Via Mwai Wachira
I have read a piece on Sunday nation about this man Murathe but the writer has not done him justice as he has left the bits that would make Kenyans understand the man better. I will highlight the parts the writer deliberately ignored.
1982 coup
Murathe was one of the Nairobi university SONU leaders arrested after the 1982 coup together with Tito Adungosi who was the SONU chairman, Musalia Mudavadi, Isaac Ruto and many others. Most of the student leaders were released after a few months but chairman Adungosi was jailed for ten years and died while serving time. In an interview Murathe gave in mid 2000, he alluded to the fact that the SONU leadership knew about the coup at least a day before coup. Another revelation was that Boni Khalwale who was a first year medical student was the one who accepted to read a statement endorsing the coup on the then VOK on behalf of SONU, and he did it.
Sold his parliamentary seat
Murathe was elected as MP for Gatanga in 1997 in a hotly contested race, he ran on SDP ticket and his main challenger SK Macharia of royal media ran on Kanu ticket. After the swearing in, Murathe got into an agreement with SK where he was given 10M in exchange of him vacating the seat. He wrote a resignation letter to the speaker as agreed but later on changed his mind and denounced the letter. Signature experts from CID however confirmed that the signature on the resignation letter was actually Murathe’s. The speaker in his ruling left the matter to Murathe’s conscience but the man never resigned and served the whole term.
Fistfight in parliament
Murathe in the late 90s engaged Stephen Ndichu who was then the MP for Juja in a fistfight inside parliament. Their disagreement was over the murder of a Githurai councilor and each blamed the other for the murder. Murathe attacked Ndichu first and ndichu, not being a woman (those were his own words in defense) responded in kind and a messy brawl ensued. The speaker disciplined the duo by barring them from parliament for five days.
Lost the seat
Murathe joined his bosom buddy Uhuru in kanu in 2002 and contested his seat on Kanu ticket but lost to Peter Kenneth. He took a low profile and in between was at one time declared bankrupt. He made a comeback in 2013 when his friend Uhuru won the presidency.
Murathe in the mafia setup would be the consigliere, the trusted confidant and advisor to the boss who sits between the boss and the underboss, Ruto would be the underboss and Uhuru the boss. 2019 will be an interesting year for those who love bare-knuckle politics.