By Samuel Ouma
All eyes are on President William Ruto, former president Uhuru Kenyatta and the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party boss Gideon Moi as the trio are expected to share a platform at this week’s Democracy Union of Africa (DUA) Forum in Nairobi.
This meeting comes a few weeks after Moi reached an agreement to work with President Ruto ahead of the 2027 polls. According to the unconfirmed reports, as part of the agreement between the duo, the KANU party leader dropped out of Baringo Senatorial By-election in favour of Ruto’s candidate, Kiprono Cheburet.
The Baringo senatorial seat fell vacant following the death of William Cheptumo in February 2025. The by-election is slated for November 27, a big test for President Ruto’s party which has recently lost popularity.
There are also reports that the Kenyan head of state is also courting his predecessor Kenyatta for reconciliation after the duo fallout during Kenyatta’s second term.
The trio worked together during Uhuru Kenyatta’s 2002 presidential campaign, where KANU fielded Uhuru as its flagbearer with Ruto and Gideon both playing key roles. However, they lost the elections to the former President Mwai Kibaki.
After the 2002 polls, they remained in the opposition but for a short period apart from Moi. Ahead of the 2007 elections, Ruto defected to Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Kenyatta joined Party of National Unity (PNU) and Moi remained loyal to KANU.
Later, Ruto quit ODM and formed United Republican Party (URP) and Kenyatta came up with The National Alliance (TNA). In 2012, the two outfits came together to form Jubilee alliance, which led to victory in 2013 elections.
The platform, DUA event, that will bring the three together is hosted by Moi’s party, KANU. It kicked off on October 26 and will culminate on October 29.
Under the theme, building a balanced Africa-Europe alliance, it aims at shaping Africa’s democratic future while strengthening cooperation between the two continents.
The forum brings together former presidents, government officials, civil society organizations, policymakers and political party leaders.
Some of the activities during the event are panel discussions, policy dialogues, youth roundtables touching democracy, trade, innovation and security cooperation between Africa and Europe.
“Green energy is an important catalyst in clean industrialization of Africa for private sector-led economic development,” said Kanu’s Renewable Energy Policy Advisor Mr. Jacob Wafula during the high-level panel on “Energy, Enterprise, and the Environment on October 27.
