Noticeable changes mark Mohammed Dida’s return to public life

Former Kenyan presidential candidate Mohammed Abduba Dida has resurfaced online months after being granted parole in the United States, but with a markedly different tone from the blunt-talking political outsider he once was.

Now living in Minnesota, the 50-year-old has reintroduced himself to the public as a spiritual guide, launching new social media platforms and announcing plans to revive a charity he first registered in 2017.

His return has leaving questions about whether his years in the American prison system reshaped his thinking or whether he is simply extending the moralist persona that defined his years in Kenyan politics.

A softer tone after release

Dida was paroled in April 2025 after serving three years of a seven-year sentence for stalking, transmitting threats, aggravated stalking, and violating a restraining order.

Court records showed he had been jailed in July 2021 following an incident involving his estranged wife in Illinois.

Since leaving the Big Muddy Correctional Centre, the former teacher has adopted a noticeably gentler, global-facing rhetoric.

In videos circulating widely on social media, Dida urged Kenyans to rethink their divisions and embrace a collective sense of spiritual duty.

“God has created us to be His representatives on this earth,” he said. “There are over eight billion human beings who need spiritual nourishment… I request you to rise above tribe and religion.”

The shift is significant. During the 2013 and 2017 presidential campaigns, Dida built his public image on sharp humour, blunt criticism of political excess, and an unmistakably Kenyan tone.

Did prison influence his new message?

It remains unclear whether Dida is drawing from experience he got while detained or intentionally avoiding the scrutiny that his conviction might invite.

Unlike many figures who speak openly about prison changing them, Dida has not publicly reflected on the case that led to his incarceration or how it ties into his new mission.

Even before prison, Dida fashioned himself as a moral crusader in politics, a man unimpressed by power and unafraid to lecture the establishment. His new persona may therefore not be a reinvention but an amplification.

The former presidential candidate now says he is seeking office space in Minnesota to restart his charitable operations, presenting his platform as a global outreach initiative.