Mithika Linturi quits UDA, cites betrayal

Former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi has formally resigned from the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), criticizing the party’s leadership and ideological direction.

In a letter addressed to the UDA Secretary General, and copied to the party chairperson, Registrar of Political Parties, Linturi accused UDA of straying from its founding principles and failing to uphold the values it once championed.

"Political parties are founded on strong philosophies that members are expected to live by and practice. It was the philosophy of UDA and its commitment to the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda that I believed in and actively supported,"  Linturi wrote.

However, he said the party had since deviated from that mission, losing what he described as the moral authority to lead.

“Such a party has no moral authority to bear the name of a political party. This is a party akin to the Biblical Tower of Babel,” he added.

RESIGNATION FROM UDA PARTY

I have today formally tendered my official resignation as a founding member of the United Democratic Alliance to the party’s SG, with immediate effect.

I have duly notified the Registrar of Political Parties of my decision to resign. pic.twitter.com/g8Dn8dyqyU — Hon.Mithika Linturi, EGH (@mithika_Linturi) May 14, 2025

In his letter, Linturi delivered a damning assessment of the party’s time in government, accusing it of enabling widespread corruption, disregarding the rule of law, and neglecting the needs of ordinary Kenyans.

“I do not wish, nor would I ever wish, that any Kenyan would belong to a party that is repugnant to its philosophy,” he stated.

Linturi’s resignation comes nearly a year after his dismissal from President William Ruto’s Cabinet, during a sweeping reshuffle on July 11, 2024, that saw the entire Cabinet disbanded.