The Democratic Party (DP) has announced that it resolved to reinstate former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi to steer the party as its leader ahead of the 2027 General Election.

DP national chairman Esau Kioni said he convened the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) special meeting on June 10 where they resolved to endorse Muturi.

Addressing journalists at his Kagere home in Othaya, Nyeri County, Mr Kioni dismissed media reports that the NEC meeting was embroiled in differences over Muturi’s pick as its leader.

Mr Kioni said the officials present unanimously resolved to endorse Mr Muturi.

“The two(2) main agendas of the meeting were to adopt the party’s constitutional changes and to appoint a party leader. We resolved unanimously to reinstate Muturi to his previous position of a party leader,” said Mr Kioni.

“By doing so, we gave him (Muturi) the mandate to discuss and negotiate with other like-minded parties as far as the future leadership of this country is concerned. I want to categorically emphasize that there was no descent at all in our resolutions during our NEC meeting,” he added.  

Mr Muturi, who initially served as Attorney General in President William Ruto’s first Cabinet before being appointed Public Service CS, was later dismissed from the Cabinet. He was replaced by Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku in a reshuffle that followed a series of disagreements with the Kenya Kwanza coalition’s leadership.

Mr Muturi had joined the coalition through the Democratic Party in May 2022, shortly before the last General Election, under a formal agreement that made the DP a constituent party of Kenya Kwanza.

Upon being appointed by Dr Ruto as Attorney General, Mr Muturi had to resign from his capacity as DP leader and serve as a public servant.

“Since Mr Muturi was appointed as Attorney General, we picked Joseph Munyao as acting party leader. Now that Mr Muturi is not a public servant, NEC reinstated him,” Mr Kioni said.

“The party has always been united ever since it was formed and nothing prevents us from working with other parties,” he added.

On March 7, 2025, Mr Kioni and the party’s National Secretary General Dr Jacob Haji submitted a month’s notice to the Kenya Kwanza coalition’s secretariat and the Registrar of Political Parties, signaling their intent to withdraw from the ruling coalition.

The letter read: “The Democratic Party of Kenya, vide this letter, hereby gives a thirty (30) day notice to exit the Coalition as stipulated in the Termination Clause (8) in the Coalition Agreement.”

The notice period lapsed on April 7, 2025, thus cementing the party’s official exit from the coalition.