Luhya-Iteso row erupts over Sibembe cultural grounds in Busia

When Emorimor Paul Sande Emolot installed President William Ruto as a Teso elder. [PCS]

A dispute over the use of a public venue in Busia has reignited tensions between Luhya and Iteso community leaders, bringing long-standing questions over cultural identity, land, political influence and shared public spaces to the fore.

The disagreement emerged after the Iteso community planned to hold a cultural gathering at Sibembe grounds in Nambale, presided over by its paramount cultural leader, His Royal Highness Papa Emorimor Paul Sande Emolot Etomeileng III.

What was intended as a celebration of Iteso culture and heritage has since turned into a war of words between elders and community leaders, with both sides offering competing views on who has the right to use the grounds.

At the centre of the dispute is the claim by the Luhya Council of Elders that Sibembe is ancestral land that should not be used for an Iteso cultural ceremony without the consent of the local community.

Iteso leaders have rejected the claim, accusing their counterparts of promoting tribalism and divisive politics in a county where the two communities have lived alongside each other for generations.

The tensions came days after Papa Emorimor presided over a major cultural ceremony in Eldoret on August 29, 2026, where President William Ruto was installed as an elder of the Iteso community and given the traditional name Ojokotau, interpreted as “someone with a big heart”. The ceremony brought together more than 1,000 Iteso grassroots leaders.

The Eldoret meeting combined cultural celebrations with discussions on development, political representation and the future of the community.

Teso North MP Oku Kaunya presented a memorandum on behalf of the community, saying Iteso leaders had resolved to pursue greater unity and partnership with the national Government.

Kaunya said the community had chosen unity and partnership with the Government, while highlighting several development priorities, including roads, the proposed Malaba-Kimwanga highway, the Standard Gauge Railway, a dry port and an Export Processing Zone.

President Ruto, in turn, announced plans for a Sh4 billion smart city in Malaba, including about 2,000 affordable housing units, as well as a proposal to dual the 20-kilometre Malaba One Stop Border Post-Kimwanga section of the Northern Corridor.

He also appealed to the Iteso community to support his administration ahead of the 2027 General Election, saying unity would be critical in determining the political future of the country.

“Next year’s General Election will be decisive and consequential. We will bring to an end the stale politics of division, fragmentation and marginalisation, and usher in a new politics of unity, inclusion and transformation one that leaves no community and no part of Kenya behind,” Ruto said.

He later confirmed the cultural installation, saying: “I hosted Iteso grassroots leaders at State Lodge, Eldoret, where His Royal Highness Papa Emorimor Paul Sande Emolot Etomeileng III installed me as an elder of the Iteso community and bestowed upon me the name Ojokotau.”

It was against this backdrop that Iteso elders invited the President to attend their cultural gathering at Sibembe, further raising the political profile of the event.

But when the day of the gathering arrived, the anticipated cultural celebration was overshadowed by a confrontation over access to the venue.

The Luhya Council of Elders, led by Linus Mbwale, locked the gates to the grounds and declared that the site was not available for the Iteso ceremony.

The elders maintained that Sibembe was historically associated with Luhya ancestry and traditions and accused the Iteso community of attempting to conduct a cultural ceremony on land they considered sacred.

“This is not their land. They have Teso North and Teso South. Why can’t they use it to hold their event? posed Mbwale while challenging Papa Emorimor to host the cultural ceremony in Uganda.

For the Luhya elders, the dispute was not merely about a venue.

They argued that Sibembe was a landscape deeply connected to the history and heritage of Luhya sub-clans, and that allowing an Iteso monarch to conduct traditional rituals there without customary consent would undermine their cultural heritage.

“We respect Papa Emorimor as an African monarch, but respect is a two-way. Sibembe is not a neutral public park; it is a landscape deeply intertwined with the heritage and history of our ancestors. Bringing a foreign royal delegation to conduct cultural rituals on this ground without local blessing is an insult to our heritage. We will not allow our ancestral land to be desecrated under the guise of cultural unity,” noted another concerned senior elder.

The Iteso community, however, viewed the confrontation from a completely different perspective.

Their leaders accused the Luhya elders of tribalism, intolerance and attempting to impose ethnic boundaries on public spaces.

Iteso Prime Minister Fredrick Adung’o said the community had demonstrated tolerance whenever other communities held cultural activities in areas inhabited by Iteso.

“We have been living with Luhya and recently the Bukusu have been doing their traditions of circumcision within Teso land and we did not disturb them. We gave them humble time to do it. Why are Luhyas now feeling offended when we hold ours?” he stated.

Other Iteso elders echoed the sentiment, arguing that the objection was selective and contrary to the spirit of coexistence that has characterised Busia for years.

“In most of our events we accommodate everyone without favourism. It’s more of hatred. We have Wanga king in Kakamega; they have been holding events and no one disrupts them. We are asking why only?” posed another elder.

The Iteso leaders further argued that Sibembe was a public venue and not private property belonging to an individual or community.

The dispute has therefore evolved beyond a disagreement over the choice of venue into a wider debate about who has the right to define cultural spaces in a county whose communities are deeply intertwined through marriage, business, education, politics and shared infrastructure.

Busia Deputy Governor Arthur Odera, who attended the Iteso cultural event, appealed for calm and urged the county’s elders to resist attempts to divide residents along ethnic lines.

“This land was gifted to us by God and we have many things that we share and co-exist amongst various communities in this county and therefore I want to urge all people including council of elders, let us live in peace, unity and show one another love,” Odera said.

He pointed to the everyday realities that bind the communities together.

“We share a lot of things including schools, roads and water and we will not prosper by demanding that one lives in that particular place and this one in the other place. I want to urge the Teso community to feel Nambale is your home and make it a great place for all of us,” he added.

Odera’s intervention underlined the delicate balance in Busia, where political and cultural identities frequently intersect with questions of land, leadership and community influence.

The dispute has also acquired a political dimension.

The Eldoret ceremony had already placed the Iteso community at the centre of national political discussions after President Ruto accepted to be installed as an elder and was given the name Ojokotau.

Osiya, who was part of the delegation at the Eldoret ceremony, has also declared interest in contesting for the Busia gubernatorial seat against incumbent Governor Paul Otuoma, a Luhya.

Papa Emorimor has meanwhile maintained that his role is cultural rather than partisan.

At Sibembe, he urged his subjects to cooperate with whichever government is in power, arguing that development cannot be achieved by remaining permanently in opposition.

He cited Uganda, where President Yoweri Museveni’s administration has appointed members of the Iteso community to senior positions, including the Vice President, Speaker and ministers.

“The last time we were with President Ruto, he told me that the Teso people are always looking the other way and he wants this time round you stand with him. As traditional leaders we are not involved directly in politics but I must lead my people to take a certain direction for economic prosperity,” Emorimor said.

The monarch insisted that communities must work with governments to unlock development opportunities.

“There is no way you can achieve economic development when in isolation and therefore my people should support and work with the government,” he said.

The Sibembe confrontation therefore comes at a critical time when cultural institutions are increasingly intersecting with politics and economic empowerment in Busia.

Papa Emorimor’s authority stretches across the Kenya-Uganda border, making him an important cultural figure among the Iteso on both sides. His recent installation of President Ruto as an Iteso elder has further elevated the community’s visibility on the national political stage.

But the dispute over Sibembe has exposed how easily cultural celebrations can become a source of tension.

For decades, the Luhya and Iteso communities in Busia and neighbouring areas have shared schools, markets, roads, water resources and places of worship. Families have intermarried and businesses routinely cross ethnic lines.

That history of coexistence is now being tested by competing interpretations of cultural and territorial rights.

The Luhya elders insist they are defending ancestral heritage and customary authority, while the Iteso maintain that they are defending their right to hold cultural events important to their community.

Amid the dispute, the challenge for leaders from both sides is to ensure that the current war of words does not escalate into a deeper ethnic confrontation.

The Sibembe grounds may have become the immediate theatre of the dispute, but the larger question is whether cultural identity can coexist with shared citizenship without communities retreating into ethnic enclaves.

As political temperatures rise ahead of the 2027 elections, elders and political leaders face the delicate task of separating cultural expression from political mobilisation.