Babu Owino’s party predates Linda Mwananchi, clarification shows
Embakasi East MP Babu Owino
The Mwananchi Party says its registration with the ORPP was already under way before the Linda Mwananchi movement sought the same name — a timeline dispute that reveals the messy scramble for political vehicles ahead of 2027
By Agnes Atieno
The Mwananchi Party has rejected suggestions that its registration was timed to block the Linda Mwananchi movement from securing an official political vehicle, releasing a chronology yesterday that places its own ORPP process ahead of any rival claim to the name.
In a formal statement, the party — associated with Embakasi East MP Babu Owino — said that on 4 August 2026, principals of the Linda Mwananchi movement visited the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties to seek clarification on the status of the Linda Mwananchi name. That visit, the party noted, was happening concurrently with its own registration process, which was already in motion. The official name change from Muungano Party to The Mwananchi Party was subsequently effected on 10 September 2026, as confirmed in correspondence from the ORPP. The consequence was unavoidable: when the Linda Mwananchi movement sought formal recognition under that name, it found the ground already taken.
“It is therefore important that the events surrounding the matter are understood within their proper chronology,” the party said.
Babu traced his decision to establish an independent political vehicle to a specific moment: 10 February 2025, when ODM leaders gathered at Bomas of Kenya for what he had been led to believe was a prayer meeting in support of the late Raila Odinga’s bid for the African Union Commission chairmanship. What he found instead was a gathering endorsing Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja for a second term. The discovery was, for Babu, a turning point. “From that day, because I knew that ODM would never give me a chance to contest as Governor of Nairobi, I decided that I would have my own political party,” he said. Three registration attempts failed before a fourth succeeded early this year — months, he insists, before Linda Mwananchi existed as a formal political project.
The dispute sits inside a broader and increasingly tangled effort by the Linda Mwananchi movement to secure a workable party ahead of the 2027 general election. Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, the movement’s presidential aspirant, has now been pointed toward the United Democratic Party after attempts to register under the Linda Mwananchi, Ukombozi and Linda names all collapsed for various reasons. Babu, meanwhile, has been publicly emphatic that his support for Sifuna’s presidential bid remains intact, even as quiet tensions over influence and protocol within the movement have surfaced. “Sifuna is our presidential candidate — that is very clear. There is no way I can fight Sifuna because I want to be Governor and he wants to be President,” Babu said.
The name collision is ultimately a symptom of something larger. Kenya’s opposition is scrambling for political infrastructure at speed, with parties being registered, rebranded and contested in rapid succession as the August 2027 election draws closer. The ORPP has become an unlikely arena in that contest, with names carrying enormous political symbolism — and with rival camps watching each other’s filings closely. What the Mwananchi Party’s clarification underscores is that in this environment, timing is everything, and the paper trail matters.
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