ANC After the Court Ruling: Is Mudavadi's Party Alive?

Legally, the Amani National Congress (ANC) is alive. On 22 January 2026 Justice Bahati Mwamuye of the High Court declared that ANC "remains a duly registered political party", voided the gazette notice that dissolved it and ordered the Registrar of Political Parties to restore it to the register. Politically, it is a party whose best-known leaders do not want it back. Musalia Mudavadi, the Prime Cabinet Secretary, and three senior ANC figures went to the Court of Appeal in May 2026 to overturn the ruling. As of 23 September 2026 we found no report that the appeal had been decided.

How ANC was folded into UDA

ANC was one of the parties in the Kenya Kwanza coalition that backed William Ruto in 2022. Mudavadi led it, then handed the leadership to Issa Timamy (Governor, Lamu), who won his seat on the ANC ticket that year.

On 17 January 2025 the two parties announced that ANC was merging into the United Democratic Alliance (UDA). Cecily Mbarire (Governor, Embu), the UDA national chairperson, said ANC's leaders would be absorbed: Timamy as UDA deputy party leader, Kelvin Lunani as vice chairman and Omboko Milemba (Emuhaya) as a deputy secretary-general, Tuko reported.

A special National Delegates Convention approved the step on 7 February 2025. Ann Nderitu, then the Registrar, published a gazette notice dated 7 March 2025 declaring that ANC "stands dissolved", the Star reported. It cited sections 9 and 34C of the Political Parties Act.

Mudavadi defended the move as a way to secure his place in Kenya Kwanza and keep the pre-2022 agreements binding through 2027.

What the High Court decided

The case was brought by an activist, Stephen Mutoro, against Mudavadi, Milemba, Timamy, Lunani, the Registrar and UDA, according to the Standard.

Justice Mwamuye found that the resolution to dissolve ANC did not meet the constitutional and statutory requirements for winding up a registered party. His orders, as reported by the Star:

• a declaration that ANC remains a registered party, with its "full registration status and legal personality" restored
• the Registrar's dissolution notice declared unlawful, null and void
• an order of mandamus directing the Registrar to update the register, remove any record of the dissolution and inform other state organs
• a bar on any transfer or disposal of ANC's assets from 6 February 2025 until the orders are complied with

Tuko reported that the judgment also meant assets handed to UDA under the merger were to go back to ANC.

Why the party's own leaders appealed

The ruling did not please the people who had run ANC. The Nation reported on 23 January that UDA called the judgment "too little too late". Mudavadi told ANC supporters to stay in UDA, the Nation and the Standard reported, and The Eastleigh Voice headlined his remarks on 31 January: "ANC no longer exists, Western Kenya must unite under UDA". On 4 February he attended a UDA meeting at State House, People Daily reported.

Not everyone agreed. The Eastleigh Voice reported on 23 January that "ANC says court decision restores party status, invites members back", and People Daily described the mood that week as confusion.

The appeal followed in May. The Standard reported that Mudavadi, Milemba, Timamy and Lunani had filed it at the Court of Appeal, arguing that the High Court exceeded its mandate and interfered in internal party affairs. The paper described Milemba as ANC's secretary-general, although the merger had made him a UDA official. People Daily reported in May that he was running for Vihiga governor and preparing for a UDA primary.

So who runs ANC now?

No clear answer emerged in our reporting. The officials the court put back in charge are the same people asking a higher court to reverse it. The activist who won the case does not lead the party. And the register, which the judge ordered updated, is a document of the Registrar's office, now headed by John Cox Lorionokou.

There is a practical deadline in the background. Parties had until 15 October 2026 to submit their authorised officials and specimen signatures under the IEBC's election-period notice. Nomination rules then need the Registrar's certification by 30 October. A party whose officials are on both sides of a live appeal is poorly placed for either. The two dates are explained in the October deadlines for parties.

Why it matters for 2027

ANC was never a large party, but it had a base in Western Kenya. In 2022 Cleophas Malala ran for Kakamega governor on its ticket and took 159,508 votes, and Timamy won Lamu with it. Its absorption into UDA was part of how Ruto's camp organised the region, and Mudavadi and Moses Wetang'ula have had trouble holding it since, as we covered in Mudavadi and Wetang'ula's Western Kenya problem.

A revived ANC is, in theory, an empty registered party with a recognisable name in a year when new movements are struggling to get names approved at all. Whether anyone can use it depends on the Court of Appeal.

For candidates, a party's legal status is not a technicality. What happens to aspirants when a party disappears is set out in your party deregistered, and the pattern of Kenyan parties dissolving and reappearing under new names is in why Kenyan parties rebrand.

What to watch next is a date for the appeal hearing, whether the Court of Appeal suspends the High Court orders while it decides, and whether any Western politician tries to claim the ANC ticket before the primaries end on 8 May 2027.