KANU chairman Gideon Moi is preparing to face President William Ruto at the ballot in 2027, according to multiple sources within the independence party.
These revelations signal the collapse of the political accommodation that briefly brought the two Rift Valley power centres into the same camp.
The political truce between Ruto and Moi began unravelling in mid-2026 after months of mounting friction between the KANU and UDA leaders.
The two men had attempted to reset their relationship when they met at Kabarak in October 2025. But the understanding struck there did not survive the hard arithmetic of Kenyan politics.
Gideon Moi withdrew from the Baringo senatorial by-election in October 2025 following high-level political talks with President William Ruto, where the two leaders struck a deal.
KANU insiders say the deal was violated by President Ruto immediately after UDA won.
The dispute subsequently spilled beyond party politics and into the media space when The Standard newspaper, owned by the Moi family, heightened its criticism against the Ruto government.
Ruto launched a broadside against The Standard, accusing the media organisation of conducting extortionist propaganda and blackmail against his administration.
The President also described Gideon Moi as a “gangster”, while taking issue with the management of Standard Media Group over reported delays in paying workers even as the newspaper maintained increasingly critical editorial lines against the government.
Moi, for his part, did not immediately answer the President in kind. Instead, he said that his discussions with Ruto had involved weighty and sensitive matters and that he would respond to their political fallout at an appropriate time.
