The People’s Liberation Party leader, Martha Karua, has accused the Kenya Kwanza administration of failing to deliver on healthcare and infrastructure promises, saying public services have deteriorated despite continued taxation and official pledges of reform.
Speaking to residents at Chiakariga during a tour of Tharaka Nithi and Embu Counties on Saturday, Karua criticised what she termed persistent failures in the health sector, the state of roads, and delays in key development projects.
She argued that ordinary Kenyans were bearing the cost of a system that was not delivering results on the ground.
“Level 5 hospitals are only so by name! No resources and supplies yet, SHA deductions, which are meant to fund them, are always on time every month. Ni haki kweli?” Karua said. “A mother in labour should not have to pray the road is passable before she reaches help and a family should not have to choose between buying medicine and eating.”
The People’s Liberation Party leader, who is also a 2027 presidential aspirant, said the healthcare system was under strain, pointing to what she described as fiscal weaknesses in the Social Health Authority (SHA). She claimed the fund was struggling to balance revenue and expenditure.
She cited figures from the Economic Survey 2026 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, saying SHA was “spending nearly twice what it collects”, and contrasted its performance with the former National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), which she said had a “83.2 percent payout ratio” compared to SHA’s “158.6 percent utilisation rate”.
“SHA should work for the patient. That is what a Karua government will deliver,” she said.
Karua also criticised delays in infrastructure projects, including the proposed 7B Nithi Bridge, which she said symbolised a broader failure in project delivery.
“Wenye nchi do not eat launch ceremonies. They deserve roads that are safe, hospitals that heal,” she said. “Year after year, promises are made and billions announced yet roads remain half-done, hospitals underfunded, and farmers unsupported.”
“If this government cannot finish the basics, how can the people trust them with the 7B Nithi Bridge? Leadership is not convoys and groundbreakings; it is delivering results,” she added.
The opposition leader urged Kenyans to support what she called a shift in governance priorities under her party’s slogan “Ondoa wakulaji, weka wafanyikazi”, loosely translated as “remove the exploiters, install workers”.
“Kenya Kwanza has perfected the art of the grand launch, but no service delivery,” she said. “If Ruto’s government cannot deliver the basics, they have no business managing the national budget or the future of our families.”
She pledged to continue consulting voters across the country as part of her nationwide tour, saying her 2027 presidential bid aimed to “set the country’s systems straight within one term” and pave the way for younger leadership.