What started as a normal day, scratch that, joyful and celebratory day ended up with two powerful women in hospital beds after being mistaken for dead.
Well, who am I talking about here? It’s Narc Kenya Party leader, Martha Karua. To develop such a thick skin as the self-proclaimed ‘Iron Lady’, one must have gone through a lot, and Karua has been through it.
In her book dubbed ‘Against The Tide’, Karua narrated her encounter with death, which could have robbed the country of one of the most vocal leaders.
It was just after the naming of the Cabinet back in 2003, and the NARC team members, in a celebratory mood, organised celebrations for the win, they dubbed the celebrations as “homecoming” parties.
A young Martha Karua during the start of her political career in the political arena in 1992
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Martha Karua
One of the homecomings was organised to celebrate the victory of then Vice President Moodey Awori, now late. He was the newly appointed Minister for Home Affairs, and the celebrations were in Busia County, near the Kenya-Uganda border. The celebrations were slated for Friday, January 23, 2003.
After the celebrations came to an end, Martha Karua and Martha Koome were accompanied to the airstrip by then-Attorney General Amos Wako in his car. The plan was to join others in Bondo for Raila Odinga’s homecoming. At the time, Raila was the Roads Minister, the group was to then proceed to Wajir for another celebration.
Others in the plane with Karua and Koome were the then Labour Minister Ahmed Mohamed Khalif and Information Minister Raphael Tuju.
Just before the plane took off, Karua looked back to Koome and told her, “Madam, take notice, we are airborne.” These were her last words before she cheated death. Next, she woke up in a hospital bed, unable to lift herself.
When she woke up in the hospital, Karua learned that the 24-seater Gulfstream aircraft she was travelling in had crashed shortly after takeoff. The crash resulted in the deaths of Labour Minister Ahmed Mohammed Khalif and both pilots, Sammy Mungai and Abdikadir Kuto.
The crash occurred after the plane struck an electric pole, causing it to crash into a house. According to Karua, she and Koome went missing and had been mistaken for dead.
“Martha Koome and I could not be initially accounted for because our rescuers took us to the nearest facilities, in my case Tabaka Mission Hospital. For a while, we were feared dead, but there was no trace of the bodies at the scene of the crash. Before the government’s official communication, rumours about “our deaths” had begun to circulate, and some of my constituents were already in mourning,” Karua narrated.
Karua revealed that she incurred serious head injuries, and while she was being transported to Nairobi for further treatments, she could not stop talking as she feared that if she stopped, she would die.
“I knew I had serious injuries because I could not lift myself. I was motionless but alert and talking non-stop. While at the Busia Hospital, I was informed that our two pilots and Mr. Khalif had sadly perished in the crash,” Karua continued.
To date, the senior counsel reveals that she did not know who rescued her and Koome and took them to Tabaka Mission Hospital.
She did not either know how the crash happened, but her pictures on the media with blood all over her face, hair, and clothes, and the three deaths could paint a picture of the terrifying scenes.
Chief Justice Martha Koome during the unveiling of the Judiciary’s Performance Report 2022/2023 on July 26, 2024.
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Zakheem Rajan