, with a bottom-up approach to leadership and development. I was approached to join UDA but I was reluctant because of what had happened to me in Jubilee. I decided to revive my old party, the BUS, as the regional party for Mt Kenya East — Embu, Meru and Tharaka Nithi.
There was political confusion and directionlessness in the region. We decided to make the BUS (party) the voice of our people. It would be our vehicle in the struggle for better political representation and economic justice. The party would be a champion for strengthening devolution, fighting youth poverty, and empowering marginalised groups.
As the BUS, we did not glorify poverty. We could not help the poor by destroying the rich. The BUS party would empower the poor and also the rich so they could create more wealth and job opportunities for the poor. The party was autonomous and independent. It would only cooperate with other parties in areas of common interest on the basis of mutual respect. The party could collaborate but not merge with any other party. The BUS would remain independent until Jesus came back.
After much confusion and dilly-dallying, the BUS joined the Azimio coalition. Although both (Peter) Munya and I were in Azimio, Munya did not support me. He had to balance his old political accounts with me. He mobilised his supporters to campaign for Kawira (Mwangaza), who was an independent candidate. I did not get any support from Azimio for my campaign either. Munya, who was the regional coordinator for Jubilee, used Azimio resources to campaign for Kawira.
Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga with then Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi and then Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya at Kianjai trading centre in Meru County during a campaign rally on July 26, 2022.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
I was frustrated in Azimio. I wanted to join Kenya Kwanza. Both Prof (Kithure) Kindiki and Mithika Linturi strongly advised me to join them in the campaign for Ruto. I conducted an opinion poll which showed that Ruto had over 70 per cent support in all the nine constituencies of Meru. I was seriously considering crossing over when President Uhuru (Kenyatta) called a meeting of Mt Kenya leaders at Sagana State Lodge, designated as Sagana III. I told Kindiki that I would not attend Sagana III. This was the litmus test. If he saw me at Sagana, he should know I am not with them. He promised me that UDA would not field any candidate against me in Meru. Linturi and all the Meru MPs promised to support me if I joined the Ruto camp. At that moment, I was riding high. My win looked obvious. The campaign looked like just a walkover. Little did I know that I was standing on a precipice, and soon I would plunge to my political death.
As fate would have had it, Uhuru somehow persuaded me, and I found myself at Sagana III. Then things fell apart. UDA nominated Mithika to be its gubernatorial candidate for Meru. All the Meru Members of Parliament supported him. UDA was a political wildfire in Meru. I found myself in the midst of a fierce storm, not from Kawira, Munya, or Linturi, but from the ordinary people themselves. They were just crazy about Ruto. My goose was cooked.
How on earth did I, a seasoned political strategist, commit such a foolish blunder? It was, however, not as foolish as it looks today. No mistake appears to be a mistake at the beginning. It only becomes a mistake after the event. I was just a victim of local contradictions. The traditional bedrock of my political support has always been the populous South Imenti constituency, which had over 110,000 registered voters. They had elected me continuously since 1992. This backyard was on fire. Kathuri Murungi, who was in UDA, waged a major clandestine political offensive against me.
THE BISHOP AND THE CROCODILE
Our campaign meetings were no longer about who the candidates were or what they stood for. They were reduced to a fraudulent money racket. Boda boda riders made brisk business ferrying people from one meeting to the other. Sometimes, the people who were given transport in one meeting would run across valleys through shortcuts to be given more transport in the next meeting. We were followed by long convoys of boda boda riders everywhere, each carrying three or four passengers. During campaigns, a boda boda rider would make over Sh1,000 per day.
These fraudsters gave me false confidence. From their sheer numbers, I believed that I was winning. Even as I went to cast my vote at Irimbene Primary School on the morning of August 9, 2022, I was in high spirits. I had no doubt that I was winning as usual.
It was only in the evening, as the votes were being counted, that I realised I had been conned. First, I was told about lgembe. There had been a lot of harassment and intimidation of our agents. They were called traitors and chased away from polling stations. Others were falsely accused of buying votes and chased around by goons hired by my opponents. Voting had taken a clear clan dimension. The lgembe had to vote for their own. It was the turn of lgembe to lead. As they put it, Muiembe umwiru kuria gikundi . Some of our candidates had to run for their lives and go into hiding in Meru town.
The lgembe voted for their son, Linturi. Blood is always thicker than water. Mithika had another advantage; the UDA wave in Meru. He got votes even in areas he had not set foot in, including my own home ward, Abogeta West.
The lesson to be learnt here is that mtu wetu (our person) and political party waves are more important than development projects when it comes to votes.
Former Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza and her husband Murega Baichu at their home in Ntumburi, Meru County.
Photo credit: Pool
As we neared the elections, Kawira Mwangaza and her husband, Murega Baichu, intensified their campaign of lies, propaganda, and vilification against me. She accused me of stealing most of the Sh12 billion given to the county government. Her husband entertained crowds for hours on end, singing endless praises for Kawira. He composed a lethal song against me called Kiraitu Bye-Bye . It drove the frenzied crowds nuts.
At one of her campaign rallies at Kithurine market, which is near my home, Murega, after a prolonged session of song and dance, asked the people, “Do you want the guitar or development?” They all said they wanted the guitar. This is one of the areas where I have done a lot of development. They enthusiastically danced and sang Kiraitu Bye-Bye .
Mr Murega Baicu, husband to former Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza.
Photo credit: David Muchui I Nation Media Group
The people had gone crazy. They did not care about development. Kawira’s propaganda and political melodrama had bewitched our people. They had lost their common sense.
On the evening of August 9, 2022, after the voting had closed, I got a shocking WhatsApp message from one of our chief agents, Titus Kinoti. Preliminary results at the Nkubu polling station, which was next to my home, showed that Kawira was number one, Mithika number two, and I was number three. What? We all dismissed it as fake. I went with Priscilla and my children to Kaguru Tallying Centre to witness first-hand the counting of the South Imenti votes.
Kinoti was right. In all polling stations in our strongholds, Kawira was number one, Mithika number two, and I number three.
I had not lost any election before. It all seemed like a strange dream. It was unreal. I must have been very tired. When I returned home, I just collapsed into bed and passed out. In the morning, my mind was still foggy. It was like a movie; many things came and passed. I had just completed building the Governor’s Mansion. I had intended to move in there after the elections. I could see Kawira carrying mattresses, moving in.
Many things raced through my head: The Zipline at Lake Nkunga, the Njuri Ncheke Cultural Centre at Nchiru, the Meru town dual carriageway, and my campaign team. What would happen to them?
For several months, our home at Nkubu had been a beehive of activity from dawn to midnight and beyond. We were usually woken up by visitors early in the morning. However, on the morning of August 10, nobody came. Not even our supporters. The usual breakfast of matuma and sweet potatoes remained on the table, uneaten. I think the people were either too depressed or too embarrassed to come. They did not know what and how to tell us that we had lost.
Former Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi during a past interview at his Nairobi office on November 30, 2021.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group
I pulled myself up and called a meeting of my campaign team the following day. Even a defeated army must have an orderly retreat. We shared sad stories about the lowest moments of the campaign. Some had sensed that we were losing but did not want to discourage the team. Others were overwhelmed. They were in tears. I tried to comfort them. We had lost the election, but we had not lost our lives. We would not give up on ourselves. Life had to continue. God would open new doors for us.
I was told how market women at Nkubu market were taunting my bodyguards, telling them that our big cars would soon be taken away. I told them not to worry.
Those women laughing at them would remain there at the market even after the elections. They did not know what they were celebrating. Their lives would remain the same or even become worse.
I thanked the team for a battle well fought. I told them we should remain together and help one another. What had happened to us was not unique. Many of my friends from the Mt Kenya region had also lost. Politics was not permanent. Every politician must go home at one time or another. Even giants like Angaine and Kabeere M’Mbijiwe had also lost during their time. We took photographs, the way students do when they leave school, and promised to keep seeing each other. It was a sad, emotional farewell. It was too emotional. Tears were welling in my eyes. I ran into my bedroom immediately after the final prayer and cried.
There is a Kimeru proverb which says that “God does not eat ugali.” In every campaign, one expects a certain degree of roughness. I had been through many campaigns before, but this one was the dirtiest of them all. It was an immoral, primitive, and barbaric game based on character assassination, trickery, unscrupulousness, cunning, dishonesty, and demagoguery. It is difficult for progressive democratic leaders to come from such a process. As Dr. Afrifa said in his book The Science of Election Campaigning , “many people regard politicians as little more than scoundrels, wheel dealers, and gangsters with few scruples or principles, if any.”
Impeached Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza at Milimani Law Court on March 14, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Kawira entered the Governor’s office with a lot of bravado and an air of invincibility. She was on the rampage. Once in Office, she continued to wage a dirty campaign against me, the MPs, the senator, and MCAs, describing us as “cartels” who steal and plunder the resources of Meru just to fill their own stomachs. She pretended to be the only clean one, the saviour of Meru.
She demeaned and ridiculed respected institutions, such as the Njuri Ncheke and the Catholic Church. She denied MCAs resources for the Ward Development Fund, which I had created to ensure equitable distribution of development in all wards. She trashed my projects, including the Meru Youth Service, Meru Women Twaweza, and the Njuri Ncheke Cultural Centre.
After multiple attempts to Impeach her, all of which she played a victim of a gender witch-hunt orchestrated by the powerful men she had defeated, the Senate Impeached her on August 21, 2024. There has been a lot of lies and controversy following her impeachment. Some politicians have been shedding crocodile tears to win her support in the next general elections. I think what finally tilted the scales against her the last time was the alleged murder of a blogger called Sniper, by her close relatives and supporters. Her deputy, Rev Isaac M’lthinkia, was sworn in as the fourth governor of Meru on March 17, 2025.
Impeached Meru County Governor Kawira Mwangaza at Milimani Law Court on March 14, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Kawira blamed the “cartels” for her impeachment. As leaders, we could not afford to look the other way and let Meru stagnate and decay under her misrule. But as Senator Peris Tobiko said during the Impeachment proceedings, Kawira had destroyed herself.
She told her, “God gave you victory... But did God give you victory in order to trample on everybody, to vilify everybody and to abuse other leaders?”
Kawira’s rise should be a case study of populism, and the erosion of democracy and governance in Kenya.
The book, published by Queenex Publishers, will be launched on Friday, October 17.
Incase you missed the others parts of this serialisation, check out the links below.
