Martha Karua

Martha Wangari Karua (born 22 September 1957) is Kenya's Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. She is a Member of Parliamant for Gichungu constituency in the 9th parliament.

She was born in Kirinyaga District, Central Province of Kenya. Martha Karua studied law at University of Nairobi from 1977 to 1980 then went for further study at the Kenyan Law School from 1980 to 1981 where she garduated as a lawyer. She then entered the public service, and worked as a Magistrate from 1981 to 1987. From 1987 to 2002 she worked as an advocate.

Karua was a member of the opposition political movement that struggled for the reintroduction of multi-partyism in the early 1990s. Later she was among those forming a political coalition that won power in 2003. She has been a leading crusader for returning Kenya to a multi-party state, widening democratic space and gender issues. Furthermore, she has been a leading legal practitioner. She has been involved in championing women’s rights through public interest litigation, lobbying for laws to enhance and protect women’s rights and through her work with various women’s organizations particularly the International Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenya, FIDA and the League of Kenya Women Voters.

Another first for Karua is that she was the first female jurist to be given the award by the Kenya Section of the International Commission for Jurists in 1999. This was in recognition of her work enumerated above. She was the first woman lawyer to be elected to Parliament and still holds that position. She has been a leading national politician. Karua is currently the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, after serving as Minister of Water Resources Management and Development.

She is receiving support from the largest ethnic base in Kenya, the Kikuyu, as well as from all over the country. She is seen as a leader with skills in reforming the rule of law. She has come to be seen as championing the interests of the common Kenyan at a time when corruption and tribalism are said to be rife within Kenya's ruling elite. In 1991 she was recognized by Human Rights Watch as a human rights monitor, followed the 1999 Jurist of the year.

Karua remained Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister in the Cabinet appointed by Kibaki on January 8 2008, following the controversial December 2007 election.