Who Is Justin Muturi? From Speaker to Attorney General to Opposition

Justin Muturi (Siakago), leader of the Democratic Party of Kenya (DP), is one of the principals in the united opposition. He spent 2013 to 2022 as Speaker of the National Assembly and then served President William Ruto as Attorney General from 2022 to July 2024, and as Public Service Cabinet Secretary until Ruto fired him in March 2025. As of 23 September 2026 he said he wanted the opposition's presidential ticket. Kalonzo Musyoka (Mwingi North) was the only other principal he said he would back.

Magistrate and MP

Wikipedia records that Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi was born on 28 April 1956 and took a law degree at the University of Nairobi. He was admitted to the bar in 1982 and worked as a magistrate before going into politics.

His way into Parliament was a 1999 by-election for that same seat in Embu, won on the Kenya African National Union (KANU) ticket. He held it in 2002. From 2003 to 2007 he was opposition chief whip and chaired the Public Investments Committee. Then came two defeats: the seat itself in 2007, and the Mbeere North race in 2013.

Speaker for two terms

Losing Mbeere North did not keep him out of the House for long. On 28 March 2013 MPs elected him Speaker, beating Kenneth Marende by 219 votes to 129 in the second round, and they re-elected him in 2017. His decade in the chair covered the Jubilee years and the Building Bridges Initiative period.

Attorney General, then Cabinet, then out

Muturi led the Democratic Party until he gave up the post to become Attorney General after Ruto won in 2022. On 11 July 2024, after the Finance Bill protests, Ruto dismissed the whole Cabinet and the Attorney General.

By Muturi's later account, he told Ruto that an Attorney General could only be removed through a tribunal, and in the end resigned to give the President room. After vetting in August 2024 he came back as Cabinet Secretary for Public Service.

Ruto fired him in late March 2025. On 1 April 2025 Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi took over the docket on an interim basis, and Geoffrey Ruku (Mbeere North), a DP member, was nominated to replace him, The Star reported. From then on Muturi criticised the government openly.

In the opposition

In opposition he mostly talks about institutions and security. Some of what he said and did in 2026:

• On 6 July 2026 he said: "If I'm not selected as the presidential candidate, the only other principal in the United Opposition I can support is Kalonzo," The Star reported.
• On 4 August 2026, with Peter Munya of the Party of National Unity (PNU) and Lenny Kivuti, he rejected Rigathi Gachagua's call for smaller parties to dissolve into the Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP).
• On 16 August he urged the IEBC to make its election technology fully verifiable, and on 28 August he warned MPs that delayed electoral law changes could imperil the 2027 vote.
• On 6 September DP held a "Meet the People" tour in Othaya, Nyeri, where he called for an International Criminal Court outreach office in Nairobi over ethnic rhetoric.
• On 12 September an opposition convoy was stoned in Garissa. Muturi called it an "attempted assassination". Kalonzo blamed Health CS Aden Duale (Garissa Township), an allegation no investigation had confirmed by 23 September.

He is also part of David Maraga's People's Coalition on Electoral Reforms, which set out five demands to the IEBC on 15 September 2026. Together with Martha Karua (Gichugu) he demanded that the IEBC hire a register audit firm by 15 November 2026, publish a clean register by 10 March 2027 and allow inspection by 10 April 2027. Those dates have no legal force. Muturi has also said street protests cannot settle electoral questions.

Where he stands

DP is one of several small parties in the opposition. Background on the others is in the opposition's eight principals, the Windsor unity pact and Kalonzo and the Wiper Patriotic Front, and his reform allies are profiled in David Maraga.

For Muturi, the road to the ticket runs through the principals' talks. As of 23 September 2026 they had agreed neither a method, poll or negotiation, nor a date.