Uhuru steps back, his chosen successor steps forward — and Kenya’s 2027 election battle begins in earnest
By MKT Reporter
Fred Matiang’i yesterday assumed leadership of the Jubilee Party after retired President Uhuru Kenyatta formally relinquished the position he had held since the party’s founding, pending ratification by the National Delegates Convention.
The handover, conducted at Jubilee headquarters in Nairobi, was driven by both political calculation and legal pressure following a High Court ruling that bars retired presidents from holding formal party office beyond six months after leaving State House.
“While we wait for the NDC, I have decided to let my deputy take over the party leadership,” Uhuru told the gathering. He will remain in Jubilee as senior adviser.
Matiang’i, visibly moved, accepted without hesitation. “With humility, I accept the appointment to oversee the Jubilee Party as the party leader,” he said. “I never thought in my life that this moment would come.”
The transition hands Matiang’i a potent but complicated inheritance — a party rebuilding its relevance, a fractious opposition coalition and a presidential contest against an incumbent whose first term has strained public confidence.
Kenya’s 2027 reckoning has found its opening act.
Some of the moments as captured in pictures
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