The party was founded in 1991 by John Keen and Mwai Kibaki after section 2A of the constitution was repealed.
At the legislative elections, 27 December 2002, the party was a partner in the National Rainbow Coalition, which won 56.1% of the popular vote and 125 out of 210 elected seats.
One of the DP's members, Wilfred Machage, was named a cabinet minister in the half cabinet which Kibaki named prior to the formation of the Grand Coalition government.
In the 2022 Kenyan general election, the party aligned itself with the Kenya Kwanza alliance of William Ruto, who would go on to become Kenya's next president.
This article about a Kenyan political party is a stub.