Tuyakbay was an opposition candidate in the 2005 Kazakh presidential election for the For a Just Kazakhstan political alliance, losing the race President Nursultan Nazarbayev to which he refused to concede.

Tuyakbay was born in the town of Novostroyka (present-day Qyzylkia) in South Kazakhstan Region to the parents of Aitbay Tuyakbaev (1902–1978), who was a collective farmer, and Tynym Tuyakbaeva (1925–1994).

In 1971, having graduated from the Law School of the Kazakh State University, Tuyakbay was recruited by the Investigatory Department of the Shymkent Oblast Prosecutor Office.

In December 1986, the Soviet government severely crushed protests in Alma-Ata in response to the appointing of the new First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan because of his Russian ethnicity.

This riot, which subsequently was named Jeltoqsan lead to numerous resignations and shifts among top Kazakh officials.

[5] On 20 March 2005, the political movement bloc, For a Just Kazakhstan (ÄQÜ), was formed where Tuyakbay became the chairman of the organization and was nominated as candidate for the upcoming presidential election which was supposed to be held in December 2006.

[14][15] After the announcement of a snap parliamentary elections on 20 June 2007, Tuyakbay criticized the move as "giving the opposition too little to prepare.