This man Murathe : The Standard

• Betty Njeru
• Posted on: 07th Jan 2019 13:25:24 GMT +0300

David Wakairu Murathe has been shooting from the hip. It started in 2017 when he warned all and sundry, once Kenyans had put the 2017 polls behind it, would be a no-nonsense President Uhuru Kenyatta. Murathe didn’t say there would be a no-holds-barred war on corruption or that he would personally lead a campaign to block Deputy President William Ruto from occupying the big house on the hill. Then towards the end of December 2018, Murathe started making high-octane political statements. On December 27, 2018, while still serving as then Jubilee Party Vice Chairman, he bluntly said that the central Kenya owed no one political support ahead of the 2022 elections. Murathe was quoted saying "If you have led with Uhuru for two terms, what else do you want? We don't know someone who will guard us but we know someone who will break us. We will take someone who will safeguard Mt Kenya."

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The broadside was aimed at Deputy Vice President William Ruto. Standard Digital sought to find out who is this man causing the biggest political earth quake since the March 9 Raila-Uhuru handshake. Family Born in 1958, he is the son of a prominent Thika businessman, the late William Gatuhi Murathe, who owned Niarobi’s famous Murathe Wines & Spirits. The businessman died in April 2017 and President Uhuru Kenyatta would eulogise him as an astute entrepreneur who was among the trail blazers in the 60’s Africanisation programme that was meant to empower indigenous Kenyan business people by allocating them shops in Nairobi’s Biashara Street.

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The family is said to run several businesses and has accumulated massive wealth over the years. It comes as no surprise that Murathe resides at the ritzy Garden Estate in Nairobi. His critics also accuse of him of benefiting from deals with Chinese investors.

Education Murathe schooled at the prestigious St Mary's School in Nairobi together with ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi. He read political science at the University of Nairobi where he reunited with his long-time friend Mudavadi. Political career Murathe's political ambitions began to show while he was still a University student. Murathe and Musalia were among students that were briefly locked up after the 1982 coup as loyal troops restored order.

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In 1997, he represented Gatanga Constituency in Kiambu as its Member of Parliament, having won on a Social Democratic Party (SDP) ticket. He had beaten media mogul SK Macharia hands down. A year into his election, Murathe found himself in the eye of a storm. A letter was said to have appeared on Speaker Francis ole Kaparo's desk indicating that Murathe had resigned as Gatanga MP. Before Kaparo could digest the contents, it was reported, another one arrived denouncing the first one as fake. Interestingly, the National Assembly Hansard Report of April 7, 1998, shows speaker Kaparo found both letters to be genuine. Not long after, it was alleged that Murathe had sold his seat to businessman SK Macharia for Sh10 million in exchange for his resignation. Murathe however denied knowledge of such a deal and that was the last heard of it. He would then serve for the term after losing the seat in 2002 to Peter Kenneth. Later he served as Uhuru Kenyatta’s aide when latter was the Finance minister in the post-2007 Kibaki-Raila coalition government.

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A close Uhuru friend, Murathe and the future prudent were a common sight at Thika’s Blue Post hotel. Murathe emerged again in 2013 when he led the team that birthed Jubilee Party with President Uhuru Kenyatta's then TNA and DP William Ruto's URP as its headliners. The merger would see the two would win the presidency. Murathe was Jubilee's vice chairman until January 6, 2019.

Related Topics

David Wakairu MurathePresident Uhuru KenyattaDeputy President William Ruto2022 succession politicsKikuyu communityJubilee Party