Luhya leaders work on unity party for 2017

Top politicians from the Luhya ethnic group are working on a deal to create a single political party ahead of the 2017 general election.

In a rare show of unity, the region’s political kingpins, including Amani Coalition leader Musalia Mudavadi, New Ford Kenya’s Eugene Wamalwa, former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo and former Speaker Kenneth Marende held a three-hour meeting at a Nairobi hotel on Thursday to lay the groundwork for the new political initiative.

According to Mr Wamalwa, the initiative also enjoys the support of Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula and Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba who did not attend the meeting.

Mr Namwamba was on the same day attending an ODM Parliamentary Group meeting at Orange House, Nairobi.

The meeting was a follow-up to a public declaration Mr Mudavadi, Mr Wamalwa, Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Namwamba made on the 11th anniversary of the death of former Vice President Michael Kijana Wamalwa in Kitale last weekend.

“We wanted to bring CJ (Jirongo) and Marende in the picture because they were not present last weekend. We will hold another meeting in two weeks’ time with the rest who were not with us yesterday, as well as professional leaders, religious leaders and the youth from our people,” Mr Wamalwa said.

He said as a first step towards actualising their goal, the leaders had resolved to cast aside their party affiliations and unite in mobilising the Luhya people to register to vote. They vowed to use their financial resources and political networks to mobilise people to register.

“It is shocking that in the ongoing voter registration exercise, we have not even registered 10,000 new voters,” he said.

“We intend to look at the issues of issuance of IDs and the causes of voter apathy to achieve our goals,” he said.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Marende said they had resolved to bury their political differences and unite the Luhya people in readiness for the next elections.   “We have met to put our thoughts together in terms of where we are and where we want to go, and ask ourselves a few hard questions,” Mr Marende said.

The deliberations, the Sunday Nation learnt, centered around the need to ensure that the Luhya vote is not fragmented in the next polls.

UDF official Charles Werengai, who attended the Thursday meeting, said the initiative was borne out of the realisation that voters in the former Western Province were getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of unity among the people’s leadership, leading to voter apathy. T

he leaders also resolved not to be used by “outsiders” to undermine each other during elections, instead pledging to rally behind whichever leader the people pick to run for the presidency in future.