The start of Kariuki's political career is generally traced to 1946, when he attended a political rally where Jomo Kenyatta denounced the British colonial government's treatment of native Kenyans. However, it is likely that he became interested in politics at an early age. Before his birth, his parents had been displaced in 1928 from their family land,
Chinga, in the
Nyeri native reserve, to work in the 'White Highlands'. There, they became squatters on a European settler's farm, deprived of land rights and essentially forced to work on settler land for low wages. In the late 1940s, he joined his primary school drama group which presented plays dramatizing efforts to resist colonial rule. While in Uganda for his secondary education, he closely followed the struggles that local Kenyans were facing from the European settlers. On 22 October 1952, he graduated from secondary school and returned to Kenya shortly before the country was placed under a
State of Emergency by the new Governor, Sir
Evelyn Baring, and Kariuki joined the
Mau Mau uprising. After he took his oath, he started working as a Mau Mau liaison officer between
Eldoret and
Kisumu. He also helped solicit money, boots and housing for the Mau Mau. This led to his arrest in his hotel, which served as a front for his political activities. He was then detained in various camps (including Kowop and Langata) from 1953 until his release, seven years later in 1960. After his release, he managed to secure Kenyatta's approval in starting Nyeri's
Kenya African National Union (KANU) branch by visiting him in detention. When Kenya became independent, Kariuki worked as Kenyatta's private secretary between 1963 and 1969. In the late 1960s and early '70s, Kariuki's relationship with Kenyatta became increasingly strained as Kariuki became increasingly vocal in his criticism of Kenyatta's governmental policies and their results, including high levels of government corruption, widening inequalities, and the deterioration of relations between Kenya and other members of the
East African Community. In addition, the
KANU government under Kenyatta had failed to provide drought relief, and had badly mismanaged the economy in the wake of the
1973 oil crisis. A major criticism regarded the unfair distribution of land by the Kenyatta regime. After Kenya's independence, the United Kingdom government had given the Kenyatta government funds to buy back land from European settlers. However, the land bought back was never redistributed to those Kenyans who previously lived in these settled areas: instead, most of it was given as gifts to Kenyatta's family and friends or as bribes to influence political allies. In 1974, he was elected as
Nyandarua North Constituency's Member of Parliament and served as an assistant minister in the Kenyatta government between 1968 and 1975. This was despite the government having made every possible effort to thwart his re-election, because his popularity among ordinary Kenyans threatened to overshadow Kenyatta's own. He was last seen alive on 2 March 1975 at the
Hilton Hotel, accompanied by Kenyatta's bodyguard. ==Death==