Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-29752445-20170415172945/@comment-1327106-20180806051244

Kenny knows that you need to eat the person with the power to get it, but he doesn't know it's tied to bloodline. He actually sulks over it in the manga when he finds out.

Until that point, the implication is that he was working with Rod to get Eren and get the transfer ceremony going, and then he would swoop in and eat Eren himself (until he found out it doesn't work that way).