[2] KADU's aim was to defend the interests of the so-called KAMATUSA (an acronym for Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu ethnic groups) as well as the British settlers, against the imagined future dominance of the larger Luo and Kikuyu that comprised the majority of KANU's membership, when it became inevitable that Kenya will achieve its independence.

Ronald Ngala brought all these regional outfits together to form KADU when Jomo Kenyatta was released from prison in 1961 and made the president of the newly formed KANU[7] KADU lost to KANU in the first general elections in Kenya in 1963, where it had campaigned on a platform of Majimboism, multiracial nation with white minority rule under the principles established in the Lyttelton Constitution of 1954.

Daniel arap Moi, who later served as President of Kenya, was KADU's chairman and attended the Lancaster House Conferences with Ronald Ngala.

Part of the KADU team was also Masinde Muliro who believed that the dominance of the two tribes needed to be neutralised so as to have a free and fairly led nation.

The dissolution of KADU was orchestrated by the then justice and legal affairs minister Tom Mboya, first Secretary General and a founding member of KANU, who followed orders from the then President of Kenya, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.