The Linda Mwananchi movement's decision to endorse Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna as its presidential candidate has raised fresh questions about how the wider opposition plans to settle on a single candidate ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The endorsement was made during a leadership retreat on Saturday, September 26, with Sifuna declared the movement’s leader and presidential candidate. The group said he would lead the unveiling of the political party through which he intends to contest the presidency in early October.
𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐀 𝐌𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐈 Today, we met as the leadership of Linda Mwananchi and resolved to move forward together, united by a common purpose of answering the call of Kenyans seeking better governance and rescuing our country from the grave failures of the current administration. We further resolved that:
1. H.E Edwin Watenya Sifuna is our leader and Presidential Candidate. 2. In early October, H.E. Edwin Watenya Sifuna will lead the unveiling of the party on whose ticket he will run. 3. We will seek to build a coalition with like-minded parties that share our commitment to the people of Kenya. We remain united and focused on the work ahead. 𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟔, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
But the meeting was notable for the absence of several senior opposition figures. Siaya Governor James Orengo did not attend, while Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka was pursuing a separate programme in Siaya. There was also no representative of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s camp at the retreat.
Orengo’s absence has attracted particular attention because he had previously argued that competing presidential ambitions within Linda Mwananchi should be subjected to a credible nomination process before the movement settled on one candidate. Linda Mwananchi officials, however, said he had sent his apologies because he was attending to a sick family member and maintained that his absence should not be interpreted as a sign of division.
The development has therefore shifted part of the political conversation from Sifuna’s emergence to questions about whether all the major opposition players are genuinely involved in the decision-making process.
That concern is significant because Linda Mwananchi leaders have previously spoken about the need to bring together Sifuna, Kalonzo, Gachagua, Fred Matiang’i and Orengo. In September, Sifuna held separate consultations with Kalonzo and Matiang’i, while Orengo has remained part of the movement's senior leadership.
The latest development also gives Sifuna a more defined political position. Rather than remaining one of several names being discussed within the opposition, he now has the formal backing of Linda Mwananchi, although the broader opposition has yet to settle on a single presidential candidate.
The Daily Nation subsequently led with a story focusing on Orengo’s absence, illustrating how quickly an internal political decision can become a story about divisions within an opposition movement.
Here is what Cyprian Nyakundi had to say about the wrong-timed political retreat by Edwin Sifuna and what the country expects.
The Linda Mwananchi retreat that 'endorsed' Edwin Sifuna has left me wondering whether parts of the opposition understand how dangerous these half baked moves are, since Kalonzo Musyoka, Fred Matiang’i, Rigathi Gachagua and James Orengo were not all sitting in that room when such a major presidential decision was made.
Then almost immediately, Daily Nation published “Orengo missing as Linda Mwananchi endorses Sifuna,” turning the absence itself into the political story and feeding exactly the kind of division narrative that an opposition claiming to want one candidate should be trying to avoid. That becomes even more interesting when you remember that Nation Media Group is now majority owned by Ruto through proxy by Tanzanian businessman Rostam Azizi. Sometimes you genuinely wonder who is helping whom here, since an opposition meeting produces an endorsement without several major figures present, then the next morning the conversation is no longer about Sifuna taking on Ruto but about Orengo skipping the meeting and cracks inside the opposition. Sifuna is already a serious political figure, so if the opposition decides he is the man, let that endorsement happen properly with Kalonzo, Gachagua, Matiang’i, Orengo and the other major players sitting there, so nobody spends the following morning counting empty chairs. The uncomfortable part is that Sifuna’s real enemies may eventually turn out not to be sitting inside Kenya Kwanza at all, but inside an opposition
For the opposition, the immediate challenge is therefore bigger than simply announcing a presidential candidate. The competing ambitions of Sifuna, Kalonzo, Gachagua, Matiang’i and Orengo will still have to be reconciled if the wider opposition is to operate under a common arrangement.
Sifuna's endorsement may settle Linda Mwananchi's immediate internal question, but it does not by itself settle the broader opposition's presidential question. The coming negotiations will show whether the different camps can turn their repeated calls for unity into an agreed process involving the major principals.