People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua has shared new details of a phone call she made to ODM leader Raila Odinga, urging him to withdraw his support for President William Ruto’s government over what she termed as state-sponsored violence and betrayal of the people’s trust.
Speaking during an interview on NTV on Wednesday, July 23, Karua revealed that she twice contacted Raila in the wake of the national protests, the most recent being after the July 7 Saba Saba anniversary demonstrations.
In that call, she challenged the former Prime Minister to reflect on his conscience, questioning how he could support a regime that, according to her, had overseen the killing of peaceful protesters.
“I asked him, as someone who has spent most of his life fighting for Kenyans, how his conscience sits with the continuous blood-letting by the Kenya Kwanza regime,” Karua recounted. “I told him I wasn’t calling for a discussion — just to leave the question with him. Is it not time for him to withdraw his support? I reminded him that without him, the regime would crumble.”
Karua said that Raila responded by proposing a one-on-one meeting to further discuss the national conclave idea he had recently floated.
However, Karua declined, citing fears that such a meeting would be weaponised by the Kenya Kwanza camp to pacify public dissent and distract attention from the country’s core challenges, including corruption, rising living costs, and poor leadership.
During the Saba Saba anniversary, Raila had called for a national conclave to address what he termed as a deepening socio-economic and political crisis. He argued that the current administration was perpetuating the same injustices — economic hardship and human rights violations — that triggered the original Saba Saba protests in the 1990s.
Karua, who was Raila’s running mate in the 2022 General Election, stood firm on her opposition to any dialogue with President Ruto’s government. “Dialogue with the rogue Kenya Kwanza administration is not an option,” she said, accusing the regime of operating with blood on its hands.
Her remarks came just days after former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, now estranged from Ruto, also dismissed any possibility of talks with the Head of State, branding him a pathological liar.
