Presidential aspirant Martha Karua has criticized President William Ruto over what she describes as a diplomatic crisis of his own making, one that she says is costing Mt. Kenya tea farmers billions of shillings and leaving families unable to pay school fees.
Speaking in Kagio, Kirinyaga County, on the first leg of her two-day Purple Train regional tour, the People’s Liberation Party leader linked Sudan’s indefinite ban on Kenyan imports to the government’s controversial ties with Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
She warned that ordinary Kenyans are paying a heavy price for decisions made at the top.
“When Sudan, a major importer of the tea you grow, announced an indefinite ban on Kenyan imports last month, it was you who suffered, and continue to suffer. It is your families that are left wondering how to pay fees, and this is a direct result of a diplomatic fallout with our neighbours, who now refuse to do business with us,” she said.
Before the ban, Sudan was one of Kenya’s most important tea markets, importing over 10.7 million kilogrammes of tea in 2024 alone and contributing between Sh3.88 billion and Sh5.17 billion annually to the industry.
That income has now been replaced by a projected loss of up to Sh7 billion, a deficit that Karua says is already being felt at the household level.
She connected the trade fallout to the February 2026 confirmation by the U.S. Treasury that Algoney Hamdan Dagalo, brother of the RSF commander, was issued a Kenyan passport.
For Karua, that revelation and its consequences are proof of a government that has lost its moral compass.
“As this government entangles itself with RSF warlords, Mt. Kenya tea farmers are forced to watch their harvest rot and their bonuses vanish. When a President chooses foreign entanglements over his own people’s livelihoods, it is wenye nchi who pays the price,” she stated.
When evaluating Ruto’s relationship with the region, she did not hold back, accussing him of making lofty promises to help Central Kenya while pursuing policies that harm the exact communities he claims to serve.
“You cannot say you support the mountain while you are sawing off the branch we sit on. Is the friendship of a sanctioned warlord more valuable to this administration than the sweat of a tea picker in Gichugu? Show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are,” Karua said.
Beyond tea, she also turned her attention to the Thiba Dam expansion in Mwea, which she described as a monument to mismanagement and graft.
Karua, who previously served as Water Minister under the Kibaki administration, pointed to a Public Accounts Committee finding that flagged Sh42.12 million in taxpayer funds lost to interest penalties simply because the government failed to pay contractors on time.
“When they waste over Sh40 million on penalties instead of finishing irrigation canals, they are eating the future of your children. In Mwea, you are forced to pay for water via eCitizen, yet the infrastructure stalls because of debt and incompetence,” she said.
Karua used the occasion to rally support for her 2027 presidential bid, calling on Kenyans to replace leaders driven by personal greed with those willing to work for the people.
“2027 Ondoeni wakulaji; wekeni wafanyakazi. From the MCA level to Statehouse, Kenyans deserve a government that treats the farmer’s sweat as sacred,” she declared.
She concluded by demanding immediate government transparency on its dealings with RSF-linked individuals and urgent action to stabilise the agricultural sector before more export markets are lost.
The Purple Train tour is set to continue into Nyeri tomorrow, Saturday 25th April, 2026.
