Uhuru Kenyatta to drop Jubilee Party leadership after High Court ruling

Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta. [File, Standard]

Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta will step down as Jubilee Party leader after the High Court upheld a law barring former presidents from holding party office for more than six months after leaving office.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi, delivering judgment virtually in Nairobi on September 3, dismissed a petition challenging Section 6 of the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act.

The law bars a retired president from holding a leadership position in any political party more than six months after leaving office.

However, it does not stop them from remaining party members  or taking part in political activities.

The petition was brought by activist Peter Agoro, who argued the provision unfairly singled out former presidents while imposing no similar restriction on ordinary citizens.

Mugambi rejected that comparison, ruling that a former president occupies a distinct constitutional category because of the influence and benefits attached to having held the country's highest office.

"A retired President belongs to a special constitutional category of citizens that enjoys constitutionally sanctioned benefits as a person who has held the highest office in the land," the court held.

Allowing former presidents to keep formal party authority indefinitely could give them an unfair advantage over rivals, Mugambi added, undermining genuine political competition.

Kenyatta's office, through Communications Secretary Kanze Dena-Mararo on Tuesday, September 15, welcomed the ruling as vindication rather than a setback.

The office said the delayed handover of the Jubilee chairmanship had been held up not by reluctance but by an internal leadership dispute that required legal clarity, adding that the party can now proceed with the transition.

"He notes that the court's ruling is not a restriction on his political life; it is a reaffirmation of our democratic maturity," the statement read.

Kenyatta pledged to see the handover completed lawfully and in line with Jubilee's constitution, the office said, adding that he looks forward to the process moving forward "without hindrance."

The 2003 law was originally enacted to stop a retired president from retaining power through a successor, a concern Mugambi said still applies given the influence former heads of state can wield.