Former President Uhuru Kenyatta has emerged from his Ichaweri retirement with a calculated blueprint to dismantle William Ruto’s grip on State House, orchestrating what insiders describe as the most ambitious opposition realignment since the Kibaki-led Narc earthquake of 2002.
The Kenyatta project, hatched in consultation with Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka, seeks to resurrect the coalition model that swept Moi’s Kanu into the political wilderness two decades ago.
This time, the target wears a yellow tie and occupies the same office Uhuru vacated in 2022.
The proposed super coalition reads like a roll call of Ruto’s political adversaries, with Kalonzo Musyoka commanding the Ukambani vote bloc, Martha Karua’s PLP, ousted Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua nursing his October 2024 impeachment wounds through his fledgling Democracy for Citizens Party, and Fred Matiang’i, Uhuru’s 2027 choice, now steering Jubilee with the full weight of the Kenyatta machinery behind him.
Kalonzo has contested the presidency three times, once as a candidate (2007) and twice as DP under Raila Odinga. Karua ran in 2013 and 2022 as DP for Raila. Gachagua believes his Mt. Kenya base entitles him to the top slot.
Matiang’i, though a political novice, carries the Kenyatta endorsement, a currency that still trades high in Mt Kenya despite Ruto’s 2022 breakthrough.
However, complicating the merger talks, Gachagua’s DCP has drawn a red line against joining Azimio la Umoja.
The former DP insists on negotiating as an equal partner rather than a supplicant seeking shelter under Uhuru’s expansive tent.
Central to Uhuru’s strategy is blocking any rapprochement between Azimio figures and the Kenya Kwanza administration.
The opposition principals are expected to hold their first joint public rally in Machakos County later this month.
