In a surprise resignation letter addressed to former President Uhuru Kenyatta dated August 19, 2025, ex-Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju declared he no longer offers value to the party. Reflecting on his years of loyal service and urging Kenya to move beyond ethnic politics, he leaves the outwardly unified Jubilee at a critical point in its redemption arc.
In his heartfelt letter, Tuju revisited their political journey, reaching back to their collaboration under President Mwai Kibaki’s PNU regime. He acknowledged their shared ambition of forging a non-tribal national political path, praising Kenyatta’s bold decision to appoint him (as a Luo) to lead a party rooted in the Kikuyu–Kalenjin heartland .
“It was an exceptionally bold political step on your part to have entrusted this sensitive position to me as a person coming from the Luo tribe, while the anchor of the party was essentially the Kikuyu and Kalenjin tribes,” Tuju wrote .
Tuju revisited the pivotal 2018 “Handshake” between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, acknowledging it as crucial for national stability, but admitting it also fractured internal party cohesion.
He described how the handshake triggered strained relations, particularly with then-Deputy President William Ruto tensions that persisted despite several reconciliation efforts and even a near-fatal accident he suffered in 2020 .
Reflecting on history repeating itself, Tuju noted that after Kenya’s “Gen Z protests of 2024”, President Ruto found himself compelled to strike a similar peace deal with Odinga; an echo of Kenyatta’s move seven years earlier .
