United Opposition leaders led by Kalonzo Musyoka address the press at the SKM Command Centre in Karen, September 21, 2026. /KALONZO MUSYOKA/XAzimio leaders have welcomed the High Court ruling declaring unconstitutional restrictions on the political participation of retired presidents.
The leaders said the decision affirms former President Uhuru Kenyatta's right to remain active in politics.
United opposition leaders spoke at the SKM Command Centre in Karen, Nairobi, Monday, shortly after Justice Bahati Mwamuye declared Section 6 of the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act unconstitutional and void in its entirety, finding that a former president remains a private citizen with constitutional political rights after leaving office.
Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka said the decision had clarified the position on Uhuru's continued political participation in Kenya's multiparty politics.
"So, when you call Uhuru Kenyatta a rebel leader, you are actually acting in breach of the constitution, which you buana Ruto, swore to uphold. This is the reality of the situation and so Mr William Ruto should desist from designating Uhuru Kenyatta as a rebel leader because he's not," Kalonzo said.
He said the constitution recognises the sovereignty of the people and establishes Kenya as a multiparty democracy in which there would always be a government and an opposition.
Kalonzo said Uhuru's decision to relinquish formal political offices did not mean he had surrendered his constitutional right to participate in politics.
"That matter has since been clarified," he said, asking Ruto to stop treating Uhuru as a political competitor ahead of the 2027 General Election.
"He's not. We will be the ones responding to William Ruto, not Uhuru Kenyatta because he wants to draw him into unnecessary contest and Uhuru Kenyatta has said 'No'," Kalonzo said.
The ruling directly intersects with a political dispute that intensified during Ruto's recent tour of Nyanza, where the President accused Uhuru of failing to act as a neutral retired statesman and instead remaining involved in opposition politics.
Ruto also referred to Uhuru as a "rebel leader" and questioned his continued political role.
The accusations followed a September 14 ruling by Justice Lawrence Mugambi upholding Section 6 of the Presidential Retirement Benefits Act, which restricted retired presidents from holding formal political party leadership beyond six months after leaving office.
Following that decision, Uhuru's office noted the judgment, with the former president saying he would begin arrangements to relinquish his Jubilee Party chairmanship.
Justice Mwamuye's ruling, however, takes a fundamentally different constitutional approach from the September 14 decision.
The judge held that leaving the presidency ends the exercise of presidential authority, but does not diminish the former president's constitutional rights as a citizen.
"The person thereafter stands in a fundamentally different constitutional position: he or she is a private citizen, albeit one who has previously occupied the highest elective office in the Republic," Justice Mwamuye said.
He found that the statutory restriction interfered with the political rights protected under Article 38 and could not be justified merely because the individual had previously occupied the presidency.
Besides his Jubilee position, Uhuru also serves as chairman of the Council of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party, which on Monday rebranded as the Ukombozi Alliance under the slogan "One Term, One Team, One Coalition".
On September 18, during a burial ceremony in Murang'a County, the former president joked about accusations that he was sponsoring opposition activities, referring to himself as "sponyo".
At the opposition briefing, Siaya Governor James Orengo also criticised Ruto's recent remarks about Uhuru and the late former prime minister Raila Odinga.
"Most of us were offended by the words of President Ruto when he was in Nyanza. He said certain things about President Uhuru and more so about our departed hero Raila Odinga. He characterised Raila Odinga as a project. We want to denounce this in the strongest terms possible because it was President Ruto who walked out on Raila Odinga," Orengo said.
He said the opposition would issue a more detailed response to the President's remarks at a later date.
The latest court ruling could now open a new phase of political contest between Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru, with Justice Mwamuye's judgment expressly holding that retirement from State House does not extinguish a former president's constitutional political rights.
