Tabitha Karanja: I don’t own a helicopter and I am a billionaire
Businesswoman and Nakuru County government official Tabitha Karanja has stated that she does not own a helicopter.
Speaking during an interview with a local TV station on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, Karanja said she does not own a private chopper despite being a billionaire.
You might also like
“I don’t own a helicopter, and I am a billionaire, and I don’t have one,” she said when asked directly whether she has a chopper of her own.
Karanja maintained that her interest in the Nakuru gubernatorial race in the 2027 elections is not driven by money, insisting she has already built her fortune through business.
“I don’t need money to build a car or a hotel; I just want to come and work for my people and prove that devolution was the best thing that ever happened to this country,” she said.
The criticism
She criticised leaders who, she claimed, rose to immense wealth while in office without clear business ventures to justify their fortunes.
“These people came in with nothing; today, they have private choppers. They have become billionaires. No one becomes a billionaire unless they’ve created a business that we know. You can’t just become a billionaire, and we never saw anything that you did. That is public money,” she said.
Without naming specific individuals, Karanja argued that some governors have failed to demonstrate the true promise of devolution. She said her goal is to show that county governments can deliver tangible development if managed properly.
“I want to come in and show that what our governors are failing to do, it can be done. And then our people will know that devolution was the best thing ever that happened to this country,” she added.
