The 2021 photo of then-President Uhuru Kenyatta with seven political heavyweights—all united to defeat William Ruto—has become a symbol of Ruto's stunning political sweep, as all but one of those men have since joined his side.
A photograph taken at State House, Mombasa, on Tuesday, August 10, 2021 – exactly one year to the 2022 General Election – shows then President Uhuru Kenyatta with key politicians as he crafted a team to face off with his then deputy, William Ruto.
In the photo, Mr Kenyatta was sandwiched in the middle with Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi and Wycliffe Oparanya to his right, while Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetang’ula and Gideon Moi stood to his left. They were all supposedly tied with one purpose: to defeat William Ruto.
But three years into President Ruto’s rule, the photo has this week taken on a new meaning. Two of those, Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang’ula, joined hands with Dr Ruto before the last General Election, with Mr Mudavadi’s shift likened to an “earthquake.”
Mr Odinga and Mr Oparanya crossed over in the heat of the 2024 anti-government protests when Dr Ruto co-opted the opposition into his administration to form a broad-based government.
With the inking of a deal between the President and Mr Moi, the only man still standing against Dr Ruto is Kalonzo Musyoka, with all the rest having moved to his side.
President William Ruto delivers his speech during the centenary celebrations of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) Church in Kenya at Nyang’ori High School, Vihiga County, on October 4, 2025.
And with Dr Ruto announcing last week that he is in active talks with Mr Kenyatta – making it appear that he has won over Kenya’s three political dynasties, the Kenyattas, the Mois, and the Odingas – the question on the place of Uhuru men in the 2027 General Election has become even more pressing.
On the other hand, with former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, his Agriculture counterpart Peter Munya and Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya (who was the Rift Valley regional commissioner in Mr Kenyatta’s last term) quietly making moves in the United Opposition at the apparent urging of the former Head of State, other key operatives in the Uhuru era are also positioning themselves on key political questions.
Others are former Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho as well as former Water CS Sicily Kariuki, who are making ground incursions after declaring political ambitions. Former Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss George Kinoti is also being linked with ambitions to capture the Buuri Parliamentary seat in the 2027 polls – although he has not publicly stated so.
For Dr Ruto, moving in on the Uhuru State, which was designed in 2022 to vanquish him politically, is an important political score, with Mr Musyoka said to be a key target to complete the circle in that August 2021 photo. Back to Mt Kenya and the Kenyatta question. The National Democrats Party boss, Mr Mathenge Wanguku, told Sunday Nation that Mr Kenyatta “is uniting us under him to seek a 2027 common position.”
“We are the ones who have asked him to through an official letter,” he noted. “Mr Kenyatta is the pinnacle of our politics and together with several elders, clergy and businessmen, he will unite the Mountain for 2027.”
The common denominator is that a majority of Mt Kenya has chosen the opposition, though pundits say the alignments are yet to clearly shape out.
“These declarations are like a visit to the barber,” says political commentator and scholar Prof Peter Kagwanja. “If you take long hair there, it has to first be combed, set and shaved per specifications. Saying you are in opposition can be a verbal declaration while practical application can mean something else.”
He went on: “In politics, one can declare to be heading north while underground work is busy taking him south... hence why I urge caution and nuanced thinking in understanding the political landscape.”
Former President and Jubilee Party leader Uhuru Kenyatta gives a speech during the party's Special National Delegates Conference at Ngong Racecourse in Nairobi on September 26, 2025.
Mr Kenyatta has already provided evidence that he is seeking to be part and parcel of the 2027 political discourse, albeit in a vague manner. Though he has been meeting President William Ruto since he left power in 2022, the former head of state has been consistent in unleashing anti-government sentiments.
Mr Kenyatta had tried to block Dr Ruto from succeeding him in 2022, unsuccessfully supporting the candidature of Dr Ruto’s rival, Raila Odinga.
Beyond those in the August 2021 photo, there are more Kenyatta operatives quietly – and others loudly – getting drawn into politics.
Mr Kibicho, on the other hand, is yet to make up his mind on direction and role. However, he has been making telling political statements critical of President William Ruto’s government. When Sunday Nation reached out to him through calls and text messages to clarify his role, he did not directly respond.
Instead, he referred Sunday Nation to a recent church function in his native Kirinyaga County where he teamed up with Woman Representative Njeri Maina and Baragwi MCA David Mathenge, both outspoken critics of President Ruto’s government.
Outgoing Interior Principal Secretary Dr Karanja Kibicho.
In that event, Mr Kibicho said: “We have a government that is only thinking about repression and over-taxation to a point of igniting a youthful uprising hard to contain.” He said the resistance the government is facing is akin to the freedom fight that won the country independence in 1963.
“This government must know that no liberation fronted by youths is ever lost... It must know that it is overtaxing us where taxmen and women flood our businesses armed with multiple demands... including air tax,” he said.
Coupled with his ongoing campaigns to have the youth register as voters, Mr Kibicho has left tongues wagging that he might be eyeing the Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat – or hyping Mr Kenyatta’s pet subject of aligning with the Gen Z voting bloc that has shown indications of supporting Dr Matiang’i to send Dr Ruto home. Dr Matiang’i’s case appears to be more complex since, besides harbouring presidential ambitions, he also appears to be staging an upset by becoming a pseudo Mt Kenya “king” through being made the Jubilee Party leader.
But Dr Matiang’i told Sunday Nation that “Jubilee is among several parties that aspire to be nationally inclined that has expressed desire to have me as its head.”
“The Party of National Unity – which is led by Mr Munya – has also expressed a similar desire,” he said. “I am a presidential hopeful consulting with several stakeholders, pursuing consensus across the political divide and remaining focused on debate about alternative working leadership and not sideshows about personalities, parties, tribe and regions.”
On September 26, 2025, Mr Kenyatta betrayed his political calculations with Dr Matiang’i when they showed up together for Jubilee Party’s National Delegates Convention. Mr Kenyatta blasted President Ruto for eroding his key gains with “untried, untested schemes.”
President Ruto and his deputy, Prof Kithure Kindiki, have since defended the restructuring of Linda Mama to Linda Jamii, arguing that while Mr Kenyatta’s programme only centred on a pregnant mother, the current one is a family package.
Mr Kenyatta reminded Kenyans that his warning against the Ruto presidency was ignored in 2022 but said another redemption opportunity will be up for grabs in 2027.
It is this script that his former loyalists during his tenure as president have grabbed and are running with.
Former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya.
Mr Munya has declared interest in recapturing his 2017–2022 position as Meru Governor, while Ms Kariuki has expressed interest as Nyandarua County gubernatorial hopeful.
Mr Munya has randomly appeared in meetings staged by the United Opposition that has Dr Matiang’i as a principal. Other principals include Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Mr Rigathi Gachagua, DAP–Kenya leader Mr Eugene Wamalwa and his deputy Mr George Natembeya, Wiper Patriotic Front boss Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, People’s Liberation Party leader Ms Martha Karua, and Democratic Party’s Mr Justin Muturi, among others. Ms Kariuki had, on February 27, 2025, visited Mr Gachagua’s Wamunyoro home where she later announced her ambitions for the Nyandarua top seat.
“Forget everything else, just one piece of advice to take home: join the winning team. There’s room for everyone so together we can redeem this country... but be prepared for the hard work,” she said.
Mr Munya said he remains true to the 2022 common dream with Mr Kenyatta that the country needed alternative leadership not headed by Dr Ruto.
“In mathematics, when you are given complex homework to solve, you follow certain steps based on specified principles to arrive at the correct answer. If you don’t know the steps, you keep making blunders, annoying those marking your script,” Mr Munya said of the Dr Ruto administration.
“It is a fact that President Ruto gave himself and his cronies a more complex homework to solve, which he rightly knows the answer to but doesn’t know the right steps to make use of to arrive at that answer,” he noted.
Mr Munya said the endgame being sought is democratically replacing the regime “that is just making blunders in its trials and errors... a regime that has made it clear that the people of Kenya made a big mistake in 2022.”
He insisted that the country is in the wrong hands.
“We must now prepare to fix the challenges the citizens are facing in the economy, healthcare, education, youth unemployment to guarantee the stability and long-term prosperity of our nation,” he said.
“State institutions have become weak, absent, or even ignored altogether under the Kenya Kwanza administration and the agenda is to mobilise Kenyans to do away with the current don’t care leadership and fix the malfunctioning governance system in the 2027 polls,” Mr Munya added.
