Former President Uhuru Kenyatta (background). From left: President William Ruto, ODM leader Raila Odinga, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka.
The return of former President Uhuru Kenyatta to the political arena with a blistering attack on the government and opposition has raised questions on his role in the 2027 elections.
A surprise attack on his successor William Ruto’s government, coming after two meetings between the two, has rattled the president’s camp.
While some of President Ruto’s allies have attacked the former president over his remarks, others have held back their responses since they are keen to court Mr Kenyatta, given the rebellion in Mt Kenya region led by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
On Tuesday, President Ruto sought to downplay the attacks against his predecessor, saying his Linda Mama programme—which Mr Kenyatta complained had been scrapped—was good but Linda Jamii, the programme by his administration, is an even better option. This was after Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale had maligned the Linda Mama programme during a function in Kajiado.
With every action, step or speech Mr Kenyatta makes, he leaves many people guessing, including Mr Gachagua, who Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) party was seemingly a target of the former president’s attacks against regional parties.
After falling out with President Ruto following his impeachment last October, Mr Gachagua had gone flat out to woo Mr Kenyatta, praising him as Mt Kenya’s kingpin and apologising for defying his guidance not to support Dr Ruto.
But Mr Kenyatta’s quest to strengthen Jubilee, and speculation that his former Interior CS Fred Matiang’i could be the party’s presidential candidate, is not sitting well with Mr Gachagua.
Former President and Jubilee Party leader Uhuru Kenyatta (left) with former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i during Jubilee Party Special National Delegates Conference at Ngong Racecourse in Nairobi on September 26, 2025.
DCP Deputy Party Leader Cleophas Malala has accused Jubilee of plotting to destabilise DCP and undermine the popularity of Mr Gachagua. He claimed Jubilee was working with President Ruto’s camp to divide Mt Kenya, a region Mr Gachagua has been working to consolidate.
“That party (Jubilee) must be warned not to cause chaos, if they are indeed part of the united opposition,” Mr Malala declared. “If you work with Ruto and have been sent with a red wheelbarrow... this is not a party that wants good for our party leader and DCP at large.”
Embakasi North MP James Gakuya said Jubilee appears to have made up its mind to go it alone in the 2027 election.
“I’m not worried at all because Matiang’i will only split votes from the Kisii region. I’m totally confident that Mt Kenya votes will not split just because Uhuru Kenyatta has picked a different candidate,” he said.
Mr Gachagua knows that an active Mr Kenyatta in the political arena will eat a piece of the Mt Kenya vote pie he so desperately wants to inherit.
The Nation reached out to Mr Kenyatta through his spokesperson, Kanze Dena, to ask about his political return and whether he believed Mt would heed his advice this time around.
We also asked her about his unfinished business in national politics, given his previous leadership role, and whether he is involved with the group keen to deny Dr Ruto a second term in office.
Ms Dena replied: “No comment.”
Duel of supremacy
In the months leading up to the last General Election, the relationship between Dr Ruto and Mr Kenyatta was broken, but there has been a relative thaw in recent days.
In December last year, the President made a surprise visit to Mr Kenyatta’s Ichaweri home, bringing with him 12 goats, which in local culture signify reconciliation. On August 1, they met at State House, with the president’s advisers terming this the final confirmation that all was well between the two men.
Dr Ruto took Mr Kenyatta on a tour of the newly refurbished State House, and their photos were strategically released. They met on the sidelines of a meeting on the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which Mr Kenyatta is a facilitator.
President William Ruto (right) and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi, on August 1, 2025.
But when Mr Kenyatta declared on Friday that “Everything we built has been destroyed”, Dr Ruto and his inner sanctum were sent back to the drawing board.
But he left his supporters largely confused when he said the Jubilee Party continues to be in the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition, whose lead party ODM supports the government. Some in government have found solace in this.
Mr Gachagua has partnered with Martha Karua (People's Liberation Party), Justin Muturi (Democratic Party) as well as Mithika Linturi (representing Meru) to consolidate the Mt Kenya vote basket as a bargaining tool.
Mr Kenyatta’s re-entry into the political arena d is being seen as open hostility towards Mr Gachagua. The matter is not helped by Dr Matiang’i expressing loyalty to the united opposition that Gachagua leads and the Jubilee Party in the grip of Mr Kenyatta.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua waves to his supporters after his arrival in the country from the USA on August 21, 2025.
While Mr Gachagua insists that Dr Matiang’i should form his own party and use it as a bargain tool, Mr Kenyatta has said that “tribal parties have no future, the direction is national parties in the hands of national mindsets”.
The antagonism between Mr Kenyatta and Mr Gachagua has caused debate in Mt Kenya about who is the region’s kingpin, in whose hands its interests are safest and who should be its 2027 presidential candidate.
Kikuyu Council of Elders Chairman Wachira Kiago said: “Unfortunately, we appear to be drifting back to the 2018-2022 political dynamics where it was a duel of supremacy between Mr Kenyatta and Mr Gachagua.”
“I would not want to witness a repeat of the acrimony that reigned in that duel...we rather sit down and agree on the way forward because no matter what, we must go into 2027 vote speaking in one language,” he added.
Jubilee Party Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni was more blunt: “Mr Kenyatta is our kingpin and is the one who must show us as Mt Kenya where to throw our lot.”
Mr Kioni said that with the full blessings of Mr Kenyatta, the party had decided settled on Dr Matiang’i as its candidate. He added that Dr Matiang’i would unite Mt Kenya with the rest of Kenyans and was “the surest bet in defeating President Ruto in 2027”.
But DCP’s chairperson of prominent persons, Mr Maina Kamanda, dismissed Mr Kioni.
Former President and Jubilee party leader Uhuru Kenyatta (left) with Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i during Jubilee Party Special National Delegates Conference held at Ngong Racecourse in Nairobi on September 26, 2025.
“What Kioni is saying is that the Mt Kenya kingpin is Dr Matiang'i, the very same problem we had in 2022 when Dr Ruto was being pushed as the head of our people,” he said.
He explained that most of the region’s current problems emanated from the fact that in 2022 “we fronted retiring president Kenyatta and Dr Ruto as our competing forces in the takeover of our political soul instead of structuring ourselves as a self-organised entity exercising internal consciousness”.
“While Mr Kenyatta has replaced Mr Odinga with Dr Matiang’i, Mr Gachagua appears to be more inclined to the candidacy of Mr Kalonzo Musyoka. This presents a case of two of our prominent sons fighting over two political friends from outside... It is not how decently organised communities work,” said former Provincial Commissioner Joseph Kaguthi.
