Maraga alters State House race calculations
By Alberto Leny, July 22, 2025Former Chief Justice David Maraga’s bold declaration of his plans to enter the 2027 presidential race has rattled the political establishment, sending Kenya’s errant politicians scrambling back to the drawing board.
Maraga has not only emerged so far as the strongest opponent against the incumbent President William Ruto, but has also eclipsed the other aspirants for the top seat in the disjointed opposition ranks.
No one in the political class in both the opposition and the ruling coalition-cum-broad-based government can match the former head of the Supreme Court’s impeccable credentials as a defender of the people’s constitutional rights.
Maraga is viewed as an honest patriot upholding the integrity and moral fibre of a nation whose roots in human rights, justice, democracy, inclusion, and equity are decaying, unconvincing protestations by those in authority notwithstanding.
The former CJ’s pronouncements since he started active participation in national political affairs have restored sobriety and a sense of humanity, law and order among citizens accustomed to cantankerous, rapacious, self-centred political protagonists.
Kenyan leaders’ hands are stained with the blood of young and old, men and women fighting for their democratic rights, and social, economic and environmental justice.
Leaders are deeply enmeshed in nepotism and tribalism that runs deep through the entire State apparatus in public appointments, tenderpreneurship, political coalitions and connections across the spectrum of the three arms of government.
They are associated with unfulfilled promises, arrogance, impunity, and an insatiable appetite to acquire ill-gotten wealth through corruption siphoned from public coffers and taxpayers, as revealed in numerous Auditor General reports.
In Maraga, potential voters have woken up to the realisation that they have a genuine candidate who can lead them to achieve redemption from their long trampled-upon rights and stifled aspirations.
Maraga made a mark with the apex court’s ruling in Raila Odinga’s petition against the outcome of the 8 August 2017 presidential election, declaring that it “was not conducted according to the dictates of the Constitution, and was therefore null and void”.
While Maraga’s dramatic and well-calculated move has buoyed the optimism of an exhausted but rejuvenated electorate ready to invoke change at the ballot, it has caused trepidation among his would-be opponents in the 2027 poll.
Most of all, the brave retired judge’s action should instil fear of mitigated public wrath in the new IEBC, should it fail to deliver a free, fair, credible, transparent and accountable election.
Perhaps the biggest fear the former CJ’s declaration has provoked is that he has been warmly embraced by the “tribeless”, “leaderless” Gen Z, currently the most powerful political force in the country, who are likely to wield a massive vote clout in the 2027 polls.
Maraga joined Gen Z in the streets for protests and was famously teargassed, heralding his official baptism of fire into the trenches for the fight for the soul of Kenya’s democracy and sovereignty of the people enshrined in the Constitution.
Could the leaderless Gen Z and Kenyans have finally found a new leader in Maraga? Your guess is as good as mine.
The writer comments on political affairs