Mudavadi and Wetangula walk out as Sifuna speaks at Nabwera memorial
R-L: Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula and Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna
A political drama at a Lang’ata requiem mass lays bare the fault lines fracturing Western Kenya’s political establishment ahead of 2027
By Lydia Nekesa
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula walked out of the requiem mass for veteran diplomat Burudi Nabwera at Friends Church in Lang’ata, Nairobi yesterday, at the precise moment Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna was invited to address mourners — a departure captured on video that has since gone viral and ignited fresh debate about the depth of Kenya’s political divisions with fourteen months to the 2027 general election.
The two senior government officials were seen on camera walking towards the church entrance as Sifuna took the microphone, prompting the senator to acknowledge their exit with a dry “this is Nairobi” quip that drew laughter from the congregation. The moment, brief in duration but vast in political implication, distilled into a single image the fault lines now running through what was once Kenya’s most cohesive regional political bloc.
Burudi Nabwera, who died on October 9 at the age of 99, served as Kenya’s first ambassador to the United States, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Member of Parliament for Lugari and Cabinet Minister. His memorial drew political figures from across Western Kenya — a fact that made the walkout all the more conspicuous. Mudavadi offered an explanation, saying his departure was driven by official duties rather than any other consideration. “Normally I should have waited until we finished the service, but as I’ve said, I’ll be home on Saturday. So please bear with me that if I’m not there, it is not out of any other reason, but because I will be away on duty,” Mudavadi said. Wetangula offered a similar account, citing a scheduled engagement. Whether the departures were logistical or deliberate, the optics told a different story to a public already attuned to every signal of political realignment.
Sifuna used the occasion to condemn tribal politics, lament the breakdown of political friendships and pledge to restore the spirit of national unity that defined Kenya at independence. He also expressed regret that political divisions had separated him from figures he once regarded as allies. The tone was pointed. “Our politics is so petty that being seen with some of us, you are branded and told you are hanging out with Sifuna; you are now a bad person,” he said — a remark that landed with unmistakable force given the two empty seats at the front of the congregation.
Sifuna also publicly appealed to Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera to join his Linda Mwananchi movement, saying he wanted the lawmaker by his side for 2027 — noting personal connections to the region through his mother’s family and a shared history inside ODM before their political paths diverged.
The church scene cannot be separated from the broader political battle now consuming Western Kenya. Just three days earlier, on October 18, Mudavadi had attacked Sifuna at a church service in Nandi County, accusing the senator of misleading Kenyans by claiming to have formed a party with only six months remaining before key electoral deadlines. “Sifuna wanders around saying he has formed a party with only six months remaining — this misleads people,” Mudavadi said, adding that a party of such recent formation could not remove President William Ruto from power and that genuine leaders rise through the ranks rather than arriving by parachute.
The exchange reveals a political establishment that feels genuinely threatened by Sifuna’s rising profile — and a senator who understands the value of a viral moment. Sifuna, who serves as the elected senator for Nairobi and leads the Linda Mwananchi movement, has built his appeal on the kind of blunt, populist rhetoric that resonates precisely because it makes powerful people uncomfortable. His ability to draw a walkout from the Prime Cabinet Secretary and the National Assembly Speaker at a funeral — and then turn it into a political statement before the congregation had finished processing what happened — is a measure of how effectively he has positioned himself as a disruptive force in a race that the political establishment had hoped to manage on its own terms.
Their contrasting political positions have placed Mudavadi, Wetangula and Sifuna on opposite sides of an increasingly heated contest over the direction of national leadership and the political future of Western Kenya. Mudavadi and Wetangula anchor the Kenya Kwanza government’s regional support base. Sifuna has aligned with the opposition axis gathering around former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, pursuing a coalition that the establishment dismisses but cannot afford to ignore.
Nabwera is set to be buried on Saturday, October 24, at his home in Sango Farm, Kiminini, Trans Nzoia County. That burial will bring the same cast of political figures back together in the same county — Trans Nzoia — that has become one of the most contested battlegrounds in the 2027 campaign. Whether yesterday’s walkout is replayed in a different form on Saturday, or whether the occasion demands a more diplomatic performance, will itself be read as a signal.
In Kenyan politics, funerals have always been one of the most honest arenas. There is no agenda to manipulate, no rally crowd to manage and no press conference to stage. When leaders walk out of a church as a colleague takes the microphone, they are not simply leaving a service. They are making a statement — and in this election cycle, every statement counts.
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