Karua Backs Inuka’s Angaza Kura Platform, Says Citizens Must Reclaim Power Ahead of 2027 Polls
PLP party leader Martha Karua(Right), Inuka Kenya ni Sisi Board Chairperson Mr. John Githongo and Ukweli party leader Boniface Mwangi during the launch of the Inuka! Angaza Kura Campaign in Nairobi on Wednesday, 11 November 2026.
Martha Karua has urged Kenyans to reclaim their power from elected leaders who treat citizens as subjects, as civil society group Inuka Kenya Ni Sisi! launched a digital platform for citizens https://inuka.angazakura.org/to nominate alternative leaders ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The Inuka! Angaza Kura Campaign, unveiled at Sarova Stanley in Nairobi under the theme “Reimagining Leadership, Reclaiming Citizen Agency,” gives citizens an online space to nominate leaders they believe can offer alternative leadership and to share their electoral experiences.
Speaking during the launch, Karua said the platform can help change a political culture in which leaders decide the choices and citizens are only expected to applaud.
“This initiative can help reverse a familiar political habit: politicians prescribing the choices while citizens are asked only to applaud.”
She said anyone offering an alternative must show how they would govern differently. Such leaders, she said, must affirm citizens’ right to demand accountability, be ready to leave office if citizens unequivocally ask them to, and accept that public office is temporary. She criticised those who condemn arrogance in government while practising it in their own parties, and said the standard applies to her and her colleagues.
Ms Karua said she has offered herself for the presidency in 2027 as an alternative grounded in constitutionalism, integrity and respect for the sovereignty of the people, and asked citizens to scrutinise her record and hold her to the standards she sets for others. She also urged voters to be as deliberate about the other five leaders on the ballot as about the president.
Inuka Board Chair John Githongo said the 2027 contest will be largely fought online, and warned that more aggressive actors are already entering the digital space.
“Next year will be an election where a lot of the competition will take place online. It will be a digital competition.”
He said the platform follows Inuka’s tradition of being where young people are talking about their futures, and noted that repeated arrests and disappearances risk numbing public outrage.
Inuka CEO Dr Kawive Wambua said the campaign was built around the energy of young Kenyans since the 2024 protests, and that organisers want to see how they use technology to shape leadership choices.
“We want to hear the voice of young people and we want to see how they mobilize around IT and digital tools to curate a platform for alternative leadership.”
The launch brought together civil society organisations, media, religious leaders and citizens for a national conversation on citizen participation in Kenya’s democratic future. Inuka says the campaign aims to move leadership debate beyond popularity, party affiliation and campaign promises to integrity, competence and accountability.
Ms Karua urged the organisers to reach citizens without smartphones or reliable internet, to protect the personal information of people who take part, and to show contributors what happens after they submit their views. She proposed that the platform help citizens ask every aspiring leader what they have done, what they are proposing, how it will be financed and how they will answer for failure.
