It’s Career-Defining Moment as Sifuna Heads to Western Kenya for Mega Rallies
The anticipated announcement follows a strong hint by Sifuna during the Linda Mwananchi rally in Taita Taveta on Saturday, where he told supporters that Kenya needs a new generation of leadership.
Photo: Courtesy.
By Robert Mutasi
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna is heading to Western Kenya this weekend for what political analysts are calling the most defining moment of his political career so far, as his Linda Mwananchi movement stages two major rallies in the region.
The Sifuna-led movement has announced it will hold what it is calling the “mother-of-all rallies” in Trans-Nzoia County on Saturday and in Bungoma County on Sunday. Sifuna, though he was elected as Senator for Nairobi, hails from Bungoma County in Western Kenya.
The former ODM Secretary General is widely expected to use the weekend to formally cut ties with the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and announce his new political vehicle for the 2027 General Election.
According to insiders, the back-to-back rallies in the two counties are being described as the official political divorce between Sifuna and ODM, following months of escalating differences with the party leadership led by Siaya Senator Oburu Odinga.
Sifuna’s allies have billed the weekend gatherings as a defining moment for both the senator and the Linda Mwananchi movement, which has been operating for months as a movement within ODM but is now seeking its own identity.
Bomachoge Borabu MP Obadiah Barongo said the Western offensive will permanently define the movement’s 2027 direction. “The most defining Linda Mwananchi rally since we began. This weekend, Trans-Nzoia and Bungoma are on the way,” Barongo said.
Vihiga Senator Godffrey Osotsi, without giving details, also hinted at a big declaration. “Western is ripe for a declaration,” Osotsi said.
The meetings are expected to culminate in the unveiling of Linda Mwananchi’s new political party, providing the movement with its own vehicle ahead of 2027 after months of grassroots mobilization.
Sifuna is also expected to formally declare his candidature for the presidency, a move that would thrust him into the growing list of opposition leaders seeking to challenge President William Ruto in 2027.
The anticipated announcement follows a strong hint by Sifuna during the Linda Mwananchi rally in Taita Taveta on Saturday, where he told supporters that Kenya needs a new generation of leadership.
Addressing a crowd at Mwatate, Sifuna expressed his readiness to take on a bigger role that the youth want to give him. “The Gen Zs have told me it is time to stop calling me SG. They want to give me a new title, HE (His Excellency),” Sifuna said. His Excellency is an honorific title commonly used for the President.
His anticipated presidential bid has already sparked excitement in his Western Kenya backyard, with several influential political figures from the region reportedly throwing their weight behind him. Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale and former Senator Cleophas Malala are among the bigwigs outside Linda Mwananchi now backing Sifuna’s State House bid.
“I want to meet Mudavadi, Wetang’ula, Savula and all other leaders from the Western region and plead with them to stop dividing our people. I want us to unite and support Edwin Sifuna. God has already decided that it is him,” Khalwale said.
However, Sifuna will face the unity question, especially amid calls by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula that it would be hard to dislodge Ruto in 2027. Mudavadi asked, “It is true we want the presidency but don’t we have the best chance in 2032?”
The choice of Trans Nzoia and Bungoma is seen as strategic, with Western Kenya remaining one of the country’s most influential voting blocs. A strong turnout would bolster Sifuna’s claim that Linda Mwananchi is evolving into a national political force rather than remaining a Nairobi-based movement.
Since its formation, Linda Mwananchi has embarked on an aggressive countrywide mobilization campaign, holding rallies in Nairobi, Machakos, Makueni, Busia, Kisumu, Kisii, Nyamira, Mombasa, Kwale and Taita Taveta, criticizing the Kenya Kwanza administration over the cost of living while accusing ODM’s current leadership of abandoning the party’s founding ideals.
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