Forget presidency if you miss 2027, Natembeya warns Luhya community

DAP-K Deputy Party Leader and Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya with supporters after urging the party to grow beyond Western and criticising conservative leadership, Nairobi, August 12, 2025. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

Trans-Nzoia Governor George Natembeya has declared that the 2027 presidential contest will be a defining political moment for the Mulembe nation.

Natembeya told the Luhya community to forget the presidency should they fail to use their numerical strength to occupy State House.

“The community’s quest to ascend to the presidency is 2027 and not any other time. The next polls are our defining moment. Let us clinch it or forget it,” said Natembeya.

He warned that a clique of those in power had laid traps to maintain the status quo.

Winning the presidency, Natembeya observed, was the solution to Western Kenya’s economic frustrations and oppression, urging residents to use the community’s numerical advantage to achieve the dream.

“Western Kenya has been turned into a use-and-dump political ground. This is why our people are suffering economically,” said Natembeya at Stovar Farm in Kiminini during the burial of retired senior chief Geoffrey Jomo Mutoka.

He cautioned the community about political traps by certain forces seeking to divide them ahead of the 2027 General Election, asking voters to put their regional vote in one basket during the succession battle.

“Some people have realised our weakness. They have started laying traps to cause divisions among leaders and subsequently the region’s vote. I’m asking our people to be more vigilant and ignore those campaigning for the re-election of President William Ruto.”

He cited the prosecution of former Bungoma governor Wycliffe Wangamati as a political trap and an act of intimidation meant to divide the region.

Natembeya accused some Western leaders of playing into President Ruto’s schemes, terming their actions ‘betrayal’.

“Let us not be driven by witch-hunts and selfish desires to fix our own people. Let us not allow external forces to cause disunity and spoil our political agenda,” he said.

Defending his push for Luhya unity, Natembeya argued that only unity would propel the community’s dream of occupying State House.

While urging the community to rally behind his call, Natembeya promised he was ready to pay any price for the sake of his people.

“My people, I’m ready to pay any price to ensure our own occupy State House. Don’t blindly follow those responsible for our economic frustrations,” he said to cheering mourners.

Unlike other regions, he noted, Western lacks a kingpin to lead the community and asked residents to identify a leader capable of providing direction.

“Go to Nyanza — their spokesperson is Raila Odinga. In Rift Valley, they have President Ruto. Kalonzo speaks for the Kambas and other regions. But there is no leader speaking for Western. We need to identify a leader to provide us with direction,” said Natembeya.

He stressed that the Mulembe nation has the numerical strength to decide the country’s political destiny, specifically who should occupy State House, but blamed internal divisions by greedy leaders for the community’s failure to achieve this dream.

“We have the numbers. We have the key to State House, but our biggest weakness is our disunity. My people, let us be united so that we don’t sit on the fence when leaders from other regions sit at the round table to make decisions on the sharing of the national cake,” he said.

Natembeya added that the old guards from the region should pave the way for vibrant and focused young leaders to shape its political destiny.

“Successive governments have not offered us any meaningful development because we are not represented at the table where key decisions are made,” he added.

He criticised Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula for pushing President Ruto’s re-election, accusing them of being interested only in their own benefits.

Mudavadi and Wetang’ula, he said, lack influence in government, unlike Raila Odinga, who is consulted on key decisions.

“Raila is more powerful than any other person in the Kenya Kwanza government. He is calling the shots and is consulted by Ruto on key decisions, yet Wetang’ula boasts of being third in command,” he asserted.

He also warned Western MPs against abandoning their electorates in favour of cosy ties with the President.

“Some of these MPs peddle malice in order to get personal gains from President Ruto. They have abandoned the electorates and gone to bed with the President. They are no longer executing their oversight role,” he said.