Edwin Sifuna is now a general with a ticket and an army behind him. The missing link is a united house that would push him to the elite house on top of the hill.
The route to TEP was forced by setbacks and in-house divisions. Efforts to establish Linda Mwananchi as a party became entangled in a dispute over reserving and using the name. A tribunal later cleared the name's reservation, and Sifuna reiterated that the party would seek to be rebranded as the Linda Mwananchi Movement. He also hinted at a fallback. If regulatory hurdles persist, the party will go into the 2027 polls under TEP. The rebrand is therefore planned, not completed, and the name reservation is not the same as finishing the change.
The launch had early momentum. New members would get TEP registration numbers, later changing to LMM numbers once the rebrand is done. The party's own claim of 1 million members in 24 hours has not been independently verified.
Sifuna's rise has exposed a rift with Siaya Governor James Orengo. In mid-September, the two appeared united. Orengo promised to sit down with Sifuna to resolve their competing ambitions and present one candidate against President Ruto. That truce did not last. Orengo skipped the September 26 retreat where Linda Mwananchi declared Sifuna its leader and presidential candidate. Orengo's stated position is that competition is acceptable as long as the outcome is a single name. He has questioned handing Sifuna the ticket automatically and wants competing ambitions settled through a credible nomination process. He has also argued for one party over a loose coalition. Senator Boni Khalwale confirmed that the governor favored a movement party rather than a coalition of parties. During the launch, Orengo and Babu Owino backed Sifuna as a trailblazer to help halt President Ruto's almost certain win.
The route to TEP was forced by setbacks and in-house divisions. Efforts to establish Linda Mwananchi as a party became entangled in a dispute over reserving and using the name. A tribunal later cleared the name's reservation, and Sifuna reiterated that the party would seek to be rebranded as the Linda Mwananchi Movement. He also hinted at a fallback. If regulatory hurdles persist, the party will go into the 2027 polls under TEP. The rebrand is therefore planned, not completed, and the name reservation is not the same as finishing the change.
The launch had early momentum. New members would get TEP registration numbers, later changing to LMM numbers once the rebrand is done. The party's own claim of 1 million members in 24 hours has not been independently verified.
Sifuna's rise has exposed a rift with Siaya Governor James Orengo. In mid-September, the two appeared united. Orengo promised to sit down with Sifuna to resolve their competing ambitions and present one candidate against President Ruto. That truce did not last. Orengo skipped the September 26 retreat where Linda Mwananchi declared Sifuna its leader and presidential candidate. Orengo's stated position is that competition is acceptable as long as the outcome is a single name. He has questioned handing Sifuna the ticket automatically and wants competing ambitions settled through a credible nomination process. He has also argued for one party over a loose coalition. Senator Boni Khalwale confirmed that the governor favored a movement party rather than a coalition of parties. During the launch, Orengo and Babu Owino backed Sifuna as a trailblazer to help halt President Ruto's almost certain win.