President William Ruto during the UDA National Governing Council meeting at State House, Nairobi on January 26, 2026.
President William Ruto last week at State House hosted more than 12,500 aspirants eyeing UDA tickets for electoral seats in the General Elections set for next year.
The sea of yellow on the State House lawns provided an impressive spectacle, an indicator of just how coveted and competitive the UDA ticket will be. The turnout was also a good indicator that the senior partner in the governing Kenya Kwanza Alliance will likely be the most formidable player at the polls, and President Ruto the early front-runner.
The meeting was just the latest in a series of UDA party affairs hosted at State House as the president fine-tunes his political vehicle for the journey ahead.
The optics, generously shared on social media by the president’s keyboard warriors, were designed to illustrate the reach, influence and appeal of the governing party going full-steam ahead, while the rival opposition groupings seem mostly rudderless and held back by internal feuds and lack of organisation and focus.
While the search for a united opposition seemingly drifts aimlessly, President Ruto’s well-oiled election campaign is clearly underway, and at this stage, it might appear that his prospects for a second term look like a foregone conclusion.
Various polls and surveys give the president a head-start over his rivals, but those must of course be tempered with the fact that at this stage, he is the only candidate, so essentially running against himself.
Things will only become clearer when the opposition gets its house in order, especially in regard to presenting a united challenge incorporating the two key aspirants — former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, and former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i. Also in need of resolution if a split is to be averted is the evident rivalry between retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for control of the populous Mr Kenya vote.
It might well be that President Ruto is campaigning prematurely and diverting himself from the more serious tasks of governance and delivery. From the other side, it might also be that the apparent lack of progress on the road towards opposition unity presents no cause for alarm, as alliances typically firm up just a few months to the polls.
Well, each side has a right to its own strategies. The more pertinent question, in my view, is to what extent a candidate for political office can be allowed to divert public resources to finance electoral campaigns.
President William Ruto addresses aspirants for the 2027 General Election at State House, Nairobi on February 04, 2026.
With the recent gatherings he has hosted, President Ruto has brazenly converted State House into the UDA campaign headquarters.
This is more than just desecration of the hallowed grounds, but blatant appropriation of public resources. We can safely presume that the lunch, tea and snacks served, and maybe also the yellow merchandise, came from the State House budget rather than UDA party funds.
And knowing the rapacious, spendthrift and gluttonous ways of a regime that does not make a distinction between public money and private interests, chances are more than even that the generous allowances and transport money dished out to the party faithful were met from diverted public resources.
When the Auditor-General regularly flags overspending at State House, and the offices of the President and Deputy President, it is not about careless overshooting of budgets, but deliberate misuse of funds, which includes cash going into private pockets or expended on political projects.
Embu County Governor Cecily Mbarire (centre), flanked by UDA leaders, speaks to the media at the party headquarters in Nairobi on January 21, 2026.
We had those political rallies where Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and a motley crew of Kenya Kwanza deplorables traipsed the countryside dishing out motorbikes, sewing machines and whatnot under the guise of economic empowerment programs, but in reality, advance voter bribery.
We are also seeing, currently, President Ruto’s roadshows all over the place promoting the Nyota (National Youth Advancement Opportunities) Fund. How a political campaign war chest came to win the support of the World Bank might be a scandal yet to be exposed.
If there were proper governance systems in place, State House and general diversion of public moneys to political campaigns should be no-go zones. Hopefully, those responsible will one day be called to answer for this.
Criminal sanctions aside, we also hope that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is keeping close watch on clear instances of voter bribery and open violations of campaign finance regulations.
This might be expecting too much given that the commission chaired by Mr Erastus Ethekon elected to play deaf and dumb to open cases of bribery, intimidation and other electoral offences at the series of parliamentary and county assembly by-elections last November.
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Mr Gaitho, an independent journalist, is former NMG Managing Editor for Special Projects. [email protected].
