Ronald Karauri still knows exactly what a good pilot looks like, even from the passenger seat.
The Kasarani MP and SportPesa CEO opened up about his life as a former commercial pilot during a sit-down interview on The 254 Podium podcast, sharing candidly why he has not touched the controls of a plane in years, despite being a qualified captain.
Why Ronald Karauri stepped away from the cockpit
According to Karauri, the demands of his current life as both a politician and a business executive have made it impossible for him to get back in the air.
Flying, he explained, requires a particular kind of mental state that he simply does not have right now.
“I think it needs someone to have a, you know, to be free, to be very calm, not having a lot of issues to solve. I’m solving so many issues day to day. When I relax again, I’ll sit in the cockpit and I take off again,” he said.
His licence has also lapsed in the meantime, meaning a renewal would be required before he could legally take to the skies again.
He acknowledged he has not found the time to pursue that either. Interestingly, Karauri said he does not spend his time in traffic daydreaming about flying.
The urge only surfaces when he is already on a commercial flight as a passenger.
Karauri still judges pilots on landing Being a former captain has its quirks. Karauri confessed that whenever he boards a plane, he quietly assesses the pilot’s competence based on two specific moments: the approach and the touchdown.
“Usually on the landing, when I’m a passenger, I can feel from the approach how stable this guy is. With the approach and the touchdown, I can, that I can tell very easily. The rest usually is autopilot,” he said.
He was quick to clarify that he keeps his evaluations to himself, laughing off the suggestion that he might walk up to the cockpit and offer his verdict.
Despite his prolonged absence from flying, Karauri has not entirely closed the door on the experience.
He expressed a quiet ambition to one day own a small private plane, the kind where the pilot feels every gust of wind and can chart a relaxed course at their own pace.
“These small planes are the nice ones. You can feel everything, the wind, you know, maybe I can do like a small trip. That one I’m hoping I’ll have time to do that,” he said.
When pressed on whether he sees himself returning to flying seriously, he was philosophical:
“Politics, flying is no longer flying; it’s one of those things. It’s just something I did.”
