The erstwhile original NARC was legally in the hands of its chairperson Charity Ngilu who showed no inclination of siding with Kibaki for a renewed bid.

On 28 February 2008 through a mediation team headed by former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, the PNU government reached a deal with the ODM and leader Raila Odinga to share power.

George Saitoti served as chairman until his death in 2012, while Mwai Kibaki was party leader until his retirement from politics, much to the dismay of several of its coalition partners.

[8][9] In October 2012, the party's National Executive Committee entered a tentative election pact with TNA, where it would surrender the right to field individual candidates in the 2013 in exchange for supporting Uhuru Kenyatta's presidential bid.

[12][13] At a national delegates conference held on December 19, 2020, PNU endorsed the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report and promised to rally the public behind it.

The Party has since then organized forums across the country to educate the public about details contained in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report.