Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna on Sunday unveiled The Equitable Party (TEP) as his political vehicle for the 2027 presidential contest, ending months of uncertainty over the party he would use after his efforts to register the Linda Mwananchi Movement ran into legal and regulatory hurdles.
The decision to take over an existing party gives Mr Sifuna a ready-made electoral vehicle as the countdown to the August 10, 2027 General Election gathers pace, while leaving the door open for his preferred Linda Mwananchi brand.
In a major step towards his presidential bid, Mr Sifuna acquired the existing outfit with a plan to rebrand it as Linda Mwananchi Movement.
The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) last Thursday approved the reservation of the name Linda Mwananchi Movement (LMM) for 90 days, following an order by the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal.
The arrangement means Mr Sifuna's camp can proceed with a registered party while continuing to pursue the name around which the political movement has been built.
The launch was attended by the movement's leading figures including Siaya Governor James Orengo, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya, Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi and Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka, in a show of support for the senator's presidential bid.
From left, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya and Siaya Governor James Orengo at Stanley Hotel in Nairobi on October 4, 2026, during the unveiling of The Equitable Party (TEP).
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation
Founded by US-based Kenyan Dr Gilbert Marava Shanga in 2022, TEP's founding leaders stepped aside following negotiations with the Linda Mwananchi team paving the way for Mr Sifuna to take over as party leader.
The unveiling came barely a week after the movement unanimously endorsed Mr Sifuna as its leader and presidential candidate for the 2027 contest.
The choice of an existing party follows months in which Mr Sifuna and his allies explored several options after the Registrar initially blocked the Linda Mwananchi name.
Mr Sifuna used Sunday's event to revisit his frustrations with the registration of Linda Mwananchi Movement and his eventual dismissal from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
He accused the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties of being a major “fraud” in the way it has handled attempts by opposition groups to register or change political parties.
For months, the senator's allies had considered taking over existing political parties as a way of securing an electoral vehicle without having to wait for the Linda Mwananchi dispute to be resolved.
One of the options was the United Democratic Party (UDP), the party formerly associated with the late Cyrus Jirongo and in which Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya has interests.
That attempt, however, encountered objections from officials who questioned proposed changes to its leadership and reports that it could be transformed into a vehicle for Mr Sifuna.
An initial plan to rebrand it as the Ukombozi People's Party (UPP) also encountered obstacles further complicating the search for a party.
Embakasi East MP Babu Owino (left) and Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna at Stanley Hotel in Nairobi on October 4,2026 during the unveiling of the Equitable Party.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation
For a while, Mr Sifuna's camp was caught between securing an election vehicle, fighting legal disputes over the Linda Mwananchi brand and meeting electoral timelines set by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) ahead of the August 10, 2027 polls.
The acquisition of TEP now gives the group an option that does not depend entirely on the outcome of the fight over the Linda Mwananchi name.
Mr Sifuna said the party would retain its current name until the next election if the government blocks the proposed rebranding.
“We launch our new vessel today only because the house in which Baba left us, was captured by the forces of impunity and regression, in the typical fashion that Baba himself loved to equate to the fable of the camel and the tent. The party will continue with its present identity until the ballots are cast in 2027. If they continue to bring up obstacles as they did before, we will move on because we have a party,” Senator Sifuna said.
He said the party would seek to renew Kenyans' belief in constitutionalism and the rule of law while promoting equality, recognition of different groups and equitable representation.
“I have no capacity on my own to create a movement. This movement belongs to all of you who have chosen the path of change, and whose struggles and sacrifices have punctuated our journey,” he said.
He also used the occasion to outline the political and economic issues he intends to place at the centre of his campaign, including the burden of taxation and the rising cost of doing business.
The choice of TEP also provides a political identity around which Mr Sifuna can build his campaign, with the party's emphasis on equity and his movement's message of representation and change forming part of his pitch to voters.
Mr Sifuna has emerged as one of the opposition politicians being considered in the 2027 presidential contest, with recent surveys placing him among the leading figures outside the Kenya Kwanza administration.
His outspoken and combative political style has also helped him build a following among younger voters, while his opposition to the broad-based government arrangement has positioned him among the more vocal critics of the Ruto administration.
From left, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya and Siaya Governor James Orengo at Stanley Hotel in Nairobi on October 4, 2026, during the unveiling of The Equitable Party (TEP).
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation
His hardline position against the political arrangement entered into by President William Ruto and the late ODM leader Raila Odinga has been central to his political break with the party and the emergence of the Linda Mwananchi movement.
A July survey by Trends and Insights For Africa (Tifa) showed Mr Sifuna with 15 per cent support when respondents were asked whom they would support for president, compared with 24 per cent for President Ruto. The poll also found that 74 per cent of ODM supporters identified with the Linda Mwananchi grouping, while 20 per cent identified with Linda Ground.
During Sunday's event, Mr Sifuna welcomed people who wanted to join the movement and push for political change.
“This therefore is a call to unity, to a working, growing together and to building a movement that restores the hope we had in 2010 when we passed our Constitution. This movement begins with a simple proposition; government must work for the mwananchi,” he said.
The team's spokesperson, Suba South MP Caroli Omondi, said plans were already in place to rename TEP to reflect the identity of the movement and its leaders.
The question of the party's final name is therefore likely to remain part of the political contest as Mr Sifuna's camp moves towards the 2027 election.
With growing calls among the leaders for Mr Sifuna to be the presidential candidate, Siaya Governor James Orengo who has been among the senior figures supporting his bid, said he would be ready to support any initiative aimed at preventing President William Ruto from securing another term.
He reiterated his loyalty to the Linda Mwananchi movement and assured supporters that they were ready for the political battle ahead.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna at Stanley Hotel in Nairobi on October 4, 2026, during the unveiling of The Equitable Party.
Photo credit: Pool
“You are in the right place, you are in the right movement and you have the right leadership to take you to the promised land and we owe it to the people of Kenya,” Governor Orengo said.
“We must think of the entire Kenya, what problems exist in those areas because President Ruto is going to use some areas to demonstrate that he is popular when that is not true,” Governor Orengo said, alleging that the government was planning to rig the election.
Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi said the group had survived attempts to prevent it from acquiring the party.
“We have our name, which you saw them frustrating us but we went to court and defeated them. Linda Mwananchi Movement is our party and this party, we will rename it,” he said, alleging that there were fresh attempts to delay the group's plans.
Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya said Mr Sifuna and his team should not negotiate with other opposition leaders to settle on a single presidential candidate arguing that the senator was capable of taking on President Ruto.
He also disclosed that there were fresh plans to prevent the party from being renamed Linda Mwananchi Movement.
“Some of us have been worried that this day would not come. What we have gone through to this far has been through God. Kenya is a multiparty democracy but just registering a party has been a hide-and-seek game. This country must change,” Governor Natembeya said.
Embakasi East MP Babu Owino urged the team to remain united accusing some ODM leaders of pushing them out for demanding change.
The MP said the group should not overlook the experience of Governor Orengo and urged them to consider him among its top advisers.
The unveiling of TEP marks another step in the breakaway group's effort to build a political identity outside ODM, after months of disagreements over the direction of the party and its relationship with President Ruto's administration.
When the late Raila Odinga agreed to close ranks with President William Ruto in 2024 in the wake of the deadly Gen Z protests, the political arrangement was initially presented as a stop gap measure to stabilise the government and address the political crisis that had followed the demonstrations.
But as the arrangement developed into a broader political partnership, including expectations of support for President Ruto's 2027 re-election bid, disquiet emerged within ODM.
The political unease gave rise to a movement by young ODM parliamentarians opposed to what they described as an “unholy” political alliance, resulting in the formation of the Kenya Moja Alliance.
