Political party dilemma threatens to fracture Linda Mwananchi unity

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 15 – The political party question has emerged as a potentially dangerous wedge in the fledgling Linda Mwananchi alliance, with Embakasi East MP Babu Owino making it clear that he is not ready to surrender his own political vehicle for the sake of a single united party.

Owino, while reaffirming his support for Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna’s presidential bid, has revealed that he had already secured a political party before Linda Mwananchi was formed and intends to retain it as he pursues the Nairobi governorship in 2027.

His position exposes a delicate balancing act within the opposition movement, which is attempting to project unity around Sifuna while its leading figures retain separate political ambitions and party interests.

While coalitions have dominantly characterized politics in the country, the Linda Mwananchi team has consistently projected a picture of a single political outfit.

The dispute has remained largely behind the scenes, but Owino’s detailed account of his negotiations with Sifuna offers the clearest indication yet that there has been a disagreement over which party should carry the movement into the 2027 elections.

Owino disclosed on Tuesday that he met Sifuna at his office to discuss the competing party options after another principal introduced the Ukombozi People’s Party as a possible vehicle for Linda Mwananchi.

“I called Hon Sifuna. We met in his office. I asked him about the Ukombozi People’s Party because they said that the Ukombozi People’s Party, Sifuna, should be the party,” Owino said.

He said he also raised the question of his own party and asked Sifuna which political vehicle the movement would ultimately use.

According to Owino, Sifuna initially assured him that the two could retain their respective parties while working together under a coalition arrangement.

“He was clear with me, told me that there is no problem, Babu, so that he gets the position of the party leader, the party leadership, and also Babu Owino becomes also a party leader of his party,” he said.

Babu’s political insurance

Owino was emphatic that his party did not emerge because of Linda Mwananchi. He said he began pursuing his own political vehicle after deciding that he could no longer depend on ODM to secure his ambition to become Nairobi governor.

He traced the decision to February 10, 2025, when ODM leaders and Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja held a meeting at Bomas of Kenya that was widely seen as an endorsement of Sakaja.

Owino said he had expected the gathering to be a prayer meeting linked to the Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Africa Union Chairperson ambitions, only to discover that Sakaja was being backed for another term.

“That is the day that I knew that things would never be the same again in ODM,” he said.

He said he had already informed the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga of his interest in the Nairobi governorship.

“I decided that I will have my own political party,” Mr Owino said.

He said he made several unsuccessful attempts to register or acquire a party before finally securing one.

“I started the journey of looking for a political party, tried three times and failed, did not succeed,” he said.

He eventually secured a party in early 2026, according to his account. Owino said his political calculations were therefore already in motion long before Linda Mwananchi emerged.

“On this issue of the political party, I had a journey that I was going on. I had a destination that I was looking at, that I was supposed to achieve certain things in life,” he said.

“I knew that a journey that already formed me the political party.”

Owino said he acquired the party before Linda Mwananchi came into being and intended to use it in his 2027 Nairobi gubernatorial campaign, and that’s why he is reluctant to dissolve or surrender it as part of the negotiations over a common Linda Mwananchi vehicle.

The Ukombozi party question

The party dispute intensified after Ukombozi People’s Party emerged as another possible vehicle for the movement.

Recent reports indicate that Ukombozi People’s Party is linked to the former United Democratic Party (UDP), associated with the late former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo, and is reportedly being considered as one of several vehicles through which Linda Mwananchi could contest the 2027 elections.

The precise current ownership and leadership structure of Ukombozi has, however, remained opaque, with the party not clearly appearing in the publicly available current ORPP party listings.

Owino said the emergence of the party surprised him because Linda Mwananchi leaders had already been discussing how to use his party.

Four-member committee

He said a four-member committee had been established to identify a political vehicle for the movement. The committee, he said, included leaders who already had political parties of their own.

Saboti MP Caleb Amisi was among those involved, although Owino said Amisi later left the movement. The committee was expected to consolidate the available parties into one vehicle.

“Four of us had parties. So we were tasked to come up with one party, to amalgamate these parties into one, come up with one party that we would use as a vehicle,” Owino said.

He said the departure of Amisi, who is the party leader of the People Renaissance Movement, left his own party as the option that could be used by the movement. But the emergence of Ukombozi changed the equation.

Sifuna remains the presidential choice.

Owino now favours a coalition if the principals cannot agree on one party. His argument is that political unity does not necessarily require the dissolution of individual parties.

The proposal could provide a way out of the impasse, allowing Owino to maintain his political vehicle while Sifuna and other principals retain theirs under a broader Linda Mwananchi coalition.

But the arrangement carries its own risks, particularly over control of nominations, party leadership and the allocation of elective positions.

Despite the disagreement over the political vehicle, Owino insists that his support for Sifuna is not in question.

He has endorsed the Nairobi senator as Linda Mwananchi’s presidential candidate and called for other opposition leaders to join the alliance.

Owino called for the opposition to bring on board Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, former Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, and other political actors.

“We cannot win this election, 2027 elections, if we are not united. Do not send anybody away. Do not think that anybody is useless because your vote, you, your vote is just one, just like Babu’s vote is just one vote,” he said.

Cold war over rallies?

Yet his decision to shift his political attention towards Nairobi could become another source of tension within Linda Mwananchi.

Owino says he intends to concentrate on mobilising voters across Nairobi’s 85 wards while simultaneously campaigning for Sifuna’s presidential bid.

“Nairobi has 85 wards. I know it is not easy, the resources it needs, the work it needs. It is a big city. It is the capital city. I also need to focus on Nairobi,” he said.

He acknowledged that he would not attend every Linda Mwananchi rally because of the demands of his Nairobi campaign.

“I will still attend Linda Mwananchi rallies. I may not attend all because of the work that I will do in Nairobi,” he said.

“I want to shift my focus to Nairobi and deliver it to Linda Mwananchi,” he added.

And as the dispute over the Linda Mwananchi name itself remains before the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal, the movement is facing a race against time to turn its street-level popularity into a functioning electoral machine.