Mudavadi storms Busia to countenance Sifuna's rising influence in Western Kenya

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Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi held a UDA grassroots mobilisation meeting in Butula, Busia County, on Sunday.

Mudavadi's meeting came a day after Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna and the Linda Mwananchi movement campaigned in the same area.

The Prime Cabinet Secretary visit was framed as an effort to strengthen the ruling United Democratic Alliance’s support base in Western Kenya (the Mulembe/Luhya region) ahead of the 2027 general election and to rally residents behind President William Ruto’s re-election bid. 

Reports and social media posts from the event showed Mudavadi engaging local leaders and supporters on organisation-building and development themes.

Sifuna’s group (including Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya and Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale) had toured parts of Busia on Friday, including Bumala, Murumba, Butula, and Nambale. 

This formed part of a broader Linda Mwananchi push into traditional opposition strongholds and a challenge to the long-dominant regional influence of Mudavadi and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula.

The contextual siblings rivalry

Sifuna, the Nairobi senator and a vocal opposition figure (formerly tied to ODM), has seen a rapid rise in visibility and polling support in Western Kenya since the death of Raila Odinga. 

His Linda Mwananchi movement, often aligned with figures like Natembeya, has drawn large crowds, received some elder endorsements, and positioned him as an alternative leadership voice for the region. Analysts and reports describe this as a direct challenge to the “old guard” (Mudavadi and Wetang’ula), who have been key regional power brokers for years and delivered significant Western support to Ruto in 2022 in exchange for high government positions.

Mudavadi has publicly downplayed the Sifuna wave, at one point comparing such challengers to a short-lived “paper tiger” or “newspaper fire” and contrasting them unfavourably with Raila Odinga’s opposition stature. 

There have been prior incidents of crowds chanting for Sifuna (and sometimes booing) at events involving Mudavadi or Wetang’ula. At the Butula event itself, police and security moved in after some youths (wearing ODM and UDA caps) began chanting “Sifuna".

Western Kenya remains a pivotal voting bloc with over 3.5 million votes. 

Both the Kenya Kwanza side (via Mudavadi, Wetang’ula, and others) and the opposition (via Sifuna’s group) are actively contesting it. Mudavadi’s Busia appearance fits a pattern of intensified grassroots work by the established leaders in response to the emerging challenge.

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