First, the High Court appeared to place fresh limits on his political activities. Seven days later, another judge effectively removed those restrictions, opening the way for the former President to make his own choice on whether to remain on the political sidelines or return to active politics.
On May 4, 2026, the Senate moved a motion seeking a review of Mr Kenyatta’s retirement benefits on grounds that he was engaging in politics.
On September 14, Justice Lawrence Mugambi upheld Section 6 of the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act, which bars a retired President from holding a party office.
But on September 21, Justice Bahati Mwamuye declared Sections 6 and 4(1), (2) and (3) unconstitutional, null and void, holding that a former President, as a private citizen, cannot be gagged from political activity.
The ruling could significantly alter the political contest for the soul of Mt Kenya ahead of next year’s General Election, particularly the rivalry involving Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua and Deputy President Kithure Kindiki.
Until now, the battle for influence in the region has largely been framed as a contest between the two men. Mr Kenyatta’s return to open political activity introduces a powerful third force, one with a deep political network, an established party structure and a record of mobilising the region.
Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The former President could also have a bearing on President William Ruto’s re-election campaign and the opposition’s efforts to challenge him.
That raises the possibility of a repeat of the 2022 contest when Dr Ruto and Mr Kenyatta found themselves on opposite sides of the presidential race. Mr Kenyatta backed Azimio candidate Raila Odinga, while Dr Ruto secured the presidency with significant support from Mt Kenya.
Mr Gachagua, who helped Dr Ruto win the presidency and subsequently became his deputy, was impeached in October 2024 and replaced by Prof Kindiki.
President Ruto has repeatedly accused Mr Kenyatta of sponsoring the opposition, an accusation the former President has turned into a sarcastic political joke by referring to himself as “sponyo”.
Mr Kenyatta appears determined to reverse the political fortunes of 2022 by aligning with the opposition. His Jubilee Party has endorsed former Cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i as its presidential candidate, while he has also been seen working with Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka in efforts to build an opposition coalition.
The central question now is how Mt Kenya will vote and, more importantly, who will have the political machinery and authority to mobilise the region.
Political scientist John Okumu said Mt Kenya had historically demonstrated the influence that a united voting bloc could wield in presidential elections.
“Let us not pretend that Mt Kenya united is a joke. It is not. It made President Ruto. It appears to be drifting away from him ahead of 2027 but the ground is full of state programmes aimed at winning it back. Mr Kenyatta had warned the region against voting for Dr Ruto in 2022. He is now back saying: Now look, did I not warn you?” Mr Okumu said.
Uhuru Kenyatta's exit from Jubilee Party carries a significance that goes well beyond an ordinary leadership transition.
Photo credit: John Nyagah | Nation Media Group
He added that although Mt Kenya appeared to be responding to Mr Kenyatta’s call to distance itself from President Ruto, a critical question remained: which political vehicle would the region use and who would control its mobilisation?
Before the latest ruling, Mr Gachagua appeared to share President Ruto’s view that Mr Kenyatta should remain retired from active politics.
“I am calling for the government to respect our retired President… Mr Kenyatta is not Dr Ruto’s opposition. He is retired and should be given peace to enjoy his retirement while advising us. I am the present and the future of Mt Kenya politics and I will defend my brother Kenyatta,” Mr Gachagua told Inooro TV recently.
Mr Kenyatta can now choose whether to remain an elder statesman and adviser or become a hands-on political player, potentially challenging Mr Gachagua’s campaign for a single Mt Kenya political vehicle under DCP.
Mr Gachagua’s message has been built around one mountain, one party and one political leader. A politically active Mr Kenyatta presents an alternative centre of influence that could make that proposition harder to sustain.
Deputy President Kithure Kindiki speaks in Tharaka-Nithi County during an inspection of road projects on September 21, 2026.
Photo credit: DPPS
The Deputy President had recently tasked former Meru governor Kiraitu Murungi with helping persuade Mr Kenyatta to support the government’s re-election agenda.
“I am tasking Mr Murungi to pursue Mr Kenyatta and together help me unite our Mt Kenya people so that they are not misled to get lost in the political forest,” Prof Kindiki told dairy sector stakeholders in Meru County on July 25, 2026.
According to Kiama Kia Ma Council of Elders Patron Kung’u Muigai, the ruling has complicated an already fluid set of political alignments both within Mt Kenya and nationally.
“We are yet to be sure on where safest are Mt Kenya interests ahead of 2027. Our community cannot afford to gamble. It must be led to pursue the best of the existing formations. Mt Kenya house must be called to order and led not to isolation, but to national stage of cooperating with others to bring honour to the national flag,” he said.
Mr Muigai said the region should avoid being driven by political emotions, vendetta and revenge and instead focus on nationalism and its aspirations.
“This is where Mr Kenyatta, Mr Gachagua, Prof Kindiki and all their affiliated parties in Mt Kenya are demanded by caution to first meet as regional leaders and later pursue nationalism as a united front. And if they will not unite, go to the formations of their choice carrying similar bargain agendas so that regardless of the 2027 outcome, Mt Kenya will either way win,” he said.
Political parties need numbers to gain influence and bargaining power, making control of the region’s political machinery a crucial prize.
Former Provincial Administrator Joseph Kaguthi said the region had increasingly recognised the importance of controlling the legislature.
“President Ruto has in his politics of control made Kenyans to realize that a strong legislature can help the strongest party tame the other two arms of governance the judiciary and the executive. Mt Kenya appears to have taken note and for the first time in its voting history, it is not interested in the presidency but legislature,” he said.
Mr Kaguthi said the three main political formations associated with the region, Kenyatta’s Jubilee, Mr Gachagua’s DCP and Prof Kindiki’s UDA, presented Mt Kenya voters with competing options.
The political contest is therefore no longer simply about who can produce the next President or Deputy President. It is also about who can command the region’s parliamentary numbers and use them as a bargaining tool in the next administration.
Before the court ruling, DCP and UDA were emerging as the principal combatants for control of Mt Kenya.
UDA, backed by State power and led in the region by Prof Kindiki, was seen as having the advantage of controlling a majority of elected leaders. DCP, meanwhile, was seen as having stronger grassroots mobilisation, and Mr Gachagua had emerged as a prominent opposition figure, particularly around the “Wantam” politics.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) interacts with former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i during the handover of leadership of the Jubilee Party at the party’s headquarters in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation
The latest ruling could alter that balance by giving Mr Kenyatta greater room to reactivate his political network and party.
The test came in Ol Kalou, where the July 17, 2026 by-election was billed as a referendum of sorts on competing political influence in Mt Kenya.
Mr Kenyatta’s Jubilee garnered 198 votes, while DCP won 85 per cent of the valid votes cast, with UDA coming second with 15 per cent.
The result gave DCP an early advantage in the contest for grassroots influence. But Mr Kenyatta’s return to open politics introduces another variable, with his supporters already imagining him back on the campaign trail.
The prospect of Jubilee becoming politically active again is already generating resistance within DCP.
The party is determined to protect its identity, independence and competitiveness and has ruled out entering coalitions or political arrangements that would dilute its claim to be Mt Kenya’s political vehicle.
“We are preaching one gospel that Mt Kenya’s party of choice is DCP and its political leader is Mr Gachagua,” said DCP Secretary-General designate John Methu.
Jubilee Deputy Party Leader Jeremiah Kioni, however, said Mt Kenya could not be reduced to a single political party and should remain faithful to multiparty democracy.
That disagreement goes to the heart of the emerging contest: whether the region will consolidate behind one political vehicle or retain multiple parties that negotiate from their respective positions.
Kikuyu Council of Elders Chairman Wachira Kiago has described Mr Kenyatta as the Mt Kenya kingpin, even as a splinter group of elders endorsed Prof Kindiki as the region’s spokesman on Saturday.
“What we desire now is that Mr Kenyatta, Mr Gachagua and Prof Kindiki close ranks and speak in one voice so as not to divide the people. We are doing a lot of lifting to make the two come out publicly more united in both words and deeds. It is important that this is achieved for the unity of the region,” he said.
The politics of unity, however, sits uneasily alongside the competing ambitions of the three camps.
Speaking on Saturday evening in Kansas during his ongoing tour of the United States, Mr Gachagua said he did not expect a return to the kind of politics that turned the Kenyatta family into a political bogeyman in Mt Kenya between 2018 and 2024.
“A covenant has been made by the community that never again shall the people of the Mountain fight their own. We are united by the commitment to liberating the country from the bad rule of President Ruto,” he said.
