Published on April 18, 2025 by Agencies for Kenya Online News
Last Updated on 1 year by Agencies for Kenya Online News
Jubilee Party’s preferred presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections, Fred Matiang’i, is back in the country from the United States.
Matiang’i, jetted back into the country, on Thursday, April 17, 2025, and was received at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) by a host of leaders, had been away from the country even as the 2027 politics revolved around his candidacy.
Jubilee Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni remarked that “It’s all systems go,” as he received the former firebrand Interior Cabinet Secretary at the airport.
In March 2025, Matiang’i’s candidature suffered a major hurdle after ODM Party leader Raila Odinga poked holes into his presidential ambitions during a consultative meeting in Kisii ahead of the signing of the working agreement with Ruto’s Kenya-Kwanza government.
“There is nothing like a community producing a presidential candidate. Somebody who is running for the presidency runs for the presidency of Kenya. You cannot be elected the president of Kenya on the basis of the Kisii vote, the Luo vote, the Luhya, or even the Mount Kenya vote for that matter,” Odinga stated on March 6, 2025.
According to political analyst and scholar at the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications, Hansen Owila, while Matiang’i cuts the figure of an action-oriented leader and could take down Ruto’s administration on the failed pledges, it would take more effort to build a political machinery to unseat the current president.
“For Matiang’i to succeed, he would need to unite a broad coalition of seasoned political figures and new voices. Only with a strong, unified political base could he generate the momentum needed to challenge Ruto. Without such a coalition, Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, with its strong grassroots support, particularly in Central Kenya, could easily crush any challenge from Matiang’i,” Owilla opines.
