Kenyan politician Esther Murugi Mathenge is a woman. She was a member of Kenya’s National Assembly representing the Nyeri Town Constituency.
Murugi served as the Kibaki-Raila Coalition government’s Minister of Special Programs. She made her political debut in the Kenyan elections of 2002, losing to Peter Gichohi Muriithi on the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC) platform. Then, in the Kenyan parliamentary election of 2007, she was chosen to represent the Party of National Unity. Afterwards, during the Uhuru and Ruto Jubilee era, Murugi kept her position in the 2013 elections while running under the National Alliance (TNA) party, becoming history’s first retention of a parliamentary seat in Nyeri Town. Ngunjiri Wambugu defeated Murugi for the seat in the 2017 elections.
She is recognized as the second female election victor in the broader Nyeri County, following Professor Wangari Maathai’s 2002 victory to the parliamentary seat for the Tetu constituency.
